- Play 3 game modes: Arcade, Original & Crazy Box!.
- Choose from 4 unique taxi cabs and 4 unique drivers!.
- Rocking soundtrack from hit bands Offspring and bad Religion!.
- 1 Player! VMU Compatible 23 Blocks!.
Product description
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Includes game disc in generic jeweled case. Disc has scratches
but none that affect the games playability. All classic game
store games are fully tested before being added to our inventory.
.com
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If you think it's hard to 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
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Review
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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. -- GameSpot Review
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