Crazy Taxi
Reviewed by Clement Chan Zhi Li
It's always a welcome to have a creative and original game
where you won't get tired and bored with it. Crazy Taxi is
one of them and it's really crazy. You need to drive across
the town, learning all sorts of crazy moves and banging cars
all the way to your customer's destination. As the name
suggests, you'll need to choose your character together with
their taxi and pick up customers and drive them to their
respective places. Drive like a madman and give your
customer a good time and you'll gain tips from them.
Graphics - 9
The graphics are pure sweet and it's nice to see how Sega
has gone through every single detail. The models of the cars
and lots of other transports are rendered perfectly with
cool colours to add for their looks. Buildings that are
scattered around like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut,
Tower Records and The Original Levi's Shop were also put in
and redesigned with their original logos together. It's nice
to have those familiar shops popping around. The cities are
really big as you sent them all around so thanks to Sega
once more, we have a nice graphical modeled cities to be set
on our eyes.
The lighting sources and shadows are really great but it's a
guess that it's in the afternoon as the shadows did not
really change from time to time. The shadows of the taxis
just stayed underneath the car and move accordingly when it
is turning, acting totally like a shadow. The colours are
also used nicely and are a great addition to the game,
making the game look really cool. All together, this game
has been gone through real in-depth and totally detailed to
bring up an exciting game like this. The background, the sky
and everything was certainly wonderful.
Chances are, every game will have graphical flaws in them
and Crazy Taxi is one of them. If you are going too fast
zipping through the city, the system can't catch up with the
frames and you'll see the background crash. Not really the
game but the background will turn black and it's like you
will fly through the darkness but it will automatically
recover later on and it's rarely going to happen, especially
as you are a beginner and won't drive like a reckless
barbarian on the streets. And on other times, the game may
slow down suddenly and speeding up insanely in an irritating
manner but will recover too a few seconds later.
Music - 10
The background music are definitely entertaining to hear and
are composed by four different soundtracks. Although there
are only four, it's certainly nice to hear the background
music going on and on with sort of a unique theme to it. As
you're driving along this crazy game, it's likely that
you're not going to pay attention to the music at all and
centering it all on the game itself. Sung and done nicely,
Sega sure made a nice addition towards the soundtrack.
The sound effects, on the other hand, are just nice. While
you're flying through the city, you'll here voices of
different people shouting ÒYou've got to pick me up!Ó which
are drowned by the loud music. How the engine is started,
when you're gaining a turbo boost and everything of a car
should have the right sounds are all there. Customers that
are picked up will comment on your driving skills, whether
they're sent very quickly or slowly, especially when you
crash into another people which will result them calling you
stupid and such in strong language. There will be also a
voice that also sounds a bit crazy that will be guiding you
throughout your game, whether you went to the wrong way and others.
Gameplay - 10
Money makes the world go around and so is in Crazy Taxi.
Basically, you'll need to pick off lots of customers and
gain lots of money within the time limit. Of course, the
time will slowly add when you take a customer and let them
off in their respective places and more money will flow in
if you sent them very quickly than they least expected it!
All the game is about is to drive, stop and pick up your
customers and sent them as fast as you could to their
respective places.
When you started to enter the game, you'll need to learn a
couple of things so that you'll earn more money and gain
your respective rank based on the amount of money that you
earned. After you had have make yourself comfortable with
the game, you'll then need to earn more advanced techniques
that will gain your more money than ever. The Crazy Through
is to go near or between cars that will get your customer a
fright, Crazy Dash is to make your car to go much more
faster hence the name, Limiter Cut to go even faster to gain
a turbo boost that will last long providing that you don't
crash, Crazy Drift to turn a sharp corner and many more
other crazy moves. All those are tough to learn and master
but you'll sure enjoy it as you'll gain extra tips from the
customer if you perform them while driving.
You can choose between four good-humoured cabbies, Axel,
Gus, Gena and B. D. Joe. The four of them have different
types of taxis and have different of good and bad points
that will affect the driving and the long adventure of
sending customers later on. Try every single one of them
first and you'll see which one has the best car and which
one has the worst. I'm not going to comment on that point of
view as different people have different opinions so you'll
have to try their taxis yourself.
There are simply many customers to take around, ranging from
the good old Grandma Jessica which surprisingly is still
very strong to give you loud commands, the pink-haired punk,
a lady, a pregnant woman, a man with flowers in his hands
(obviously to his girlfriend), one very fat youth that looks
as if suffering from obesity, a guy with always with his
video-camera in his hands and lots of more ranging even to a
priest! These customers are sometimes annoying as they will
keep calling you stupid or an idiot if you do anything wrong.
