At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players
Dave Wickham	GameCube	Acclaim	SEGA	1
Requirements			Also on...	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
At the time of writing, we did not have a requirements section.			Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2, PC	Click here to buy Crazy Taxi.

Crazy Taxi review

The classic taxi-driving game gets a new home on the Gamecube - shame they couldn't give it a facelift in the process.

Crazy Taxi - a hit on the Sega Dreamcast and arcade machines back in 1999. A truly addictive driving game, where there's no strategy, no career to move up or down in, no stats to buy, just crazy fun driving! The basic "story" is you are a taxi driver. You want to earn money. You are in a city. There are customers who want to get to places. Put it all together and I think you get the idea...

As you drive around the city you have to find people who want to be taken places. This is easier than it sounds, since everybody has a "$" over their head, in one of several different colours from red to green. The people in red have a higher "catchment zone" around them (where you can stop and still pick them up), closer destinations, shorter time limits and lower fares. Green people, on the other hand, have a small zone, much farther away destinations and higher fares. In addition to people having different colours, there are also different parts to the time limit. When it's in the green, you are good. You'll get a bonus, and an extra five or two seconds. When it's yellow you are average. No time bonus as such, but nothing bad. When it's red, however, you'd better drop 'em off soon, or they'll jump out without paying. Finally you can earn tips by pulling off "crazy stunts". These stunts are "crazy jump", "crazy through" and "crazy drift". The crazy jump is... well, a jump! The crazy through is when you drive right next to another vehicle and pass them. Finally the crazy drift is basically a skid.

There is a vague attempt at some form of single-player non-arcade mode in the "crazy boxes". These don't really offer that much extension to game longevity - I completed them all in a day. They may keep you a bit though; basically the various crazy boxes set a task which must be completed - e.g. drive to a point quickly, or knock over all the pins.

Graphically Crazy Taxi is not impressive. Dating back to the early days of the Dreamcast, they show their age. Blocky, low-quality and dated the graphics are not a reason for buying Crazy Taxi. The audio side is also very repetitive - there's only a number of times I can hear the exact same quote and not want to throw my Gamecube out of the window, and having only a couple of tracks of music, looped, doesn't really help. Simply because the game was originally designed for arcade machines is not an excuse for not having more varied audio.

All in all, Crazy Taxi for the Gamecube doesn't really offer anything over the Dreamcast version; as far as I can see the versions are exactly the same (save the controller configurations). If you are looking for a game you can just pick up and play when you feel like it, go for it. If you are looking for something more in-depth, however, I would advise you to steer clear of this game.

Ratings

Graphics	Not impressive. Doesn't show off the graphical capabilities of the Gamecube at all.	4/10
Gameplay	Real fun, even if only for a limited time.	8/10
Value	At the time of writing, we did not have a value for money ranking.	0/10
Lifespan	Pretty crap lifespan; though it's fun there isn't much "replay value".	6/10
Audio	Good music, but very repetitive audio.	5/10
Overall	Dated graphics, repetitive audio, no career mode - but fun when you just want to "pick up and play".	6/10

Click here to buy Crazy Taxi from Amazon.co.uk.

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