Game Boy Advance

Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride

Crazy Taxi: Catch A Ride impressively attempts to bring the identical console experience to the Game Boy Advance and, for the most part, does an admirable job. Still, it’s clear by the unsteady framerate and choppy graphics that the GBA does have its limits and this game definitely pushes it to the max. Despite this, though, the game is still fun enough to keep fans of the series nicely entertained. It will also make you appreciate how utterly engaging the console versions really are.

See, the Game Boy Advance was never designed for 3D. Ever. Ambitious game developers have always pushed the GBA in directions it was never meant to go, and as we get into the system's third year of life many programmers are starting to milk true 3D engines out of the hardware. In Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride, Graphic State managed to create a full 3D representation of both of the cities used in the Dreamcast game, complete with texture-mapped buildings and, occasionally, street surfaces as well.

Wie in der GC-Version braust ihr die Straße entlang und sammelt winkende Fahrgäste ein. Verkehrsgerechtes Verhalten ist dabei ein Fremdwort! Eure Gäste wollen in Rekordtempo ans Ziel. Je krasser und somit schneller ihr zum Bestimmungsort brettert, desto spendabler fällt euer Trinkgeld aus. Die Framerate ist dabei leider sehr instabil, allerdings sieht das ab und an sogar recht witzig aus, da sich z. B. die Konturen eures Boliden ein wenig verschieben. Der Sound ist ordentlich, dennoch hält sich der Spaß als Taxifahrer in Grenzen.

Alas, it just isn't very fun, especially when compared to the game that it's supposed to be aping. The real Crazy Taxi is a smooth, wildly visceral joyride that could even make a soundtrack by Offspring seem enjoyable. In contrast, the GBA version is a jerky, wildly pixelated hellride (all respect to Wesley Willis) that only makes me wish I was playing the real thing. To put it bluntly, I see no reason to play a game that's been ludicrously compromised on a weaker platform when the original is both widely available and far superior an experience. When I finish this review in ten seconds, Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride is going to catch a ride out of my GBA... permanently.

Crazy Taxi : Catch a Ride tente le pari fou de restituer tel quel l'un des jeux d'arcade les plus mythiques de ces dernières années, mais échoue à proposer quelque chose de simplement correct sur GBA. La réalisation est pixélisée à l'extrême, le gameplay ne procure aucune sensation et le contenu du jeu se révèle franchement léger. Un titre qui ne fait pas honneur au soft original de Sega.

Under all the negativity, the scope (a non-linear city) is ambitious for GBA, but it's like trying to find Hall & Oates tickets in a swimming pool full of manure.

Crazy Taxi on the GBA looks a lot like Outrun, with crazily blocky buildings, cars, and other items of scenery, and the mishmash of sprites and polygons just doesn't work. The car itself is a sprite shot from different angles, as are the AI-controlled vehicles, peds and so forth, and the digital handling and awkward D-pad of the console mean that minute directional adjustments are very tricky to accomplish - particularly as your crazy ride is given to lurching this way and that in tune with the arcadey dynamic.

A perfect example of why one should never attempt to pull off a 3D game on a 2D platform.