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| Note: these pictures are in low resolution and the game looks much better on a TV. |
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| Story: 8/10
Buckle up -- it's sheer asphalt anarchy! Crazy Taxi screeches onto Dreamcast with one wild and hilarious joy-riding jaunt. As a fearless cabbie with attitude, you're driven by a single goal, to rack up the mega-bucks in fares and tips before your shift ends. It's a race against the clock as you pick up passengers and white-knuckle it through busy streets and back alleys to their various destinations. To keep that meter-collecting cash, you've gotta take the fastest route possible, even if it means bending the traffic laws � just a little. Drive the wrong way down a one-way street, catch air as you sail over rooftops, swerve between oncoming traffic, or plough through a pavement cafe. But beware -- the city is full of obstacles that are guaranteed to slow you down. And time is money! So get a grip on the wheel, sharpen your senses, and don't lose your cool. Graphics: 8/10 Each area you travel to is rendered in rich high definition graphics and the animation is superb. Real life locations like Pizza Hut, Tower Records, and KFC are included as well. To go with the photo realistic maps you get a nice looking set of 4 taxi cabs to choose from all featuring realistic special effects like that great some what reflective yellow cab paint job, burnout smoke, water effects while driving in it, and flying sparks when you scrape the ground. Because your taxi has its own independent suspension and is shown by up and down oscillations throughout the game. The game is very fast pace and Crazy Taxi runs at a high frame rate, most of the time. The game does get slow downs that take a good second to recover from when the game is full of "action", like going off a ramp and crashing into a group of cars and street side objects. Because along the way you can plow into all kinds of objects, which will be destroyed and dispersed all over the road also adding to the realism like phone booths, boxes and even people, but they run out of the way screaming! Control: 9/10 The controls are fairly simple, yet once you add in the special moves the gameplay becomes quite interesting. Your buttons are horn, destination, acceleration, brake, drive gear, and reverse gear. Various button combinations yield special moves like crazy dash (a sudden burst of speed), crazy drift (a sharp sliding turn), crazy back dash, and crazy back drift. All the various combinations are all easy to pull off and remember. Using them is a must to get a high score in the game before the time runs out. If you have the racing wheel, you'll be treated to the best arcade realism for the Dreamcast can offer Crazy Taxi! Sound: 8/10 Most games tend to feature original music but Sega took the time to get licenses from real rock bands to give this game some great songs to hear as you play. Rock was a smart choose because the fact that it matches the on-screen action perfectly. The two great rock/punk groups they use are Bad Religion and Offspring. The music is great but one thing just crushes me, its that the game only has two songs for the game, one for each of the levels. The sound effects are great too, you'll hear beeping, skidding, crashing, some background noises like hitting a telephone booth, and various comments from your passengers based on how good your driving. Game Play: 9/10 I�m sure you think the life of a taxi driver is boring, well you�re right, but not in this game! First choosing one of the modes to play the game in: Arcade, Original or Crazy Box. Arcade mode is the level featured in the arcade to play on. Original is a new level created just for the Dreamcast. Crazy Box is a set of numerous mini-games based on doing good driving. While there is only 2 levels they are massive and you'll have no trouble exploring the huge levels as you zoom across them taking people places. For the Arcade and Original you then choose what kind of game you want a 3 min., 5 min., 10 min., or arcade rules game. For the set time games you try to get as many people to there destinations as fast you can and then receive a score. But for the arcade rule you play with a time one min set when you start a game, and as you pick up more passengers you get time added to take them and a bonus for arriving fast just like in the arcade. Your goal is to pick up passengers, avoid collisions with cars, take short cuts, and reach the destination as quickly as possible all the time having tons of fun as you nearly crash into every car you come across, well maybe at first but in no time you'll learn the art of driving smoothly in and out of New York like traffic. The faster you get to where you're going, the more money you make and bonus time you get. You can make additional tips by doing combos or passing between two cars closely without hitting. You can choose to play the game with 4 different mad cabbies: Axel, Gena, Gus and BD Joe, each with a classic '70s cab and a unique set of attributes. A code can even be entered at the character selection screen to have them riding a bike instead of there taxi. Crazy Taci gets your heart having fun as you spend through the streets of San Francisco what more can you ask for! Replay Value: 8/10 The Dreamcast received a wave of arcade ports, and taking a game ment for a 5 min. sit doesn't always work at the coin less and unlimited home console. But still its pulled off nicely adding Crazy Box and another level does help this problem and its the ame play it self and fun it is that will have you coming back not the attemps by Sega to make it a home console game. Over this game is great and playing it over and over doesn't ever get old. Overall: 9/10 Crazy Taxi gets high marks for graphics, gameplay, music, and fun. Crazy Taxi is instant Dreamcast classic and its hard not want to play this upbeat game! History: -A movie was confirmed to be in the works in 2001 but was scraped with the Dreamcast fiasco at Sega -Sadly Sega will not be make another Crazy Taxi game due to the failure of the 3rd game called Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller. Which was release in the arcade and Xbox, the reason was due to the fact that Sega didn't reinvite the game enough and it was put off by gamers as another Crazy Taxi remake and its sold miserably. |