Crazy Taxi

by Dreamcast

Product Features

• dreamcase

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000488VP
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 1, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (212 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,531 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: Sega Dreamcast

Editorial Review

If you think it's hard to flag down a cab in a big city, try driving one in Sega's zany straight-from-the-arcade port of Crazy Taxi. If you're one of the teeming fans who eagerly played Crazy Taxi in the arcade at a buck a pop, then this game is a must-buy, if only from a purely economic standpoint. Even those who don't know the difference between Crazy Taxi and the long-running TV series Taxi will immediately recognize the appeal of this game. In fact, this game is so impressive and addictive that it should easily convince a whole new wave of buyers to purchase a Sega Dreamcast.

What's so hot about Crazy Taxi? For starters, the graphics sport the most impressive re-creation of a living city ever seen in a video game. The level of detail is astounding and never ceases to surprise the player as block after unique block speeds by. The city is a distilled version of San Francisco with some landmarks and neighborhoods left intact. Making it seem all the more real are apparent product placements of real-world retail locations such as KFC, Tower Records, and Pizza Hut. And just about everything you see on the screen is interactive: boxes, phone booths, and mailboxes topple when bumped or smashed, pedestrians leap and tumble out of your path, and the myriad of traffic attempts to avoid your erratic high-speed antics. While some driving games brag about a lack of boundaries, this one delivers--players drive on the ocean floor, off the second floor of a parking garage, through parks, and down stairs. A helpful hovering arrow points drivers in the correct direction, but you can truly drive wherever you want at any time, making for tons of replay value.

While the game is a direct port from the arcade game of the same name, there's plenty more depth in the home version. In addition to the city that appears in the coin-op version, the Dreamcast version also includes an entirely new city. Crazy Taxi includes a trunk-load of mini-games that help to teach drivers how to perform the special speed boosts and maneuvers in the game.

Though this game would be plenty exciting without any sounds at all, it has an adrenaline-pumping soundtrack supplied by punk crossover bands the Offspring and Bad Religion, as well as some good, if sometimes monotonous, dialogue between the driver and the passengers. --Jeff Young

Pros:

• Wonderful, realistic graphics
• Easy to get into, and full of many long hours of addictive play
• Even more to offer than the fantastic arcade game upon which this is based

Cons:

• On very few occasions players will encounter some graphic slowdown

GameSpot Review

Many have said that the success of Sega's Dreamcast is tied to the quality of the company's arcade games and, ultimately, the console's ability to render those arcade games as closely as possible. Crazy Taxi is one of those arcade ports, and the Dreamcast version of the game holds up very favorably when compared with its arcade counterpart. The game is very simple. As one of four taxi drivers, you must drive around and pick up fares. Each of your fares will present you with a destination - be it a Tower Records, Kentucky Fried Chicken, FILA store, or Levi's shop - and you'll have to get there as fast as you possibly can. Get there in a real hurry, and you'll get a time bonus. Take too long, and your fares will simply jump out of your cab, robbing you of any points they would have given you for getting them to the destination, as well as any points you might have picked up while they were in the car. Aside racking up your score by merely driving people from area A to location B, you also earn bonuses for performing combos. These combos are simple things, like weaving between cars without scratching up your car, jumping a long distance, or sliding around corners. When playing the game with the arcade rules, you must constantly pick up fares to keep your time from running out. There are also options that simply let you play for three, five, or ten minutes, giving you a slightly more relaxed game. Aside from the arcade city, there is an all-new city in the game. The new city is a nice touch, but it's a little rough when compared with the first city. There's significantly more pop-up and slowdown in the Dreamcast-specific city. The game also has a mode called crazy box, which serves as a sort of mission-battle mode and tutorial all in one. Early missions in the crazy box are simple tasks designed to teach you the game's special moves, but later missions require absolute mastery of these moves, and can be a bit frustrating. Luckily, there's no load time between attempts, so failing isn't quite as troublesome as it would have been had you been forced to sit through a reload. The game is a bit light on options, and it would have been nice to see more modes that make you work toward a higher goal, such as car upgrades. A multiplayer option would have also been a welcome addition. The overall look of Crazy Taxi is what makes it stand out. The cars all look really great, as do the various buildings. What ties it all together is the breakneck speed of the game. The frame rate is usually smooth as silk, but it occasionally bogs down for what seems like no reason at all - independent of how many cars are onscreen or how far into the distance you can see. The game does have a bit of pop-up, but it's rarely noticeable, with the exception of one large hill on the Dreamcast-specific level. The hill has a huge hole that fills in as you approach it. The game's soundtrack is filled with songs by Bad Religion and Offspring, so depending on your personal preference you'll either want to crank the volume up or turn the music all the way down. The rest of the game's sound effects are well executed. There's a lot of speech used in the game, and most of it comes from people on the street and the people you pick up in your cab. Unfortunately, your driver's vocabulary is a little limited. The oddest cabbie phrase has to be "Shut up and move your butt," which BD Joe seems to shout out from time to time for no good reason. While some may argue that Crazy Taxi sticks a little too close to the arcade model to have any real longevity, the replay value comes from the sheer fun of the game. The game has the same kind of universal appeal and pick-up-and-play mentality that made Tony Hawk's Pro Skater a hit on the PlayStation. As such, it's a must-buy for any Dreamcast owner. --Jeff Gerstmann
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super fun but probably for an older audience., December 5, 2000

