Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride - "It’s Time to Make Some Crazy Money"
Written: Aug 24 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: addictive gameplay, character voices, high scores
Cons: graphics don't look too good, they game is too slow at times
The Bottom Line: You've got to be "crazy" if you buy this game for full price, unless you are a Crazy Taxi addict.
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| vadimio's Full Review: Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride for Game Boy Advance (GBA... |
I'm pretty sure that by now every gamer has played one of the Crazy Taxi games. This series has games on the DreamCast, Xbox, Playstation 2, GameCube and even on the GameBoy Advance. Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride for the GBA is the newest installment in the series and I picked it up for a mere $14.99 when it was on sale. Since I have enjoyed the series and even Simpson's Road Rage, which is a clone of the Crazy Taxi games but has Simpsons characters, I thought that it would be fun to have a portable version of the game.
In this game, you choose one of four cabs, and each cab has a different driver. The drivers are: Axel, Gus, Gena and B. D Joe. Then you choose one of two cities (the second city must first be unlocked), and you are set to go. The gameplay is still intact. The object of the game is to pick up people that need a ride and take them to their destination. There is an arrow overhead that guides you. Each customer has a time limit and if you do not get to the destination before this runs out, the passenger will just leave you with nothing. If you get to the destination before the clock runs out, the passenger pays you the fare money as well as some extra time on the overall game clock. There is a game clock at all times, which is preset to between three and ten minutes, and it is always counting down. When this clock reaches zero, then the game is over. But thankfully, since there are many passengers, if you do what needs to be done, you will continue to gain time and it will be a long time before you run out of time.
However, the game isn't all that simple. You see, the whole point is to be a crazy driver. If you perform various dangerous stunts, the passenger will be amused, and you will earn extra money. Therefore, you will constantly will making jumps, weaving between traffic and driving as close to other cars as possible, making sharp turns and ignoring all traffic laws, just to earn some extra money. Shortcuts are your friends too, as finding some nice alleys will save you time. Other than the traditional controls such as accelerate, brake or even reverse, you can perform crazy moves, such as the crazy jump. One useful trick is the crazy boost, which can either speed up your car, or, if your car is standing and not moving, it will bring you up to decent speed. Another trick, although difficult to master at first, is the crazy drift, which is useful for making sharp turns. This trick is a great income booster.
After you master the first city, and get $10,000 in one go, you will unlock the second city, with brand new streets, alleys, shortcuts and places to explore. If you get a game over, your score is shown to you. This is the only reason why this game has a fair amount of replay value: you will constantly want to play again to beat your previous high score. Also, there are nine different crazy box mini-games. These mini-games are short but they diversify the game. Examples of these mini-games include Crazy Balloons, where you must drive around the city and pop all of the balloons before the clocks runs down to zero. Another mini-game involves carrying a specific number of passengers to their destinations in a fairly short amount of time, and it is very upsetting to run out of time when you can clearly see the destination. Crashes are handled pretty well and if you make a sharp turn and hit a car, this will slow you down a slot. Even skimming a car has an effect. There are people walking everywhere and you should avoid them. The game has not only streets, but also some bridges and water. The water part was not made very well, as you can drive over the water, which is really unrealistic.
The graphics in Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride are good and bad. You see, the good thing is that they made this a 3D game, which was meant to provide gamers with a realistic experience, and make it seem as though the GBA can handle all of this. Well, the bad thing is that it does not look good on the GBA. Somehow the 3D environment appear uncharacteristic. The taxi that you are control is well-drawn and that is about the only good thing. The people that you pick up are all pixilated little clones because they all seem to be the same. In the console games, you had different types of people that needed to be taken to destinations that make sense, but here everything is the same and you are robbed of having people of different professions. The city buildings, which include restaurants, stores and office buildings, seem a bit too blocky and pixilated to me. The streets, street curbs, lanes, and alleys look fine, but they are not eye candy. The camera is fine, as the view is not overhead, it is slightly behind the taxi. One annoying thing is that the game can be slow and really suffers due to this. This means that the framerate is very low, and some people claim that it is as low as 5 frames per second, which is completely unacceptable.
The sound in this game is decent. I remember that the console versions had actual soundtracks and that the music was a great companion to the gameplay. But the GBA is incapable of handling actual music, therefore all you get is a bunch of lyric-free tunes. These fit the game well but they can't be compared to the console counterpart. The in-game sound effects are done fairly well. Crashes, sharp turns, braking, and cars nearby sound nearly life-like. Voices are one of the high points of the audio. The driver shouts one-liners, and so do they passengers. If you perform a trick, deliver a passenger or run out of time to deliver a passenger, surely enough, you will hear a few lines.
Overall, Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride is a decent rendition of the console games. I enjoyed playing this game and it was a good pick-up for $14.99. However, the poor graphics and the fact that you will get sick of playing it after a while really deduct from the gameplay, therefore giving you an average game. Simpson's Road Rage for the GBA has also been released recently, and that might be worth checking out if you like this type of game. Catch a Ride is a decent game, and overall I would recommend it if you get it on sale, however, you would be better off buying the game for another console. I'd recommend Catch a Ride for people of all ages and genders, as everyone would probably enjoy it and find it amusing. Fans of the console versions might be very happy to have the portable version, but they might be disappointed by the graphics. So, pick this up, play it for a while, but don't expect this to be one of the best games in your library.
Recommended:
No
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vadimio
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