If you drive your customers very fast to their destination,
they will give you extra money and added to that, you'll get
5 seconds of bonus time to be added to your time. If you
sent them there in just right on time, a yellow ÒNormalÓ
will appear and you'll receive two extra bonus times but too
late and they will not give you any extra money and try to
kick your car. Worse, if you're even later, the words ÒBadÓ
will appear and they will jump out from your taxi, no matter
whether where they are, whether in the sea or a traffic-congested
road. Waste of time driving them, isn't it?
There are a couple of modes to get you addicted. The Arcade
mode is basically all from the arcade conversion itself and
you'll find yourself driving through a gigantic city which
will take you a few days before you can memorize the whole
place all together. The place itself consists of troublesome
traffic that may sometimes annoy you as you may ram into
those cars. Worst still, if you are on the highway, you may
find yourself jamming yourselves into those massive lorries
and buses which will slow you down considerably. Even so, if
you don't want to follow the Arcade rules, you can always
change to work for three minutes, five minutes or even ten
minutes but you won't get any bonus times. The same goes to
the Original mode.
The Original mode shouldn't be used at all for those who did
not master game yet, and did not conquer the Arcade mode
itself. Get in for a big fright as Original mode consists of
two gigantic cities which will get you lost easily and this
mode are only available to the Dreamcast version only. The
traffic there is even worse and there will lots of roads
leading one way to another that will make you tear your hair
off. The whole place is simply crazy and full of annoying
customers so get ready a heart-attack pill beside you.
Honestly, the Crazy Box is the craziest and the zaniest one
of all. You're going to get through 16 different crazy
missions (including the S-class ones) and you'll need to
master crazy moves to successfully get through all of them,
ranging from going 150 feets above, sending 7 grandmas to
their destination, knock down all the bowling pins, bursting
all the balloons by ramming your taxi into them, taking a
few customers to their respective girlfriends and many more
others. All of these crazy stuffs can literally send you to
tears and make you jump down from a 20 feet apartment
building. They're very, very hard. Successfully completing
all of the Crazy Boxes will earn you something secret and
special but I won't tell you what. Play it yourself.
There are different ranks to be obtained, based on how much
money that you have earned. Ranging from ÒNo LicenseÓ when
you didn't even get a single cent, ÒE LicenseÓ when you get
between $0. 01 between $999. 99 and seven other ranks that
will give you the need to upgrade yourself and beat your own
record. You can also register yourself up to four different
people so that will means you and your three other friends
can play in a single save file. You can race against each
other and see who got the highest rank and money, the best
combos earned in the Crazy Boxes in the Records menu. Sega
sure know how to keep us coming back for more.
Controls - 8
The controls are insanely difficult to do in the beginning
at first, especially as you have never played racing game
for a long time or never played one before. Basically, it
just consists of few buttons: accelerate, brake, shifting
into drive and the into reverse mode and vice-versa, seeing
how far you are from your destination and the analog stick
as well as the D-pad that will let you control your taxi.
You can choose to use the standard Dreamcast controller, the
arcade stick or even the racing wheel. Choose between the
three different types of controllers that you feel most
suitable with though the normal Dreamcast controller works
fine for me.
The worst moves you're ever going to learn is the Crazy
moves which consist of lots of buttons-mashings around that
are going to damage the tiring hand of yours. Example like
the Crazy Drift, you'll need to shift into the reverse gear,
then quickly into the drive gear and quickly press the
accelerate button and then quickly turn sharply on your
analog stick or D-pad. Do I sound confusing? This needs lots
of practice and is quite handy on the Arcade and Original
mode which will earn you extra tips from the passenger and
most important and annoying of all, the Crazy Box.
Replay Value - 9
The Arcade course will keep you coming back and I can say
I've been playing it a full five days non-stop without
changing to other games. The game is simply addicting and
the fun, linear Arcade mode and the confusing Original mode
will let you glue your eyes on the television screen.
Furthermore, the Crazy Box which contains 16 promising
challenges that will seem impossible to finish will simply
drive you mad and damage your thumbs further. What to say
more about this game?
Overall - 10 out of 10
If you ever need a fun and addicting game, Crazy Taxi has
the answers. Sega's arcade conversion was truly perfect and
it's totally pure fun. One huge city in the Arcade mode,
together with two gigantic cities put in together in the
Original mode would certainly keep you going. Kick out your
goody-goody driving skills that you acquired for Crazy Taxi
needs you to zip through the city in a wild and crazy
manner. Offering lots of extras and stuffs in this game,
Crazy Taxi is simply not going to be missed. Serious.
Crazy
-----
+ Intense fun from Arcade mode and even more crazy driving
in Original mode!
+ One truly addictive game that will keep you coming back!
+ Lots of modes, secrets and extras that will keep you
coming back all the more!
Dizzy
-----
- Get prepared for a bandage for your poor, tired and
damaged handsÉ
- The Crazy Boxes are simply too hard!
- Graphical glitches that sometimes appear that will annoy you.
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