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| Crazy Taxi Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi Over-view: Sega and Acclaim team up to deliver one of the wilder racing titles available for GameCube, and with some questionable vehicles... Everyone knows that a desperate taxi driver will do anything for a buck, and this game is a cabbie's dreamland/passenger's nightmare! It's all about getting your deliveries to their desired locale on time, and in one piece; how you do it matters nothing. Graphics: 8/10 Crazy Taxi offers a decent-looking experience, although some of the objects look a bit "blocky", and the characters are rather blurred and unimpressive. But, for the vast amount of design to be done (including big cities full of individual buildings and tons of different characters), the artists have done a good job and the results of the labor is a solid performance in graphics. Sound: 4.8/10 I found sound to be a problem for Crazy Taxi, primarily the music. The problem? There is none--music, that is--to speak of. There are a grand total of about five tunes that play throughout the entire game, and this results in a HEAVY repetitive feel. The sound effects are also a bit scarce, and mainly consist of various crashes and a few wheel squealing sounds. The redeeming factor here, however, is the voice acting. The people you pick up, although often possessing similar voices to several of the other dozens of characters you've picked up, each have a funny voice and plenty of dialogue to show it off in. The cabbies each have an individual tone and attitude, and the lines they say are pretty amusing. Cabbies, you know, say the darndest things! Controls: 8.7/10 The controls are fairly good for Crazy Taxi, but I found the steering of the vehicles to be a bit loose at times, as if a lot of force was needed to make a turn that just skidded you out, and the system of changing from Reverse to Drive seems almost unneeded; most games seem to use the Brake/Reverse scheme, rather than having to change between going forwards and backwards, but it works--it's just slightly awkward, and I sometimes hit the Reverse and find my car going ballistic on me. Otherwise, a fairly decent control scheme here. Replay: 7.5/10 Much of Crazy Taxi is addicting, and you'll probably be playing long after completing it. The freedom CT offers is a nice touch, making each game feel fresh and new from the last. However, improvements could be made to further increase this level of fun. Firstly, Crazy Taxi could use more than two cities; sorry, Sega/Acclaim, but as big as they are, two aren't good enough to really keep players at the same level of fun for weeks and months on end. Second, more unlockables are needed to make this a true gem in replay. Finally, power-ups or more, even wilder vehicles should be available to add some extra oomph to the game. Gameplay: 7.5/10 The concept of the game is simple, yet fun: pick up people, then take them to their desired location as fast as possible to receive big bucks! The problem, of course, is that you CAN'T really take them to their location on time...at least, not without breaking a few measly traffic laws and busting a few shortcuts along the way... The real fun of this game is trying to weave your way through the heavy traffic and winding streets while keeping up your speed and going in the right direction, pushing for that extra second to add another buck or two into your meter. If you pull some nifty stunts, like squeezing through cars or taking to the air, your passenger will toss some extra cash your way for making the ride an amusement. However, if you can't get your passenger to his or her destination on time, he/she will become extremely angry and LEAP OUT OF the cab, wasting all your efforts...this is extremely frustrating when they do this just before you can pull into the destination. While the object of the game becomes a bit repetitive after a while, it still feels rather addicting at first, and it's ALWAYS fun to crash into other cars for big bangs and destruction, right? The cities are designed a bit weakly, in that there's not a whole lot of extra fun from the placements of buildings, ramps, and bridges, but it does in a pinch. Extra objectives or other levels would be a nice addition, though... **Story: .2/1 Honestly, there's not really a story for the reason WHY you're picking up people in your taxi...should there be? However, each driver has a short bit of a bio available, which has to count for SOMETHING.... **Multiplayer: 0/1 This game does not support multiplayer. Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 4.8/10 Controls: 8.7/10 Replay: 7.5/10 Gameplay: 7.5/10 **Story: .2/1 **Multiplayer: 0/1 Total Calculated Score: 7.34 Total Assigned Score: 5.1 Final Score: 6.22 Last Words: Crazy Taxi has its flaws (one primarily being repetitive gameplay), but still pulls average or better...just not THAT much better... Perhaps the highest point (sadly enough) is purposely crashing other cars, rather than delivering passengers, as the game was designed for. Rent, Buy, or Pass: PASS, unless you're a driving-game fan, in which case this is probably worth a rental for your own reviewing for purchase. Pros: Awesome crashes, quirky voice acting, and amusing gameplay. Cons: Very repetitive, barely any options to change, and extremely dull after the first few minutes of delivering passengers. Needs: A good kick in the butt and some new quests to add some depth to delivering passengers! |
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