Crazy Taxi
Reviewed by Inkhands
I never anticipated actually wanting a Dreamcast. Both my
Nintendo 64 and Playstation were gathering dust as I still
preferred to play my older systems such as my NES and Super
Nintendo. I figured it to be useless to buy yet another new
system when I still had much more fun with my old ones.
Then I heard of a game called Crazy Taxi. None of the other
Dreamcast games looked appealing to me, but this one really
got my attention. I thought the concept of picking up
customers and driving them around town in a Taxi was a very
unique idea. So this became the game that finally made me
want to purchase a Dreamcast.
Recently I did buy the system and this game. Of course I had
high expectations for this game. I had just managed to spend
a high amount of money basically to play one game. After
playing this game for a while now I have came to the
conclusion that it was money well spent. This game totally
lived up to my expectations, and it surpassed any clue I had
on how much fun this game would actually be. This game has
provided me with the most fun I've had playing a video games
in probably a decade.
A simple concept. You are a taxi driver in a city that looks
very much like San Francisco. You stop and pick up
customers, drive them to their desired destination, and drop
them off. Repeat and repeat. You rack up fares by driving
these customers around. You also score some bonuses if you
pull of some special moves with your car. You know there's a
customer to be picked up when you see a floating dollar sign
in the air. There are red, yellow, and green dollar signs.
You follow the green arrow to know where to drive and then
look for a large green area to know where to stop and let
your customer off. You have a time limit per game and a time
limit per customer. It's very easy to get into the basic
setup in this game. Of course probably the best part of this
game is the fact their are no traffic laws to obey. You can
drive on the wrong side of the road, the sidewalk, or
underwater if you want to. You can also crash into any
moving or parked vehicle without worrying about damage to
your own cab. To me it is the freedom you are allowed in
this game that makes it so much fun. Plus, driving into the
parking garage and crashing into all the parked cars is
quite enjoyable.
You choose between four different drivers. There are three
modes. Arcade Mode, which allows you to play the course that
is used in the Arcade version of Crazy Taxi. The Original
Mode is a course that was designed specifically for the
Dreamcast version of the game. In these two modes you can
play with the Arcade rules or choose to work for 3, 5, or 10
minutes. The Arcade rules consist of you picking up a
customer and earning time bonuses depending on how fast you
got them to wherever they wanted to go. The other options
doesn't give you a time bonus. You just drive until the time
runs out. You earn a license and a ranking if you play by
Arcade rules. You only earn a license if you play with 3, 5,
or 10 minutes. There is also a mode called Crazy Box Mode.
It consists of 9 mini games that are there to help you
improve your driving skills.
Okay, this is the first Dreamcast game I have ever played,
so I can't judge the graphics against other games on the
system, but I was quite impressed by the graphics in this
game. Everything has an amazing amount of detail and
realism. The customers all look decent, but the real high
point of the graphics is the city itself. Buildings look
amazingly realistic, as does the trees that line the road
occasionally. The vehicles on the road all look incredible
as well. Even little details such as turn signals blinking
when a car makes a left or a right. Also, if you skid your
own car against a buliding or anything else, sparks will
fly. Of course the taxi itself is very yellow and the sky is
very blue and nice looking, but to me the best part of the
graphics are the buildings and the other cars. Also, I like
the way the road has hills that move up and down, just as
I've seen San Francisco depicted as having. I also really
like the realistic look of the cable cars moving up and down
the hills as you drive around. Plus, some real name stores
are included such as Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and
the Original Levi's Store. They not only look good, but
driving to these places instead of a random unnamed pizza or
chicken restaurant adds even more realism to this game. I
also like the way the people run away when you get close to
them and how you can hit objects on the side of the road
such as a phone booth.
The music is good at first, but then it gets a little
tiring. There are a couple of songs by the Offspring and Bad
Religion and they sound really good. However, after a while
I'm a little tired of them and I wish there had been more
songs included, just to give the game a little more variety.
The sound effects are good, but there isn't a lot of them.
Crashing into things is pretty much the only sound effect
you'll find in this game. However, where it really stands
out is the voices in the game. The customers seriously have
a bad case of backseat driving. They tell you where to go,
they complain if you crash into something, and they complain
if you are driving too slow. Of course they also compliment
you if you get them to their destination on time or if you
made it there faster than expected. They also complain, kick
your car, or throw dirt at it if you got there late.
The controls in this game work very well. You have
acceleration and brakes and you can move your car around,
just like in any other racing game. You also can put it into
reverse and back into drive, which took me a little while to
get used to, but not too long. Of course there are a few
special moves, but they aren't too complicated and shouldn't
take long to get used to either. Of course the mini games
were primarily designed for you to use these special moves,
I think. You can also use them on the regular courses to
earn bonus points. The controls work very well and I had no
problems with the control in this game.
There is no challenge in this game. Getting that Grade S
license isn't too difficult. The mini games aren't very
difficult either. Since you have no rules to obey, you can
really do anything you want in this game. You can just
ignore all the customers and spend the entire time crashing
into cars. Or you can just drive around in reverse. Or check
out all the areas and look for shortcuts. It's very simple
to pick up a customer and drive him or her around town. I
consider the challenge to be low in this game, but that's
not really a complaint.
The challenge may be low, but the fun factor is incredibly
high. You have a ton of freedom in driving around. Listening
to the customers and the music while crashing into every car
you see adds a lot of fun to this game. The concept alone of
driving a taxi, picking up customers, and dropping them off
is a lot of fun as well. I can't seem to put how much fun
this game is into words. My only real complaint with this
entire game is there are only two courses, when there should
have been more. I also felt there should have been more of a
variety in the customers you pick up and the locations you
drop them off. I can't count how many times I've driven the
preacher to the church or that one woman to Pizza Hut.
That's the only drawback in the fun department in this game.
Despite the limited options, the fun factor adds greatly to
the replay value of this game. I've spent quite a while now
doing nothing much other than playing this game. It's a
highly addictive game. I find myself ready to quit and then
deciding to go ahead and play one more time again and again.
Sometimes all I do is drive around and look for something
new to do. To me this game has a lot of replay value, plus
it's a very addictive game, which of course gives it even
more replay value.
Overall, this game has realistic graphics, a unique concept,
and plus it's just amazingly fun to play. The control is
never a problem and the game can be as easy or hard as you
want it to be. Fantastic gameplay and a very high amount of
replay value. This game was the reason I bought my Dreamcast
and I wasn't disappointed at all with this game. I assume a
lot of people have already played this game, but if for some
reason you haven't, then I recommend you play it at some
point. It's one of the best games I've played in a long
time.
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 8/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Fun Factor - 10/10
Challenge - 6/10
Replay Value - 9/10
Overall: 10 out of 10
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