All things Crazy Taxi

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can write up your thoughts and opinions for Sega's 1999 open world racer - Crazy Taxi.

[delb2k]

Reverse, Drive, Accelerate. Reverse, Drive, Accelerate.

While reductionist to sum in Crazy Taxi in 3 words that's what it boiled down to, the super burst of speed provided by those three actions being the key to mastering getting people around the city in the quickest time for the biggest fares. And once that was mastered then came the strategy, the measuring up of customers in green to red circles and your ability to get to where they wanted to go. Short on time and need a quick buck that may pull some time back, go green and hope you nail it. Have a little time to spare and want the big bucks, go red and keep the fingers crossed that the navigational arrow and your judgement keep you right.

And so the game becomes a series of boosts, one followed after the other as you weave through traffic and explore any possibility for a short cut in order to make the time up as it ticked away in front of you. With the original music blaring over the top everything felt hyper real, bright colours whizzing past you as your brain kept thinking the same three words; Reverse, Drive, Accelerate.

And it was glorious, chasing your highest fare and tensing up as you got ever closer to it. Looking back it was surprising that this single mode was quite so compulsive but it rarely ceased to be entertaining. And the crazy box games added to bolster the home release, including my personal favourite the crazy jump, added a nice distraction onto the package. It always encouraged the 'just one more shot' adage and while something that would struggle to stand up individually now for my Dreamcast at the time it was a revelation. Especially as this was the time when the idea of arcade games on console was still a unexpected bonus. Time may not have been great to it, and I have no desire to play it now, but for those few months that I sunk into it the memories bring a smile to my face.

[matten zwei]

I remember playing Crazy Taxi on a Dreamcast in a shopping mall back in the 2000. I didn’t own a Dreamcast at the time and the only racing game I was playing at the time was formula one 97 on the Playstation. When I saw Crazy Taxis smooth graphics and the really unique gameplay, I was really jealous on every Dreamcast owner. When Crazy Taxi finally came to the Playstation 2, I was already driving taxi in GTA 3, which for the 14 year old me, was the same experience somehow.

In the year of 2016 I finally got my own Dreamcast with Crazy Taxi and I am still blown away by it and know the difference between GTAs taxi-driving and Crazy Taxi. The game runs smooth, it has slick controls and the graphics haven’t aged too badly, I think. I like how overwhelmed I get when I play it, because it's always a little too fast. And even today the games concept works perfectly for me: rushing through the streets, earning tips for risky overtakings, listening to the Offspring and making it to the destination just in time. Basically the game is everything what I loved about Sega.

[Alex79]

I've owned Crazy Taxi on a few systems over the years, starting with the Dreamcast version back in the day, the PS2 version and even the iPhone version. I always found it to be a fun enough, if somewhat shallow experience. I know there are people who hold it in awfully high regard, but I never really managed to get that in to it. I know it was a pure arcade game, but the handling of the cars just felt dreadful to me, and the changing gear and accelerating to move rather than just having a forward and reverse button always threw me every time I played it. No I'm not a massive fan of this game, but it's fun enough to warrant a quick go every now and then. Quite why I bought it so many times I'm not sure!

Three word review : Too much crashing!

[Sellardohr]

I played this game a lot after its Dreamcast release, taking turns with my brother. I won't comment on the gameplay proper, as I believe we completely ignored it. Instead I'll talk about why we spent so much time with it.

Crazy Taxi made an excellent sandbox. Not worrying about the scoring mechanics, or the driving mechanics, you could simply drive around the city and soak up the experience.

I remember falling in love with the relationship the game set up between you and the people of the city. You'd run them down, sideswipe them, jump over them, honk at them, and just generally act crazy and unsafe around them. And they'd flee in terror. But at the same time, when it came 'round to getting a ride somewhere, they'd hop in your car and show nothing but gratitude. You were both their savior and their tormenter, and they didn't show any awareness of that dissonance, and it was there for you to enjoy.

To amplify this, your character was always some green-haired, tattooed maniac -- perfect for the role of both lover and destroyer.

And the environment was southern California, a place we often think of as both full of love and chaos.

At the same time, I remember the city had many different areas, from suburban sprawls to beaches to cityscapes. I remember never knowing where exactly I was going to end up next, and wanting to know. It was a fun place to explore in the midst of a fun premise.

We didn't really use this game the way it was meant to be used, I don't think, but the fact that it let us do so is a mark of what's special about it.

[AndrewBrown]

I've played Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast and I own it on Gamecube, but it is the arcade cabinet which I have fallen in love with. Playing it with a controller is fine and getting as many replays as I want is grand on a console or handheld, but the faux-automobile cabinet adds a new level of fun. Whether it's in a trendy barcade or a dingy family restaurant, that voice calling out "Hey hey hey! Are you ready to make some crazy money!?" is like a siren's song. I find the nearest change machine, shove a grubby dollar into it, and soon I'm adjusting an uncomfortable seat, dropping my quarters into the machine, and getting ready for five minutes of arcade bliss. The one or two games my dollar buys me is usually enough to sate me until our next encounter, like clandestine lovers desperate to break their relationship but repeatedly foiled by serendipity.

It's easy to understand why I'm attracted to Crazy Taxi. When it was released, Little Kid Me loved the frenetic gameplay and high concept; no matter which driver you choose, your taxi cab is a wrecking ball, flying over land, under sea, and through traffic, unperturbed by limitations like physical or civil laws. Today, Pretentious Man Me loves the risk-reward system that encourages recklessly-competent driving and a dense network of fares which must be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle while you strive for that seemingly-unattainable Crazy Taxi! level license. It's classic quarter munching design: Simple to understand and play, difficult to penetrate and master. One of my favorite moments in Crazy Taxi is getting a fare who wants to go downtown and driving on the wrong way of the freeway the whole trip; it's an exhilarating driving experience that is enhanced by the ever-rising Crazy Throughs combos, satisfying both Little Kid Me and Pretentious Man Me in an all-too-short drive.

It's when you bring Crazy Taxi home that you start to see its limitations (or at least its Gamecube version, which could be a bad porting job for all I know). While it's probably the best way to unearth and master its systems, you also recognize how small the city is, how grating the limited soundtrack is, how you always start in the same space, and always play with the same configuration of fares. Removed from the environment of the arcade, given license to play the game as much as you want, its appeal seems to strip away. Maybe it's because the Attract Mode isn't imploring me to make some crazy money, but when I look at the Crazy Taxi disc on my shelf, I feel no great urge to play it. Driving out of the arcade and into our homes may have been the biggest mistake Crazy Taxi ever made. When you see the bright yellow checkered cabinet with the hard plastic chair, sit down and have a go. It's one of the best experiences you'll have in an arcade. The console version, for whatever reason, just doesn't capture the same spirit of joy.