For those unfamiliar with games from the Clinton administration, the premise of Crazy Taxi couldn’t be simpler: You drive a taxi. People get in. You drive them where they want to go — completely ignoring trivial things like speed limits and roads and pedestrians and such — before time runs out. The faster you do your job, the more passengers you’ll be able to transport before the game ends. That’s all there is.

Of course, the actual driving part is a little deeper than that. Careful gear-shifting and well-timed acceleration will provide a Crazy Burst of speed. Similarly, players in the know can Crazy Drift their way into tighter turns that better retain momentum.

The game’s How to Play section provides a bare rubric about how to pull off these techniques, but they require more finesse than the game suggests. You’re better off looking up an old-school text-based Crazy Taxi FAQ and reading advice from a fan to understand how these moves work.

While you won’t need to master them to enjoy the game, you will if you expect to finish the Crazy Box challenges that will test your skills and strain your patience.

Originally an arcade game, this version of Crazy Taxi is based on the Dreamcast release, and thus features two cities to choose from. As in any good arcade game, a menu lets you modify a number of critical settings — how much time you have, how fast the timer clicks, how many cars are on the road.

In either city, you can choose to play by arcade rules, in which skilled drivers earn the right to play for longer amounts of time, or choose a specific length of time to play.

But Crazy Taxi is still shackled by its origins as a quarter-munching arcade game. The only objective is to play and replay the same two stages in order to get better at playing them.

An online leaderboard system allows players to measure their performances against others. Four save files are available, so you and the rest of your household can keep track of who has the top local score by typing in your initials.

While the simplicity of Crazy Taxi is at the heart of its lasting appeal, it is also the game’s chief weakness today. While Crazy Taxi was on ice, the genre has grown in leaps and bounds. It feels inconsequential next to games like Burnout Paradise.

I remember Crazy Taxi fondly, and the magic’s not gone. Neither is it necessarily a game whose time has passed. There’s certainly a niche market for arcade-style driving games that gleefully ignore physics in favor of manic swerving and bumper-car action.

But with so many other games vying for my attention in the holiday season, Crazy Taxi is an easy one to put aside in favor of something bigger and better.

WIRED Recaptures the fun of the original; advanced driving techniques reward players who practice.

TIRED Gameplay is pure repetition; fun in short bursts but little lasting attraction; doesn’t hold up well next to modern games.

$10, Sega

Rating:

Read Game|Life’s game ratings guide.

Images courtesy Sega

See Also:

• Crazy Taxi: Alive and Well on the PSP
• Video: Driving a Real Car Like a Videogame Car
• The Dangers of Driving After GTA

Authors: Daniel Feit

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