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Great! But definitely not for everybody...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

A lot of people seem to have trouble 'getting' Crazy Taxi, or rather, understanding why it's something that's supposed to stay fun after the first few tries. It seems to have an immediate appeal to EVERYbody: it's hectic, looks great (full of little touches that nobody's likely to notice, like the dead-on shadows), and you get to drive like a maniac in a bustling, hilly city without suffering the consequences. But after awhile, a lot of people find Crazy Taxi repetitive and dull.

I think Crazy Taxi is more for the pinball/Robotron/Stargate crowd than most games that come out nowadays. The main challenge and reward in it is improving your skills, being able to take the shortest path at ridiculous speed without running into ANYthing (that is, anything that's going to slow you down) -- other than the mostly-instructional "Crazy Box" challenges there's nothing to beat, no extra levels or cars or bosses to get, and the congratulatory credits roll every time you get a reasonably good score. There's a lot of space to improve your skills, though, and a lot of cleverly arranged structures in the game's two cities for taking risks and getting rewarded. If working toward mastery of a fixed, complex environment sounds like fun to you (like pinball, and as opposed to "getting to the next level"), and you're dying for a game that you can actually pick up for five minutes and then put down, then Crazy Taxi just might be for you.

The biggest problem with CT (in my opinion) is that technique isn't rewarded as much as speed is. While a particularly brilliant chain of maneuvers will garner a decent tip (bonus points to you and me), shaving a second or two off your travel time will get you more money than driving boldly, and also mean more time on the ever-decreasing clock. Ah well.

I dosen't get anymore addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Crazy Taxi has everything that the arcade has, Offspring and Bad Religion tracks, brand name destinations. People actually ask to go to KFC, Tower Records, Levi's, and Fila. You can find hairpin shortcuts through the KFC drive-through and even go underwater. The rate that the dreamcast gives the graphics is up to the max on this game. If you own Sonic, you know what I mean. Besides the fact of some minor slowdown which can really really screw you up, its no problem. This game also gets old fast, With only two worlds to drive in, this game needed some more work. Maybe adding 2 new worlds and multiplayer mode would have made this a blockbuster hit. There is also the Crazy Box section for training which is nothing big. There is nothing to open up. The tracks get played about 3 times each round. But when you pop this into the DC the first time, you will be playing it for days. This is a game for young kids and oldschool gamers, but give it a rent before you decide to buy.

Good Game, but Lacking

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I think this game is great. However, there were things that I wish the game had. For example, another city. Now it is possible that because I haven't finished the game, or entered a code, another city hasn't been unlocked. Although, I don't believe this is the case. The fact there is only one city, does make the replay value slighty low.

The "crazy box" is a nice, challenging feature to the game. The 1-S level, is extremely difficult in the beginning, especially if you haven't mastered the crazy drift. The arcade and orginal modes are also a positive add on.

Overall, I think any Dreamcast owner should get the game, even if you think you won't like it. Trust me, the game is very addicting.

A Classic Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: June 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Crazy Taxi has the three factors that make classic videogames

1. Easy for beginners to pick up 2. Hard to master 3. Shows off your system

The First AAA Title of 2000

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: March 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Ever since I played Crazy Taxi in the arcade over the summer, I've been highly anticipating the Dreamcast version. Finally, it is out and in near-arcade-perfect form.

The graphics in Crazy Taxi are top-notch. The streets are colorful and filled with lots of objects (cars, people, etc.), but the game still has a high frame rate (except in one part). It's amazing.

The sound in Crazy Taxi is also excellent: there is a lot of chatter from the customers you pick up (but you may get tired of your driver's sayings after a while), and the music fits the game perfectly. The only problem with the music is that it repeats a lot, so after playing Crazy Taxi a while, you get a little tired of the music. Nonetheless, I have not yet had to mute it.

As for the control, it is also very well done. As with the other Dreamcast racing games, the right analog trigger is the throttle, and the left analog trigger is the brake. The B button shifts into forward, the A button shifts into reverse, and the X button reminds you of your destination. The cars themselves handle very well, and it doesn't take long until you are weaving in and out of traffic with no trouble at all.

