Crazy Taxi: A Dreamcast Review

Just two more games to review. This week, its the Dreamcast classic Crazy Taxi. This game was adapted from a popular arcade game of the day. In it, you are a taxi driver. You pick up fairs, deliver them to there destination and get paid. What makes the game memorable is the absolutely bat shit insane car physics. Your taxi is not of this earth. It weaves and accelerates with no regard for your safety or the cars structural stability. And boy, its fun.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is as I previously described. You drive your taxi and pick up fares. The people who want a ride are outlined with a pick-up circle. The circles are color coded based on difficulty. You must pick them up and convey them to their destination as fast as possible. Thankfully, the game makes it relatively easy to locate the end point, so the difficulty comes from avoiding other cars and maximizing time. Your scored based on how fast you got there, how many tricks you pulled and how many cars you passed safely; you can plow through most other cars, but you get tips for not endangering your fare. 

Now, this game has surprisingly many special tricks. You can power slide and speed boost with careful control of your gear shift (drive reverse only). They aren't easy, but with practice you can power slide into stop and boost off to the next fare with ease. And the game is FUN. Its pure, chaotic fun. Think of how much fun it is to drive around like a maniac in Grand Theft Auto. Well, this is just like that but FASTER. You spin around, ram things all just to get paid in the end. The only thing that counts in the end is speed. Get to the end as FAST AS POSSIBLE, get paid big bucks. 

I CAN FLY

The game has .....2 modes? Its weird. It lists Arcade, original and Crazy Box. Crazy Box is a sort of challenge mode with missions that let you practice special techniques. But Arcade and Original are practically the same thing. The only difference is that the two maps are different. You can play arcade style, where you start with small time and can get bonus time for being quick. The other modes are simple time modes. You get graded at the end of every level. The four different drivers are identical, except for personality. 

Design:

The game is rather simple. It seems like it was trying for the "Cool" style, somewhat like Jet Grind Radio. But it didn't try all that hard. Its got some attitude, and the music is pretty awesome. But its not THAT cool. It doesn't embarrass itself by trying too hard, I'll give it that.  The graphics are okay, but the most impressive element is the speed of the game. It NEVER slows down, no matter how much stuff suddenly flies onto the screen. The art style is clean and doesn't leave much question of what stuff is. One interesting note is the amount of product placement. KFC, Pizza Hut and Fila litter the landscape. 

Overall:

Its a silly fun game, but not a particularly deep one. Even for breaking out at parties, its maybe a 20 minute diversion at best. Its a barrel full of fun and a nice nostalgia bomb, but by design it isn't meant as much more than a diversion. An incredibly fun diversion. 

6/10