Together Retro Game Club: Crazy Taxi
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The Dreamcast had lots of great exclusives back in the day, and while Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur wowed me, Crazy Taxi is actually one the the main games that sold me on the system. Â (I didn’t discover Jet Grind Radio until later) Â I played the original in the arcade was pleasantly surprised by how original the concept was at the time. Â I loved racing games, but Crazy Taxi mixed some of the exciting elements of racing games with some crazy physics and some action-elements, and wrapped it up in a way that only a 90’s Sega arcade game could. Â To kick off September 2009 (the 10 year mark for the North American Dreamcast anniversary), we revisit this arcade wonder and hopeful spread the Crazy love to others that haven’t yet experienced it!
The Concept
- Pick up Customers (Identified by dollar signs over their head)
- Take them where they want to go as quickly as possible (follow the arrow)
- Repeat
- As in most great arcade games, the concept is indeed simple, but you need to be quick on your feet and be as efficient as possible to maximize your score.
Refining Your Technique
- The Basics
- Crazy Moves & Combos (for trimming your time down)
- Level Tips: Arcade Level , Original Level
Extra Tips
- Dont stop to far from the customer, this will lose you some time, as the customer is running to your cab.
- Use Crazy Moves to no only save you some time, but which will get you more money via tips
- Mix long runs with short runs, this will help you get more time.
- Like a real cabby, remember the shortcuts around town — it will save you a lot of time.
- “Green” customers have farther destinations and biggest payoff & “Red” customers have close destinations, which are good for when you don’t have much time left. Â (and colors in between scale as you might imagine)
Recommended Ports
Maybe some of you have a Crazy Taxi arcade cabinet in your place, but for us mere mortals, we have a handful of solid ports that are easily accessible on some popular platforms for dirt-cheap prices. Â While I haven’t played it, Crazy Taxi 3 for the XBox supposedly has remade maps of the original Crazy Taxi arcade stage, but I haven’t heard good things about that port. Â And there’s also a GBA port, but while it’s a feat to get that 3D on the portable, it’s not especially playable. Â There’s also Crazy Taxi Fare Wars, but that doesn’t come recommended either.
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Together Retro Discussion & High Scores
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I`ve played it on PC,but only for an hour or so 🙁
One of my favorite games on the Dreamcast. This is a game that you can play with your friends all night. Notice I said “friends”, not someone on the other side of the country via internet.
Oh man… what memories. I remember playing that game on the floor of E3. Completely addicting.
This was the first game I ever got for my PS2. Ironic, huh?
Sadly, I no longer have it, so I’ll keep an eye out for the DC version.
Great game, solid soundtrack and just plain fun! I put more time into the crazy box mini-games than the actual game though…we have this game to thank for the awesome taxi missions in GTa3. Thanks Crazy Taxi, you were a fantastic game. I might give you a little play this weekend.
What are you talking about? Crazy Taxi Fare Wars is pretty awesome! Due to the main game lasting for at the most ten minutes, its a great game to just pick up and play wherever. It has a few faults (mainly the lack of the original soundtrack, which can be fixed with the custom soundtrack) but it also has Crazy Taxi 2. If you can get a good price for it and are a fan of the original DC version I would totally pick it up.
I haven’t played Fare Wars — just going on reviews and such.
Fare Wars is good, but its unplayable on anything but the 2000 and 3000 hardware where it actually uses the extra ram. On the original PSP, half the time you would just be floating in air not able to see the road.
RyaNtheSlayA:
What about control? I remember playing Crazy Taxi years ago on the PS2, and found it difficult to control with L/R being buttons instead of triggers.I can’t imagine the PSP being any better in this respect.
Of course if you just want to muck around, and don’t care about score, it’s probably good enough.
Control is fine, the problem comes on the PS2 version because its a horrible port.