Crazy Taxi has always been my go-to
game for whenever I feel down or sick of whatever bloated RPG I’ve been
playing. It’s fast, hectic arcade action at its finest. For an arcade game from
1999, it has held up surprisingly well. It came at a time when Sega was looking
to inject some new life into their line-up and it did precisely that. Crazy
Taxi was one of the most successful and iconic games of the late 90s and
it left a lasting impression on many gamers. There have been sequels to Crazy
Taxi but none of them managed to capture the devil-may-care attitude or the
nuanced action that the first game had. As a result, Crazy Taxi is still a
one-of-a-kind gem despite numerous rip-offs having made their way into the
market after it took off in '99.
Crazy
Taxi’s whole gimmick is something that really could have only worked once. The
whole idea of being a cabbie who goes around collecting cab fare and doing wild
stunts is a novel idea for a game and Hitmaker did not cut any corners. The
loose feel of the cars, unrealistic physics, tight controls and varied terrain
make Crazy Taxi feel like an incredibly ambitious pinball game. Since the team at Hitmaker was firing on all cylinders, following games tried to expand on a concept that didn't need to be expanded upon. They had already perfected the formula with Game #1.
The
greatest thing about Crazy Taxi is how expertly designed the levels are. The Arcade map in particular is one of the most well thought
out levels in any game, period. The Arcade map
is set up in such a way that it allows new players to become accustomed to the
game mechanics while not screwing them over. Crazy Taxi is a fast-paced game
with a bit of a learning curve and in the hands of the less experienced team;
Crazy Taxi would have no qualms about chewing you up and spitting you out. And
once a new player becomes accustomed to the mechanics, they’ll have the rest of
the level to explore. For an arcade game, this is surprising as it makes the
game feel like far less of a quarter stealer than it could have been. The goal
of Crazy Taxi was to let the player have fun, not to make money.
Don’t
let the pick up and play nature of Crazy Taxi fool you though, there’s still a
deeper game underneath. It’s nothing riveting but getting boosting and drifting
down is both tricky and essential to getting a good ranking. Without them,
you’ll do alright but once you experiment a little and learn where and when to
perform tricks, you’ll see your score (and your fare) improve drastically. Once
you’ve got everything down, from the customer locations to the game mechanics, you’re
all set. Your reward is one of the most addicting arcade games in history. I’m
not really one for getting high scores but I always came back for more Crazy
Taxi.
Another
reason that Crazy Taxi works so well is because of the soundtrack. Dated, corny
and “So 90s, it hurts” doesn’t even begin to describe it. But it’s the glue
that holds the game together. Without the Bad Religion and Offspring songs,
Crazy Taxi would not be the same. What the game’s soundtrack does is help to
immerse the player in the “anything goes” world of an idealized 90s California . Although the
game’s soundtrack is limited to a paltry 4 songs, I never got tired of any of
the songs. In fact, they actually grew on me as Bad Religion and The Offspring
aren’t exactly my cup of tea.
The
game’s graphics are nothing too special. In 1999, they looked fine and they
haven’t exactly aged poorly but they haven’t aged particularly well either. At
any rate, they do a solid job of recreating a postcard version of San Francisco . The
characters and cars are boxy and polygonal but the get the job done and the
taxis themselves each have a distinct flair to them. The two noteworthy things
about the graphics are how smooth the frame-rate is and also how the game uses
color to guide players. Destinations are marked by large green zone and an
omnipresent green arrow points you to your destination. This would be great on
its own but many of the game’s landmarks, the sponsored ones like Pizza Hut and
Tower Records especially, use stark reds and oranges to stick out from the
greens, blues and grays that populate much of the game. Whether this was intentional
or not on the part of the game designers doesn’t matter, it’s a small touch
that benefits the players greatly.
That
isn’t to say Crazy Taxi is perfect because it has some issues that could use
ironing out. The arrow that guides you is prone to flailing about wildly which
can be trouble when you’re trying to get your bearings straight. And even
though the game is a fan of bouncing you all over the place, there are certain
areas where your car seems magnetized to the walls or another car’s bumper. Other
times, it can be hard to get a handle on your cab. It doesn’t stop on a dime
which can potentially ruin a run.
The
Dreamcast port is a faithful recreation of the arcade version and a true
testament to how powerful the system was. The Dreamcast port also gave us a new
map, known as “Original” and a new mission mode called “Crazy Box” that is all
about testing your mastery of the game’s mechanics. Crazy Box is a neat mode
that gives the game some extra replay value and provides some of the toughest challenges
in the game. Most of the time, the challenges are testing how much of a pro you
are at drifting but others will test your jumping and boosting skills too. At
the end of it all, there’s an incredibly memorable and awesome reward so both
diehard and casual fans owe it to themselves to play through all of Crazy Box.
Where
the Dreamcast port runs into trouble is with the frame-rate. The Arcade map
runs just fine, nearly perfectly recreating the original Arcade
version. The console exclusive “Original” map runs into a few problems though.
Firstly, massive frame-rate hiccups start up when you enter the inner city. The
park area is especially bad, slowing the game down to sub-30 FPS. The heavy
amounts of traffic in certain areas can also cause the game to stutter albeit
not as heavily as the park.
To
be blunt, the Original map is undeniably worse than the Arcade
map. It follows a similar design philosophy as the Arcade map as both of them
are beginner friendly but unlike the Arcade mode map, the Original map is very
punishing towards flashy players. And when you consider that CT basically
requires you to be flashy to get a higher score, it’s baffling that they would
make such a tight labyrinthine map. Certain parts of the Original map work very well, almost on par with the Arcade map, but the inner city area is a genuine mess that should be avoided.
The
Dreamcast port is my pick for the best home port. The
frame-rate hiccups in Original mode aside, it does the best job of bringing the
arcade experience home. Later releases would omit the product placement (and
this is one of the few games that benefits from it for reasons stated above)
and even later re-releases would remove the soundtrack in favor of a custom
soundtrack. In addition, other ports have even worse frame-rate or emulation issues that hamper the experience something fierce.
With all that
being said, 2013 saw a mobile port
of Crazy Taxi
I cannot express
my admiration for Crazy Taxi enough. It is one of the few games that I cannot
see myself becoming tired of anytime soon. Its iconic soundtrack, pinball
physics and A+ level design make it an absolute joy to play. It has some
problems here and there, mostly with the frame-rate but when everything is
running like it should, you won’t find a better niche driving game on arcades,
phones or consoles. If anyone wants to argue that 1999 and 2000 weren’t two of
Sega’s best years, Crazy Taxi should be all the evidence one needs to shut the
other up.
Final Score: 8.0
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