In the Dreamcast version, the extras are well appreciated. The new city that was not in the arcade version is very different from the arcade city, and requires a lot of time to learn it. Crazy Box mode is the best addition though. In it, there are different levels with certain requirements you must complete. These serve to train you in playing the game and to add replay value, both of which they do very well. It takes a long time to finish Crazy Box, so you will be occupied with it for a while.

Crazy Taxi is not without flaws though: there is no multiplayer mode, and it doesn't last very long. A multiplayer mode would have been a welcome addition, but in its absence, you must make your own. Invite a few friends over, take turns playing, and try to beat each other's score. It can be very addictive. Despite its narcotic effect, Crazy Taxi doesn't have much replay value. I mentioned Crazy Box earlier, whcih does add a lot to the game, but it isn't enough to make it very enduring. Unless you play it with friends a lot (as in taking turns), you will get tired of playing it after a while.

Overall, Crazy Taxi is one of the most addictive games ever and is a must-buy whether you have a Dreamcast or not. In fact, if you don't have a Dreamcast, what better reason is there to buy one?

Another excellent game from Sega!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game originally appeared in arcades and it was popular enough for Sega to decide to release it on the Dreamcast. It's a good thing they did, as this is a brilliant game. The basic idea is to drive the streets of San Fransisco as a taxi driver (there are four 'crazy' characters to choose from each with their own car and driving style) and earn as much money as possible by picking up customers and performing 'crazy' moves to impress your passengers, who will then give you a 'crazy' tip (yes, the game does tend to overuse the word 'crazy'). The more moves you can pull off in succession (combos), the bigger the tips you customers will give you. There are two huge areas to drive around in this home version, with no limits on where you can go and how you get there. One of the courses is the same as the one featured in the arcade version, but there is another course that's exclusive to the Dreamcast, and it is just as good as the original. The courses are both very varied and interesting, and there are always new shortcuts to find and things to discover. For each course there are 4 options; drive for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes or play by arcade rules, where the time limit starts at about a minute and counts down until it runs out, but you get time added on for each customer you pick up. In all modes the customers you pick up will have a countdown above their head, and you must get them to their required destination before the time runs out or they'll jump out without paying. Get them there really quickly and they'll reward you with a hefty time bonus. There are many different characters hanging around the city waiting to be picked up, and thankfully you seem to have the monopoly on the taxi business in San Fransisco! The main goal is to earn an S-class license by earning over $5,000 in the arcade time mode, and this is extrememly tough! You can crank the difficulty level up or down by changing all the settings including traffic density, initial time limit etc., but if, like me, you consider that cheating, you'll stick with the regular settings and persevere until you finally get there. If you want to really beat the game you should aim to reach #1 on the record rankings, which means you'll have to get about $8,000 - that's no easy task!

There is another Dremacast-exclusive mode called the 'crazy box' mode, and this is definitely one of the best apsects of the game. Basically it consists of 16 unique minigames (with more to unlock). For each section you are given an objective and you must complete it within a given time. Each one is hellishly frustrating (in a fun way), and you will find yourself staying up way too late trying to perfect knocking all 70 pins down in 30 seconds in crazy taxi ten-pin bowling. Completing each one is difficult enough, but completing them in a fast enough time to beat all of the pre-set records will destroy any remains of a personal life you may have. It's tough!

The game benefits from having licensed real locations, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Original Levi's Store all with real building styles and logos - it just helps to make it feel real.

