Hey-hey, c'mon over, have some fun with Crazy Taxi!
Genre(s):
Arcade Racing
Platform(s):
Arcade Dreamcast PlayStation 2 GameCube Microsoft Windows iOS PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Android
Release Date:
Arcade NA: 1999
Dreamcast NA: January 24, 2000 JP: January 27, 2000 EU: February 25, 2000
PlayStation 2 NA: May 14, 2001 EU: June 1, 2001 JP: November 22, 2001
Nintendo GameCube NA: November 18, 2001 EU: May 3, 2002 JP: May 30, 2002
Microsoft Windows EU: June 28, 2002 JP: September 26, 2002 NA: September 30, 2002 WW: March 4, 2011
PlayStation Network NA: November 16, 2010 EU: November 17, 2010 JP: November 24, 2010 Xbox Live Arcade WW: November 24, 2010
IOS WW: October 10, 2012
Android WW: July 10, 2013
Developer(s):
Hitmaker Acclaim Studios Cheltenham (PS2/GCN) Strangelite (2002 PC version)
Publisher(s):
Sega Acclaim Entertainment (PS2/GCN) Activision Value (2002 PC version)
Series:
Crazy Taxi
Successor:
Crazy Taxi 2
Crazy Taxi is the first game in a series of score attack racing games developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega. It was first released to arcades in 1999 and ported to the Dreamcast in 2000. In 2001, it was ported to the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube by Acclaim and in 2002, it was ported to PCs by Activision.
In a twist compared to most racing games, rather than racing against opponents, you're racing against the clock picking up customers and taking them to their destinations - crazily!
There are so many different ways to earn lots of crazy money, from going through traffic, jumping over ramps, bridges and hills, drifting, and all sorts else.
You have four different divers to choose from - Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena and Gus, all of which have depending controls, traction, and formatting.
Getting customers to their destinations on time rewards you with more money and an increase in your rank.
The Dreamcast port showcases the power the system had, with it's arcade-perfect, 60-frames-per-second gameplay.
The Dreamcast port also features additional gameplay modes:
An all-new map called "Original Mode" is featured.
The Crazy Box" mode allows you to play minigames to test your skills in the game. Completing all the levels in this mode unlocks a bike.
You can also race with specific sets of time of ether 3, 5, or 10 minutes.
A fun-loving and crazy announcer who sounds almost like Wolfman Jack.
Its got a great punk rock soundtrack featuring The Offspring and Bad Religion. In fact, "All I Want" by The Offspring is so popular and tightly associated with the game that it was made a playable song in CHUNITHM.
Good usage of product placement, by featuring real-life locations within the cities.
Ports and versions released after 2004 do not contain them due to expiring rights, instead rebranding them as generic places.
Bad Qualities
Like other arcade games, the console ports are rather lacking in content.
The PSP port of the first and second games - Fare Wars, suffers from poor optimization, as the framerate chugs and the game slows down when there's a lot of action.
The Steam version, despite being able to run at higher resolutions than its previous retail PC version, it lacks proper analog controls for steering and pedals, and has a notorious optimization issue that causes the game to run poorly even on high-spec PCs on top of having the music and voice-overs changed.
The arrow navigation is terrible in the town area of the original course.
The Crazy Bowling minigame is hard.
The "Crazy Tricks" are complex to pull off. Thankfully, there is a practice mode to perform these tricks.
Sega patented its gameplay.
Trivia
The game is actually not endless, all of the customers you pick up disappear after you drop them off. There's about 244 customers to pick up, and once you do that, you've truly beaten Crazy Taxi.
