Crazy Taxi

aka: Crazy Taxi Classic
Moby ID: 3575
Arcade Specs
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Description official descriptions

Crazy Taxi is an arcade-like racer where the player takes the role of a taxi driver who weaves his way through crowded streets, across sidewalks, and even underwater, in a wild and frantic race to deliver passengers on time. The courses are largely set inside cities crowded with general traffic and pedestrians (which can't be run over, they dive away). The main goal is to bring as many customers as possible to their destination in time. Available customers are marked through circles and the color represents the distance and the fare they offer. Green means long rides with plenty of money, and red ones are very short.

In the main Arcade mode, there is a timer that quickly runs down. It can be replenished by picking up customers. While driving reckless maneuvers are encouraged. Players can disregard all traffic rules and customers give extra tips for speedy and dangerous driving, but these can only be cashed when the customer arrives at his destination in time. By the same token, the reward at the end of a ride is based on the amount of time left, as each customer also has a personal timer. The city is filled with slopes and jumps, and the game uses a very loose driving model. No damage can be done to the car, so driving as fast as possible is encouraged. While driving players can toy with the gears to perform two special tricks: a crazy drift and a crazy boost to speed up more quickly.

Next to the Arcade mode, there is an Original mode and Crazy Box where specific goals need to be met on closed-down courses. In the regular modes, it is possible to disregard the usual timer and play for a fixed amount of minutes. At the end of the race, the player is rewarded with a license, either D, C, B, or A, with S for outstanding performance. Next to the interactive courses from the arcade version, there is a new course for home consoles. There are four cabs and drivers to choose from. The cars have different statistics and the drivers' different attitudes while racing. The game has a soundtrack featuring The Offspring and Bad Religion (not for the Xbox 360 version).

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Credits (Arcade version)

48 People (35 developers, 13 thanks) · View all

Chief Graphic Designer
Graphic Designers
Character Designer
Chief Programmer
Programmers
Technical Support
Mechanical Supervisor
Mechanic Engineers
Electric Engineer
Cabinet Designer
Sound Supervisor
Music - Hear It, Ten In 2010, Them and Us, Inner Logic
  • Bad Religion
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 93 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 228 ratings with 10 reviews)

Too short to become a hit.

The Good
Does driving a cab during hot weather or through traffic jams must always be boring and tiring? Not in this game.

Your main task is to pick customers (people with dollar symbol over head) and take them to the proper place. The time for ride is limited, so you have to speed up to receive your money and extra bonus tips when the ride was enough crazy. Interesting part of the game is the Crazy Box mode where you can take part in one of 17 short missions like carrying all 8 customers within time or beating jump records. One of the best sides is the music. Short (only two tracks) but pleasant.

The Bad
If you would like to conquer the world using your cab, you should find yourself other game. Crazy taxi offers 2 small maps only, both located in San Francisco. Moreover, you can choose your vehicle between 4 cabs only. Not only the title and style of driving are in this game „crazy”. Crazy are also the prizes for challenging drive. A 100 meter drive can cost over 100 US Dollars! Longest drive cost appropriately more. The game is totally unrealistic. Our car bounce from walls (no destruction model, our car is indestructible) and we can commute roofs and underwater world (driving cabrio!). There is no free ride mode. We can only play on arcade rules, or for 2, 5 or 10 minutes. What is more, first minutes of all game are looking the same. There is no customer generator in this game! We will always meet the same customers in the same places, and we will quickly remember where do we need to take them.

The Bottom Line
I don’t know what makes this game better from others. Its not a type of game that you can play whole day and night by the whole week. You will probably play for one hour, quickly get bored and several times a year you will be back to play also one hour. Short but highly interesting. But if you want your game to be addictive, find yourself other game such as the third part of Crazy Taxi. My opinion: 7/10

Windows · by Kola256 (208) · 2006

A Far Cry from the Arcade

The Good
The actual concept and gameplay in Crazy Taxi is always fun, even when presented in an extremely flawed way. The repeat value completely hinges on wanting to beat your past performance (for better or for worse)

The Bad
First complaint: The controls. So much is lost in translation between the arcade steering wheel and the gamecube controller. The controls are so sensitive; a slight push of the stick and you do an incredibly sharp turn. Something about the arcade controls limited the movement so that your car moved like an actual car... and not something with 4 wheel steering.