The graphics are excellent. The designers obviously didn't strive for gritty realism, but that's OK. The game's slightly cartoonish, colorful, over-the-top graphics work very well and give it a refreshing look. I have a MAJOR problem with the occasional lapses in frame-rate and draw-in, however. Every now and then you will be driving along and the game will slow to a near halt, and it will stop for a second while the Dreamcast wheezes like an asthmatic rhino with a throat infection. And if that wasn't bad enough, the background music will skip, then the CD has to reset and start the song again from the beginning, and during this the draw-in has receded to about 10 feet in front of your taxi so it looks like you're about to drive into an abyss of nothingness. OK, so maybe I'm exxagerating. But it IS a problem, and there's really no excuse for it. Most of the time everything runs fine, but maybe once every five or ten minutes the above scenario will happen. If, like me, you couldn't care less about it then it won't affect the fun of the game, but if that sort of thing bothers you then you probably should steer clear (pun half-intended) of this game.

Control is excellent, the cars all handle very well. I have a Madcatz MC2 racing wheel and I tried it out, and although it worked nicely, the game is very heavy on the button-pressing combos, and I found it much more practical to use the standard controller. The game's physics are generally accurate, and collision detection is spot-on, which is a good thing since you will be involved in a lot of collisions.

Unfortunately there is no online element of the game, nor a multiplayer one. It's a shame, because a multiplayer option would have been great fun. This is supposedly being rectified in Crazy Taxi 2, due for release some time in late 2001, so if you can't stand the thought of single-player-only gameplay then you might want to wait for that. The game does give you the option of challenging a friend in a way; the menu interface will remember records for up to 5 players on one Dreamcast, so you can take it in turns to beat each other's records and the game will keep track of who is better. The records section is excellent - you can sort records by name, track, mode, etc. It will even tell you the date you achieved each record and what taxi driver you were using at the time, and it can all be saved onto a memory card so you can carry on another time.

This probably isn't one for the kiddies, what with all the reckless driving and the rude customers, who have no problem with telling you if you are a lousy driver. The background music, which comes from bands like The Offspring and Bad Religion, can quickly get repetitive - I prefer to turn the music off and play my own CDs on my stereo. The characters you pick up can also get a little tedious, as they're always repeating themselves. Apparently there are a lot of identical twins/triplets/quituplets in San Fransisco, as I often found myself picking up identical-looking people within minutes.

There are some very nice touches in the game. Traffic is ultra-realistic, all the cars, buses, trucks and trams behave exactly as they would in real life (with the exception that they stop at stop signs and red lights and drive courteously...). If you cause a massive pile-up on the freeway, there will still be upturned cars there minutes later when you return, with the drivers wondering just what they did to deserve such a ... day. The game tells you how to pick up customers by showing a 'zone' around the person in which you must stop, then it will display an arrow indicating in which direction the customer's destination lies; when you are familiar with the courses you have the option of cranking up the realism by turning off zone markings and arrows, though this is for pros only!

Despite its minor flaws, Crazy Taxi is a fantastic game that is superbly made. I can't wait for the sequel, but for now this will keep me occupied for most of my free time! Now it is available at a budget price, you would be a fool not to buy it. I give it a solid 4 out of 5; I would have given it 5 if it weren't for the minor annoyances that plague it. Overall, highly recommended: a must-have unless you really don't like racing/action games. The huge fun factor redeems it from its shortcomings.

A Must Buy For Dreamcast Owners

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is definitly the best game out there for Dreamcast. It has great graphics, controls, sound, and is lots of fun. If you buy the steering wheel to go with it, you'll have even more fun. This is the game to get!

It's Party Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

To call myself a fan of Crazy Taxi would be like saying the Pope thinks organized religion is kind of nice. This is a great game.

Living in Japan, I took refuge from the hurly burly of Tokyo in the absolute craziness of Sega's virtual San Francisco. Having been back in the U.S.A. for sometime and unable to find Crazy Taxi in the arcades anymore, I finally broke down and -- like a long-parted lover -- returned to the comfortable busom of this superlative game.

Even a watered down version of CT appealed to me, and I was tremendously surprised to find that there is very little dilution (if any) from the arcade version. In fact, it is a virtual carbon copy of the arcade version as far as I can tell. This fact was was a little disappointing, to be honest, since I had already learned to navigate the highways and byways of San Fran better than even my old neighborhood of Koganei-shi. (A shout out to all my mama-sans...)

