Crazy Taxi was a big game from Sega in the arcades. The house of hedgehog has been one of the most prolific coin op developers since the 80s, and this continued well into the early 2000s. It was one of the early titles to show of the Naomi hardware, and served as a prime example of the Sega Dreamcast’s capabilities. This home console port was nearly identical to the arcade version, and was heavily advertised as a big system seller. To be honest I was always a bit ‘meh’ on the title. I played Crazy Taxi at a friend’s house a few times but was never particularly interested in it. They later gifted me the game and it sat in storage between moves. I finally decided to dig it out and pop the disc into the console and really give it a shot. Let’s dive right in!
Unsurprisingly there’s no real story here. You’re a cabbie in the city of San Francisco. Because it’s an arcade title Sega threw realism out the window. Instead we have a colorful landscape with lots of interesting over the top characters and stunts. The game is chock full of that classic Sega charm. You’ve got exaggerated physics, goofy character models, and an over the top announcer that’s way too happy to be there. It’s the atmosphere that really draws you in to Crazy Taxi. The only thing I would compare it to is Jet Grind Radio, and even that’s kind of a stretch. It’s clearly a game made by people who love and play video games.
Okay so on to the gameplay. You choose a game mode from three different options and you’re off. You view the action from behind your vehicle as you drive around a 3D city populated with buildings, obstacles, and of course customers. Your goal is to pick up people wanting a ride (indicated with a money symbol above their heads) and deliver them to their desired destination (which is marked as an arena marked with glowing walls). Simple enough, right? Well, you have to do this while dodging traffic and environmental hazards. Thankfully there’s an arrow above your car showing the direction of your next destination. The thing is it bases directions based on how the crow flies. This means you can’t rely on it to figure out which turns you need to take. This adds in quite a bit of guesswork, and that brings me to my next point.
Crazy Taxi is designed to feel like a real, living, breathing city and it succeeds quite well. This means you don’t need to stay entirely on roads and if you look hard enough can find shortcuts. Sometimes you’ll end up driving through parks, beach, or even in walking areas. Who cares though, this is a video game, and you’ve got fares to deliver! You aren’t penalized for smacking into vehicles or pedestrians aside from them serving as obstacles that slow you down. You’re actually rewarded for close calls with additional money which encourages you to dodge to and fro into traffic. It’s a unique system that rewards driving recklessly, and you know what? I love it. There aren’t a lot of games out there like Crazy Taxi and for that fact alone this one scores major points with me.
The first of these is the standard arcade mode. You can choose between a few different sets of rules. These are mostly based around time limits. The first let’s you play until you run out of time while getting more from successfully delivering customers to their location. You can also select to play with specific time limits which is kind of neat, but the arcade rules are where it’s at. Next up is the original mode which puts you into an original part of the city made entirely for this console port. It’s great that Sega included this, because it’s additional content in an arcade game that by nature lacks it. These new areas are pretty neat and I liked them, but clearly this was an afterthought. Finally there’s a third mode which gives you specific objectives.
So why then do I love Crazy Taxi? The sheer chaos is absolutely amazing. This isn’t Grand Theft Auto. The only issue you face ramming vehicles or pedestrians is that they slow you down a little bit. This is one of the few games I’ve seen that encourages you to drive recklessly. I found myself weaving in and out of traffic to get more money, and that’s par for the course for when it comes to Crazy Taxi. After all this is an arcade game, and you’re trying to beat your high score (in this case it’s fares). Everything else doesn’t matter. I found it most interesting that I had to basically unteach everything I had learned about racing games up to this point. You want to put yourself at risk after all, and that’s why Crazy Taxi is so amazing. This is of course before Burnout was a thing.
Controls are obviously a major factor in a game like this and I must say those in Crazy Taxi are, well, interesting. What I wasn’t a fan of is the fact that you have two gears to select from. Either forward or reverse. This was confusing to me at first, and took a little while to get the hang of. There are times where you’ll need to go in reverse, and the game for some reason takes a few moments of your wheels spinning to register it. The same foes for when you’re in the high gear. This is after all an arcade game. I’m disappointed Sega didn’t streamline the experience. You’ll need to play a few rounds before it all makes sense. Also, the brakes are very slippery. This was probably on purpose to make you plan for stopping at the drop off points but it’s annoying nonetheless.
Graphically the game is absolutely beautiful. Sega knew what matters, and that’s framerate. I’m happy to report that this title runs at 60 frames per second most of the time. There are a few drops here and there, but by and large Crazy Taxi runs at a solid framerate even despite the carnage. Unfortunately there is some pop-in (which was common for this era) but in this case I don’t think it messes with gameplay too much. The soundtrack however leaves a bit to be desired. Sega went with a pop-punk theme that I don’t feel holds up. At all. If you’re a fan of The Offspring then you’re in for a treat. If you aren’t then Crazy Taxi is going to feel very aged. That’s all fine and dandy, and the samples are high quality but personally I found the soundtrack annoying. The voice overs are classic Sega.