Second Complaint: The Graphics. No additional work was done on the Gamecube release of the game. This translates into an extremely sub-par looking game for the system. Extensive clipping, clunky character models, and poor textures seem like the product of an older system.

Third Complaint: Lack of Additional Features. I guess I shouldn't complain about the lack of additional features; they're there alright. However, sloppy mini-game additions that could have been programmed in an evening are not even worth putting on the disc. So, we're basically left with a simple Crazy Taxi arcade release without any other significant draws.



The Bottom Line
Basically a direct port of the arcade release that doesn't hold up nearly as well as it should.

GameCube · by Game22 (35) · 2004

Classic fun, however lacks longevity.

The Good
Craaaazzy Taxi! This is one of those games that was almost worth buying a Dreamcast for. It was a blast in the arcades which always left you wanting one more go. Most of the appeal is because of the very basic premise - drive around in your taxi cab and pick people up and take them to their destination. Driving crazy also helps.

The game has been translated to Dreamcast as an almost arcade-perfect conversion. The addition of another city to explore is also a welcome inclusion in the home version. When I first got this game I couldn't stop playing it... it's an absolute blast for the first few days (and a good party game too).

The graphics are great, the music selection is great (The Offspring.. woo hoo!) and the controls are responsive and well suited to the Dreamcast controller. Technically the game is flawless!

The Bad
The only real problem with the game is longevity. Because it is strictly an arcade game with no story or real progression you will get sick of it after a while and it will most likely remain one of those games that gets dusted off every six months for a quick retro-blast and then put back in the box.

The Bottom Line
If you haven't played Crazy Taxi then you need to! Just don't expect a deep gaming experience.

Dreamcast · by Tibes80 (1543) · 2003

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Trivia

Lawsuit

The December 2003 lawsuit filed by Sega against Fox Entertainment claims that The Simpsons: Road Rage infringes on a patent owned by Sega of America. Specifically, Sega claims that The Simpsons: Road Rage gameplay is too close to that of Crazy Taxi. It was eventually settled in private.

The abstract for the patent reads as follows:

A driving game, wherein players having various driving skills--from beginners to those advanced--may enjoy both aspects of amusement and simulation in consistency. The game device of the present invention has an element for providing to a player a plurality of different movement modes upon moving the vehicle along a traveling line. Upon selection of a desired movement mode, a vehicle-driving game relating to the driving mode selected by the player is executed. Included in this plurality of driving modes are an assist mode in which auto-brake control is performed and a training mode in which various indications, such as the timing of the braking point, are given.

The full patent is available here.

Product placement

Product placement at its best: Kentucky Fried Chicken, Tower Records and Levi Jeans. Each one is present as a location in Crazy Taxi.

Information also contributed by Terrence Bosky

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Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
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Taxi Sim
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Taxi Challenge: Berlin
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Sky Taxi
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Venice Boats: Water Taxi
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New York Taxi: The Simulation
Released 2012 on Windows
Taxi Challenge: New York
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  • MobyGames ID: 3575
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brolin Empey.

GameCube, PlayStation 2 added by Kartanym. OnLive added by firefang9212. Android, Xbox 360, PlayStation Now added by Sciere. iPad, iPhone added by Kabushi. Arcade added by The cranky hermit. PlayStation 3 added by Crawly. Xbox One added by MAT. Windows added by Rantanplan.

Additional contributors: Zovni, Guy Chapman, Sciere, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, GTramp, Victor Vance.

Game added April 2, 2001. Last modified March 28, 2024.