But then I stumbled upon the "Original" version, a city designed solely for the Dreamcast release. (You can see I did my research before plunging into this purchase! I had no idea!) I felt like I had stumbled upon a secret world. I mean, darnit, I can't even find the police station. (OK, it's fairly easy ... just follow the arrow.) The graphics and music, special effects, and hidden treasures are amazing. Truly this is the game for those of us who enjoyed "Adventure" on Atari for the moment when we got eaten by the dragon and then picked up by the bat who flew us through all the screens so we could finally see what else was out there. To play Crazy Taxi and have the mobility that you do ... the freedom of driving around at will, down subway tunnels and through shopping malls ... it's the perfect outlet for the joyously rageful driver. There are truly no limits, no borders. I laugh at friends who play and actually stick to the roads. How lame!

Well, I am about as objective as a hockey dad ... I love this game. And I am not a gamer. Like I said, my frame of reference for home video systems stopped at "Pitfall." But this game is truly phenomenal and the system itself really complements and showcases all of the fun of the original arcade version.

OK, if I could complain about a couple things: The "Crazy Box" section, which allows you to play short skill games, could be improved. Some of the games (like "Capture the Flag") are far too easy, while others are almost impossible. I wish this were moderated more and that, frankly, the easy ones were more challenging. (I have no problem with the difficult ones, only the disparity between them and the easy ones.) And even though the music truly complements the pace of the game, a couple different songs would have been nice on the home version. I like the occassional Offspring song, but ....

But these are small quibbles. Buy it and enjoy. As BD Joe says (and I truly may need counseling), "We gonna have some fun!"

Theres a reason they called it CRAZY TAXI!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: June 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

After first playing this game at a movie theatre near my house (the arcade version) I knew I just had to have this game. Of course after maybe playing it a few times you dont catch the flaws on an arcade version, they will appear in the sega dreamcast version.

Pros -

1. Graphics are amazing, stunning, suberb, and any other good word in the english language.

2. While driving around, you might notice the great detail of this town in the game. There's everything, a busy city, to a quite beach. (not unless you drive through it)

3. Love listening to the music while I'm driving, but...... (see con #1)

Con -

1. Though like I said the music was good, there are maybe only about 3 or 4 songs that the game plays while your driving, and when you turn the sound off, you can't here the customers scream at you!

2. After a while, the location of where the customer is going keeps repeating once in a while.

3. When driving throught the busy city part of the town, the arrow pointing where to go starts giving bad directions. This gets really confusing with the many streets.

Tough I have to say this game, put aside the cons is really good. This is a one player game with no racing involved except trying to get the customer to their destination in the time provided. Faster you get there, more you get paid. If I could give the game a 3.5 I would, but I cant. ................

Crazy Taxi actually makes the Offspring tolerable!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: February 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

BUY THIS GAME. I totally hate the Offspring, which is the music you will hear most often while playing this game. Let me also add that I am not a fan of car/racing games either. However, I took a chance on this game because of the overwhelming praise it has been receiving and MAN AM I GLAD I BOUGHT IT. Last weekend, I practically converted all of friends over to the Dreamcast bandwagon with this game alone (and Soul Calibur). The gameplay is repetitive, but so is being addicted to crack. This game ROCKS! The feeling of actually zipping through the streets of San Francisco at what really feels like well over 75 MPH is a blast. (Ever seen Bullitt?) Or how about dropping off a passenger after performing a sliding 180 and slamming into the front door of a KFC (product placement tastefully done: Pizza Hut, FILA, Levi's, etc.). This game makes perfect use of the Dreamcast's speedy frame rate and graphical capability. One of my friends has already claimed that they are going to buy a Dreamcast just to play Crazy Taxi. And, though I hate the Offspring, their music is perfect (and Bad Religion's) for the fast-paced driving mania that makes this game great. Oh, and have fun trying to run over potential customers before picking them up and listen to them complain: "You almost killed me!" HA! BUY THIS GAME.

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