By 

Rene (Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crazy Taxi (Video Game)

Ever wanted to drive 90 miles an hour through traffic? Now you can. Crazy taxi is a hilarious, fast-paced, extremely fun driving game. The scenario is perfect and guaranteed to create suspense and to cause big laughs. For example, there are a series of challenge games that pit you against a course or a set of obstacles. My children laugh uproariously when I miss a jump and fall down into the depths of the ocean. The main game is full of little details and surprises. The game goes so quickly that you hardly have time to look around the amazingly realistic city you are working in as a taxi driver. One way to limit the inevitable boredom that comes with mastering a game is to start concentrating on exploring the virtual world. Also, there are options for making the game more difficult. Unlike a race game where you are stuck to the course, this game lets you drive on roofs, through train tunnels and even under the water. There's a sort of guilty joy that comes with driving through the mall in the wake of screaming pedestrians.

This last bit of fun is part of the reason that I don't recommend the game for children and why it is rated Teen. This game does not model thoughtful, defensive driving! Parents should know that some of the characters use mild curse words and say "unsupportive things." Also, the "F" word can be heard on the soundtrack in at least one of the songs. And, I'm sure you're child would hear the song enough times to start to be able to pick out the words. You can turn off the music and the game is just as fun. I think the hard driving music does add an appropriate element of "crazy" to crazy taxi. I recommend Crazy Taxi very highly!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great! But definitely not for everybody..., February 28, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Crazy Taxi (Video Game)

A lot of people seem to have trouble 'getting' Crazy Taxi, or rather, understanding why it's something that's supposed to stay fun after the first few tries. It seems to have an immediate appeal to EVERYbody: it's hectic, looks great (full of little touches that nobody's likely to notice, like the dead-on shadows), and you get to drive like a maniac in a bustling, hilly city without suffering the consequences. But after awhile, a lot of people find Crazy Taxi repetitive and dull.

I think Crazy Taxi is more for the pinball/Robotron/Stargate crowd than most games that come out nowadays. The main challenge and reward in it is improving your skills, being able to take the shortest path at ridiculous speed without running into ANYthing (that is, anything that's going to slow you down) -- other than the mostly-instructional "Crazy Box" challenges there's nothing to beat, no extra levels or cars or bosses to get, and the congratulatory credits roll every time you get a reasonably good score. There's a lot of space to improve your skills, though, and a lot of cleverly arranged structures in the game's two cities for taking risks and getting rewarded. If working toward mastery of a fixed, complex environment sounds like fun to you (like pinball, and as opposed to "getting to the next level"), and you're dying for a game that you can actually pick up for five minutes and then put down, then Crazy Taxi just might be for you.

The biggest problem with CT (in my opinion) is that technique isn't rewarded as much as speed is. While a particularly brilliant chain of maneuvers will garner a decent tip (bonus points to you and me), shaving a second or two off your travel time will get you more money than driving boldly, and also mean more time on the ever-decreasing clock. Ah well.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY IMPRESSIVE ARCADE STYLE RACING GAME......, February 17, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Crazy Taxi (Video Game)

Crazy Taxi is just one heck of a ride! The thing that makes this game great for people who have short attention spans (such as myself) is that anybody can hop in and start playing right away. Some people don't want to spend an hour or more on a game, and this game delivers a lot of fun right away. Fast-paced, furious and fun--isn't that what racing games are all about?

I don't think you can get bored easily with this game if you truly have a racer's mentality. I loved this game because instead of the course dictating your path in driving, in Crazy Taxi, you can choose WHERE you want to drive and HOW you want to drive, and the city is quite large. You can drive as recklessly as you want, which is great (and your car never suffers any damage or topples over--you still can control it even after numerous collisions). Out of control, weaving in and out of traffic, crashing into things and trying to run over pedestrians; it feels like a wild bumper car experience but much more frenetic. It's wild and crazy driving at its best!

I had my doubts before this game, but it has thoroughly impressed me. The Dreamcast is known for excellent arcade game translations and this is another great example. You have to love the incredible effort that Sega put into this one, especially if you're a big fan of racing games. The only thing I wished it had was more soundtrack options; it does get a little tiring listening to the same old tune, but that's the only complaint.

To summarize, Crazy Taxi is definitely one of the best Dreamcast games out there and an instant classic!

2115|R9YLJCY5K9AZF;2115|R2B6T15RMB3VAT;2115|R2PYVM0YGUY914;