Crazy Taxi - Drive Like A Jerk And Get Away With It
Written: Feb 11 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Excellent graphics, control, fun factor, huge areas
Cons: Terrible sound, not a lot of depth to be had
The Bottom Line: Sound ignored, Crazy Taxi is one of the top 5 games on your Dreamcast. Not a lot of depth, but excellent for a quick fix of gaming excellence.
Innovation has never been a problem for Sega. While it's current hardware is unfortunately on the outs, the software department of the company has never been as innovative and as entertaining as it is in the current era. Crazy Taxi is a shining example of that - taking a common Arcade racing theme of racing around until you run out of time, combined with a adrenaline-filled rush of gameplay that will keep you entertained for quite a while - in spurts, that is. This isn't a game you can play for hours on end, but it's great for a quick fix of gaming for your Dreamcast. And that's a good thing.
Driving A Taxi Huh? Wow That Seems So Thrilling - Crazy Taxi's hook is driving a cab through the city of San Francisco, taking passengers to their intended destinations in time. Sound interesting? I didn't think so. But let me go on would you? The difference is, unlike taxi drivers in reality (besides the ones in New York City), you take your fares where they want to go, "by any means necessary." That's right, no rules. Do what you want, take any path you choose, smash into other cars, run over pedestrians (well not really, they run away unfortunately), and generally cause mass chaos, all in the name of speed of delivery and a fat payday from your passengers, all the while dealing with the whining and complaining from said passengers; as well as the rest of the idiots on the road.
I'll get into the gameplay more later, but that's just the beginning of the pure hell you can raise with your taxi cab. The innovation shown in Crazy Taxi is amazing - taking a boring thing like driving a cab, add reckless driving, and b*tching passengers, and voila! - you have a darn fun game that never really gets old, even if the replay is kind of shallow.
The Dreamcast version is a carbon copy of the Arcade version basically - save for a couple new features to add to the console release. There are two maps to play on - the arcade level, which is very loosely based on San Francisco, and a console-only original level, which is much more difficult and confusing to navigate. Each of the maps has 4 modes to play..
-Arcade rules - Arcade mode is the best and most wild to play; you start at a set amount of minutes, and it's your job to regain time on the clock by taking your fares to where they want to go, in the fastest possible way. Don't accomplish it fast enough, and your time runs out earlier and it's game over. No time to fiddle around in this mode for sure.
-3,5,10 Minute limits - This is much more loose and more put together for those learning the maps. Choosing one of the three time limits gives you that many minutes to play around picking up passengers and memorizing the level. You don't regain time in these modes - all you get is that flat time limit. It's not as exciting as Arcade for sure, but as I said, it's good to learn the ropes.
Besides that, there is a "Crazy Box" mode, of drills for learning the different special moves in the game, like the Crazy Drift and Crazy Jump. Little drills like making sure you don't fall into the ocean with your passenger in tow, delivering your fares to different stops in a set period, to popping balloons (test of drifts and slides basically). Nothing majorly difficult, but very helpful for learning the complex techniques.
You can pick from 4 different and unique drivers - each one comes with their own taxi with different attributes. Axel's car has a well-rounded feel with no real strength or weakness, BD Joe's ride is faster off the line than the rest, though can be a pain to control, Gena's hookup has excellent handling and turning, and Gus's is built like a tank - slow, but powerful and handles well. None of the drivers are really bad - it's a matter of preference more or less. I prefer Gena for the handling, despite being the weakest car when it comes to taking damage (because of how light it is).
Unfortunately, that is all Crazy Taxi offers in depth and features - which is disappointing for sure. It is an Arcade port - but the lack of things like a Story Mode or a Career Mode of some sort hurts. Still, you'll never think of these things while actually playing the game.
The Homocidal Maniac Within - With Crazy Taxi, there really isn't any rules to be had. Just pick up your passengers and get them where they want to go without losing them. The places they want to go are true-to-life; KFC's, Tower Records, The Levis Store, and Pizza Hut are just a few of the destinations your fares request to visit.
Each passenger has a dollar sign over their heads - the color of it dictates how far away their destination is (and how much $$$$ you can make from them). Green is the farthest away, and red is the closest. The red people are really only there for a quick trip across the road and are very useful for quickly regaining time on the clock. The green fares a lot of the time require you to go to an entirely different area of the map.
There is also three levels of scoring for your passengers - green is fastest, yellow is normal, and red is the worst; and a lot of times getting the red level comes with the oh-so-tactful "YOU SUCK!" comments from your passengers. Hrmph. Jerks. And if you don't get them where they want to go and run out of time, they just jump out of your cab and leave without paying. That is where the unfortunate lack of running over pedestrians would come in handy.
