Late port of Dreamcast's Crazy Taxi to GameCube. Mad driving, time trial runs through a sunny Sega city, Offspring and Bad Religion stripped out due to lapsed licences. Still fun but go for the Dreamcast original if you can.
Your verdict
Category
Racing1 player7+
Description
Crazy taxi drivers deliver customers across the city in this Sega GameCube Crazy Taxi port. Published by Sega, released in Japan in May 2002. Arcade racing game with taxi drivers delivering customers within time limits, punk music and frantic gameplay.
Crazy Taxi review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
Flat out to the punk riffs of The Offspring and Bad Religion, the ride rides a supercharged rock energy. The distorted guitars spike the adrenaline and match the joyful chaos of lightning-fast deliveries. Inseparable from the game, this sonic electricity remains the emblem of a whole arcade era.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Pick up a fare, weave through traffic and brake in a screech of tyres: thirty seconds are enough to understand, hours aren't enough to put it down. The clock, the lunatic jumps and the high-octane soundtrack create instant euphoria. Carried to the GameCube with the same fire, this arcade distillate stays irresistible.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Picking up a fare, charging the wrong way down the road and chasing the perfect tip: the loop runs in thirty seconds and restarts before you even think about it. The ticking clock, the climbing score and the improbable jumps sustain a giddy tension from run to run. The content is thin and the city soon goes in circles, yet the hunt for the best run stays devilishly gripping.
A port of the Sega arcade classic, Crazy Taxi has you drive an unhinged cab through an open city, delivering customers as fast as possible with a flurry of drifts, jumps and improbable shortcuts. The frantic pace, the punk rock soundtrack and the pure thrill of arcade driving stay devilishly effective, years later. The content is thin and replay value rests on score. For fans of pure arcade and cabinet nostalgics, it remains an immediate shot of adrenaline, still as exhilarating in short sessions.
