Crazy Taxi Review by Chris Martin 10.3.00

Crazy Taxi was originally supposed to be part of the Sega Professional series along with Emergency Call Ambulance, Tokyo Bus Guide and Brave Fire Fighters, but Crazy Taxi has something else in it's job description that puts it above the rest. It's CRAZY!!!

Sega used the plans for real life restaurants and shops to design many of the destinations. Levi's, Fila, KFC, Tower Records and Pizza Hut were all used

In case you haven't guessed what to do in the game yet, I'll give you the gist of it. The aim is to pick people up in your open top cab and whizz them through a crazy San Francisco like city to where they need to go. The quicker you get to the destination the more money you get and you get tips for scaring your passenger witless and providing them with a fast and exciting ride.

Although Crazy Taxi is an arcade port, this is not at all just a straight port like Sega Rally or Virtua Fighter. There is a whole new city in the home version for you to cause mayhem in plus 'Crazy Box', 16 fiendishly addictive and arduous challenges to help tone your skills for use in the actual game.

The first thing you notice when you start the game is the detailed graphics. From the license plate on your cab to the benches in the park, everything is made in incredible amounts of detail. The second thing that strikes you is how alive the city really is. The mall is jam-packed with people who all dive out of the way of your cab, the helicopter circles the heliport and most of all there are millions of different vehicles clogging up the road. These vehicles won't only drive along the road but follow every rule of the highway code and even indicate and flash their breaking lights. The realistic cities of the game are Crazy Taxi's strongest points and without them . . . . Ummm . . . . Well there'd be nowhere to drive obviously. The only real problem in this area is that there is some pop-up even though it's always very distant and makes no difference to the gaming, there is also VERY occasional slow-down especially around lots of trees.

There are two different cities available in Crazy Taxi going by the names of 'Arcade' or 'Original'. 'Arcade' is obviously the one from the arcades and 'Original' is the newly made one. While the Arcade city follows a type of track, the original is completely unregular and is made to get you lost. Unfortunately, this wrecks the fun as you have to keep turning round and taking loads of streets just like a real city, although this might sound good - it isn't. This second city isn't usually raced on.

It's not only the graphics that excel in Crazy Taxi as the sound is equally as good. Sega have picked 7 fast punk rock songs by Offspring and Bad Religion to set the fast, crazy pace of the game. These are all mighty good songs and I find myself humming them all through the day reminding me of the good times with Crazy Taxi. The sound effects are definitely above par but what really stands out is the voices of the people, both the drivers and the passengers. There are loads of hilarious one liners that will be thrown from driver to passenger and the passenger will tell you what they think of your driving. For your reading pleasure I wrote a short piece from the game:

        Gus picks up the vicar

        Gus: Hop In

Vicar: You know it

        Vicar: Take me to the church

Gus: OK, better hang on

        Vicar: Har, Har, Har

Vicar: Go that way

        Gus: Alright

Vicar: Take a right

        Gus: Alright

Gus hits a car

        Vicar: You hit him!

I know, not exactly the most intellectual conversation ever but it sure is funny when you hear it.

Crazy Box is a section of the game with a range of challenges which help tone your skills and learn how to perform the special moves in the game. Not only are these challenges good practice for the game but are also fiendishly addictive. And also once you complete a challenge, you can do it again and again to get a winning top score. You start of with 9 to do and whenever you complete 1, the box is crossed off. From then on, whenever you get 3 in a row crossed off, you get a 4th harder one (a la noughts & crosses. The 7 extra ones are very hard (16 in total) and once you complete all of them you get a rick-shaw to deliver people in.

An ugly person once said, "True beauty is on the inside" and this saying actually applies more to videogames than people as it really is true how gameplay matters more than graphics or sound. Fortunately Crazy Taxi is just as beautiful on the inside as on the out. The driving keeps you on the edge of your seat, swerving in and out of cars thrilling your customer while focusing on getting there as swiftly as possible. But even though that on it's own would keep you entertained for weeks there's still a lot more. There are a range of special moves you can learn which not only get you tips but also help you do the job quicker and more accurately. As you learn the moves and how to use them to their full potential your earnings will gradually increase. Since these are cities you are racing in and not just tracks there are a host of fields, car parks, side streets and underground subways to take and hopefully arrive at the destination quicker. After talking to people who earn as much as $30,000 in one go (compared to my $7,000) and know the city back to front, it seems like you can never really master this game. But, getting an S-Class and completing all the Crazy Boxes would be a start.

Now before I write my conclusion and give this game a mark it's only fair that I inform you of the few minor problems this game has. First of all like I've already mentioned, there is very distant pop-up and occasional slow-down but this does in no way lessen the gameplay, it's just that it ruins the graphical perfection the game otherwise maintains. The passengers constant praise can be very annoying and repetitive, especially to anyone else, who's not watching the screen. My last gripe is the way that cars seem to purposely cut you off on the freeway, especially those damn juggernauts. It's really annoying and when you hit a truck it always swerves, blocking the entire road, although you can just barge it out of the way pretty quickly it just REALLY bothers me.

Crazy Taxi has everything you could look for in a game and more. Longevity, a good learning curve, good graphics and sound and amazing gameplay but the most vital factor is it's strongest, it's Fun to play. The Best thing about Crazy Taxi for me is that it is good on many levels. When I first started, I had a go for 5 minutes and had great fun picking people up and taking them where they need to go with no knowledge at all about the game except where the accelerate and brake buttons were. When I went into arcade rules mode and kept working to get a 'C' class license I spent a good 5-6 on the trot learning the city and which passengers went where. The next day I decided to have a go in Crazy Box and I couldn't do one challenge, so I looked in the manual and learnt the Crazy Dash, Crazy Stop and Crazy Drift. From then on I've been hooked on perfecting my techniques, doing the Crazy Boxes, beating my records in Crazy Boxes and getting an 'S' class in Arcade Rules. The best thing here is with only 10 crazy boxes done and a personal best of $7,370 in Arcade Rules, I'm still at the tip of the iceberg and I'm still hooked.