In actually playing the game and carring around your dead weight called a fare, you are encouraged to use any means you can find - but the emphasis is still on doing as little damage to the city as you can. Instead of bashing into cars and flipping them out of control (which can result in the passenger tipping you low), carefully navigating through the traffic is more rewarding, and gives you a much bigger tip. And hey, it's a lot more fun to push through a pile of traffic at a stop light without so much as touching the other cars, racking up a huge tip for you and your excellent driving skills.
Shortcuts are mucho encouraged in Crazy Taxi, and there are plenty of them to be had. From bypassing the streets to drive through the park, running over hot dog stands en route, to cutting up a flight of stairs in order to avoid traffic, to sneaking around the church on your way to the baseball stadium, there are many easier ways to get where you need to go without conventional street driving.
And those little things is what makes it a ton of fun to play this game..finding the unconventional ways of getting things done. That and the crazy little tricks you can pull to gain more cash and more time. Things like jumping the infamous S.F downhill roads, in the process jumping over car after car while in the air, landing perfectly at your point of delivery, gives this game that unique feel of satisfaction and thrill. Finding that one little trick to bypass an entire road in the sake of timeliness, to bobbing and weaving through semi trucks and oil tankers and buses on the freeway without touching them, to just the awe of how damn big the levels are. Massive would be an understatement.
Still, once you play this game a hundred times, it somewhat loses its appeal. Due to the lack of depth within it, once you play it enough, it can get tedious because you've seen it all before. I can say you'll never play the same game twice, but it still isn’t different enough consistently to be the type of game that you’ll play for days on end. It becomes, by its arcade nature, the type of game that you’ll play to show off to non-gamer friends, or for a quick fix of fun when you need it. It delivers big time in that department – you’ll never really get bored of it, as long as you play it in moderation.
A Graphical Showoff - No debate here, the graphics are simply amazing – some of the best seen on the Dreamcast (and, ahem, PlayStation2) ever. There is zero pop-up, draw in, and the camera for the most part is perfect – though sometimes it throws off your perspective of a passenger in your line of sight. Your objectives are marked well – a huge green halo lets you know that you’ve hit the spot. That is the closest thing you’ll get to draw in is that halo, which gets bigger the closer you get to it. Simply, Crazy Taxi’s graphics are a tour de force on the Dreamcast. There isn’t much more I can say about it. Not perfect, but pretty darn close.
Controlling The Action - Crazy Taxi’s control is also tops on DC. Moving your cars around is done with ease, and the controller responds very well to your movements. I do object to the placement of the accelerator and brake on the DC controller, something that is universal to Dreamcast racers. Putting them on the R and L shift buttons on top of the controller is a pain in the butt and takes some time getting used to. Thankfully, you can get used to it, even if I don’t like it.
The special moves also take some patience to learn; but like the shift button placements of the gas and brake, it can grow on you. Eventually, pulling off that Crazy Drift to bypass a stretch of road becomes second nature and easy to pull off. Sometimes it can get frustrating when you are pinned to a wall or a pole and can’t shift out fast enough and go, but it too can be excused, because the rest of the control is so darn good.
Not Quite The Audio Supremacy - The sound has a bit to be desired though. The soundtrack is not too bad; featuring tunes from Offspring and Bad Religion. Problem is, there are only 4 different songs, and hearing them 2 billion times per race can get grating on the ears. More variety please! Thankfully you can just mute the TV and listen to whatever you want to listen to.
The voices of the passengers aren’t much better. Besides being repetitive and annoying, the sayings are just plain stupid. Most of them just yell “Woohoo!” a thousand times, or call you an idiot, complain about staying on the road, and saying “c’mon let’s move it” over and over, until you want to vomit. However, I get some sort of bizarre humor out of the Priest telling you “Wow, you’re one hell of a driver!” after a speedy trip to the church. Goofy.
The weak link of Crazy Taxi is no doubt the pitiful sound – hopefully with Crazy Taxi 2 they will make strides to improve that.
Finishing It Off - Besides the lack of true replay value and pitiful sound, Crazy Taxi is a fine game for your Dreamcast. It’s bar none one of the best games for the now on life support console, and one of those crossover games that will appeal to console gamers, arcade gamers, and casual gamers looking for a quick fix of entertainment. It won’t occupy you for more than a few hours at a time, but the fun will never truly go away, and’ll always be there when you need guaranteed fun. And the $20 price tag under the Sega All-Stars series makes it all the more enticing and affordable. If you like innovation, pick up Crazy Taxi. Come for the innovation, stay for the mass destruction.
Bryansvideotrader store This listing is fora brand new Crazy Taxi for the Sega Dreamcast system. It is factory sealed, other than some sticker residue...More at eBay
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