Collection essentials #451: Crazy Taxi (DC)

Here’s a port of a popular arcade game from Sega, which originally hit arcades in early 1999. The arcade cabinet is large and hard to miss, and uses a steering wheel to control the action. Nearly a year later, they released this Dreamcast port which boasted some new content to sweeten the package.

The premise of Crazy Taxi is rather simple. You play as a taxi driver who has to bring as many customers to their destinations before time runs out. The time limit can be extended if you pick up a passenger as the clock is close to zero, so a skilled player can get a good chunk of extra time this way. Sega got licenses from various real-life businesses such as Pizza Hut and KFC which appear as destinations in the game.

As you drive around the city without a passenger, you’ll see pedestrians all over the place with colored circles around them denoting the “pick-up zone”, with the color representing how difficult their route will be, with harder routes being worth more money. Once the person is in the vehicle, an arrow will point in the direction of the destination (not accounting for obstacles). A player can earn extra money by pulling off stunts or driving risky without actually colliding with stuff while a passenger is in the taxi. The game is purposefully very unrealistic, as collisions don’t cause any damage and the player will just kinda bounce off and lose some speed, not to mention the fact that you can drive underwater. This is an example of a game perfect for arcades: easy to understand and play, frantic, challenging, addictive, and great for killing a short period of time with your quarters.

Sega gave this game a lot of flair which really enhances the experience. There’s an announcer with a very distinct, amusing, guttural voice that’s hard to describe. There are a few different taxi drivers (with slightly different attributes) who all have their own voices as well. And the passengers speak upon being picked up and dropped off too, as well as commenting on the player’s driving. All the voice acting is the right amount of “a little cheesy” in a way that’s charming and memorable. The high-tempo rock soundtrack featuring songs from “The Offspring” and “Bad Religion” fit the game’s fast pace well.

The arcade version only contained one fairly large, open-ended stage, which is really all it needed. But the home console version needed at least a little more content than that, so there’s a brand new, larger level available in addition to the arcade original. There’s also a new mode called “Crazy Box” which includes a series of unique challenges to overcome, and they ain’t easy.

Crazy Taxi appears to be a rather simple and shallow game at first glance. And it’s certainly not the deepest game in the world, but there’s a little more to it than what’s apparent at first glance. There are some advanced techniques that can be used to get the most speed out of your vehicle, which will very much help you improve those high scores, and you’ll need them to complete some of the Crazy Box challenges. For years I was unaware of these techniques, and it was a nice breath of fresh air to find out about and try to implement them. You can certainly play the game casually without anything like that and have a nice time, too, which is good.

Crazy Taxi isn’t necessarily a game I would want to sink dozens of hours into in a short period of time, but it’s one of those games that’s great to revisit every now and then for a quick burst of fun. If you haven’t played the game in a while, it’s pretty much guaranteed to give you some enjoyment. It’s a wonderful game from the tail end of gaming’s “arcade era”. 

The Dreamcast version was Crazy Taxi’s first home port, but it’s been ported a few times since then too. I’m not an expert, but from what I gather, most other ports have at least some kind of issue, such as losing some of the licensing for songs and locations in the arcade original. The Dreamcast version is often considered the best, as it most faithfully represents everything in the original arcade version plus more. As for me, I’ve always played the Dreamcast version and I will always associate the game with that console. It’s a clear choice as a Dreamcast essential.