Picture Source : Gamespot
Back in the days when Dreamcast (a console from Sega) is still up and running in the market, a lot of good games were ported to it. One of them is Crazy Taxi. This game is really insane and it’s really good as a stress reliever. My favourite is still Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2. This game was ported to many consoles including the PC. However, the feeling just doesn’t seem the same.

For those who are not familiar with the game, Crazy Taxi is about game where you play as a cab/taxi driver. You drive around Big Apple picking up customers who are waving at you by the road side. Each customer will have a certain color ring. Red means the distance is close, yellow means moderate and green means the destination is far. The moment you pick up a customer, a timer starts. The amount of time given is depending on the distance. The best part of this game? You have no restriction on how you drive. Your main objective is to get your customer to their destination as fast as you can.

When I first played Crazy Taxi, I was instantly hooked onto it. I played it almost everyday and every chance I get, even up to the extend that I need to be dragged away from the TV to eat my lunch or dinner. The amount of speed and destruction you can do is just mind blowing. In terms of destruction, you definitely can’t compare it to today’s game. Back then, ramming any car you see, it’s just pure fun!

Crazy Taxi 2 is the sequel to Crazy Taxi. They added more mechanisms such as a jump function which really helps to jump over obstacles. Overall it still plays the same like the original Crazy Taxi, insane speed (for a taxi) and pure fun. Oh yes, another new feature is that you can now take up to maximum of 4 customers (as opposed to 1 for the orignal) . However you can’t randomly pick any 4. It’s only available to customers who has the blue ring.

Other than the usual taxi driving, mini games are included as well. In here you have to finish certain objectives in order to pass it. Upon completion you will unlock some extra stuff such as new “car”.

As mentioned above, Crazy Taxi was ported to Gamecube, PS2 and PC. I’m not really sure how the other console versions hold out but the PC version is definitely a very bad port. Lag was the main problem as opposed to the DC version which was running at smooth framerates with minimal hiccups. As most game reviewers mentioned, you definitely need to play this game on the DC to experience its full glory.

To sweeten up things, Crazy Taxi Fare Wars is coming to the PSP. Base on what I read, it’s sort of a combination of both Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2 under one package. It also includes co-op and multiplayer mode. Hope the sense of speed isn’t decreased for this version. Running it at 30 fps per second is gonna be bad.

So are you ready to make some ccccrrrraaaaaazzy money?