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January 8, 2006 | 3:22 AM PST
by: Sean Kennedy
Is the third time a charm for the classic Taxi driver game?
The classic arcade and Sega Dreamcast series Crazy Taxi comes home to the Microsoft Xbox with the all-new third installment in the series, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller. Does this installment build upon the groundwork laid by the first two, or is it just more of the same in a prettier package? Read on to find out.
Features
Story
Anyone who has played Crazy Taxi knows the story for the series. For those of you who are new to the series, the story goes like this: there isn’t one. Now that we got that out of the way, it’s time to tell you and those who have never played the series, what Crazy Taxi is all about. Players will take control of one of a few drivers and then hit the street in a timed quest to pick up the most customers, get them to their destinations, and make the most cash in the process. End of story.
Gameplay
As mentioned above, the name of the game is driving like a maniac in order to get customers to their destination. Customers come in the form of individual people or in groups of up to four people. Players will rip through the streets of the three cities (West Coast, Small Apple, and Glitter Oasis), smashing through everything in your way, flying off ramps and other objects, and drifting to hard stops all in order to save time. Time is an important factor in the game, as you will only have a limited amount of time to get as many people as possible to their destinations. Each city features 40 or so different destinations, including real world businesses, so it will be important to learn their locations and the best routes too them in order to succeed.
Crazy Taxi 3 controls and plays like the previous installments, which is good thing but also bad thing. It is good in the sense that it’s generally easy game to pick up and play, but bad in that this third installment doesn’t offer anything new over what Crazy Taxi 2 brought to the series. You have the same controls and same moves, such as Crazy Hop and Crazy Stop, at your disposal but no new moves to learn. This a rather big disappointment in that the rest of the additions made in Crazy Taxi 3 fail to impress.
While the first two Crazy Taxi’s offered exciting and well though out cities to race through, Crazy Taxi 3 offers players Glitter Oasis, the new city which is generally void of any real excitement and feels as though no real thought went into its design. The city is rather boring and small with the surrounding desert areas being the only thing more dull and uninteresting. This is a rather sad fact given that Glitter Oasis is basically a version of Las Vegas which could have been the showpiece city had real thought been given to its design.
Despite the fact the new city fails to impress, Crazy Taxi 3 does include the Small Apple from Crazy Taxi 2 and even better includes the West Coast from the original game. Given their inclusion in the game, there is now a real reason to check the game out. West Coast, despite being from the original game, is the showpiece of Crazy Taxi 3. Not only is West Coast the best city in the series, it has even been greatly expanded for Crazy Taxi 3. The city itself has been expanded, offering larger areas then it originally did. More importantly the city now allows for the abilities added to the series in the second installment to now be enjoyed in the original city. Players will now be able to perform Crazy Hop and fly down the streets like never before and even drive across rooftops. Players will also be able to pick up multi-customer groups, a feature not in the original game. Truly the West Coast is where all the real fun is to be had out of the three cities.
If you are not in the mood to rip through the three cities, Crazy Taxi 3 also offers twenty-five mini games for players to enjoy. While most of them are enjoyable, some of them come off feeling cheap and series fans will notice some are just rehashes of mini-games from the previous installments.
Graphics
Yikes. It’s nothing like fresh new hardware to make you realize just how quickly graphics become dated. Crazy Taxi 3 looks like a Dreamcast game. That would not be a bad thing if Crazy Taxi 3 was a Dreamcast game, but it is not, it is for the much more powerful Xbox. That being sad you should not expect anything in the graphics department to make you say “wow.” That is not to say the graphics are bad, they are just very dated. The only graphical additions to Crazy Taxi 3 over its predecessors comes in the way of added lighting affects in the new city, Glitter Oasis. Building are covered in bright neon lights that could look great if the graphics they are attached to and surrounded by did not look so dated.
The two cities that were actually created for the Dreamcast Crazy Taxi’s not surprisingly look like their Dreamcast counterparts, except that they run smoother and the West Coast city has been expanded a bit. This is not a bad thing since again these cities were made for the Dreamcast, unlike Glitter Oasis which has no excuse for its complete lack of use of the hardware it was made for. You will not find any advanced geometry, car models, character models, props, water effects, lighting effects, or anything you would except from an Xbox game in Crazy Taxi 3. This is really a disappointment when you imagine how great the game could have looked. Hopefully if there is a Crazy Taxi 4, Hitmaker will actually utilize the strength of the Xbox hardware and put away the Dreamcast development tools.
Sound
Offspring, Bad Religion, and Citizen Bird songs are the name of the game here, like it or not. Why the people at Hitmaker behind the music selections have some great affinity for these bands is beyond comprehension. Thankfully the frantic nature of the gameplay will distract you enough from focusing on the music too hard and injuring yourself and your sense of taste. However, if you are a fan of any of these groups then you will want to pump up the volume and enjoy. At any rate, a greater variety of music would have been a welcome addition to the series. Or better yet, take advantage of the hardware and allow for customizable soundtracks.
Sound effects remain the same in Crazy Taxi 3. You will hear all the screeches, slams, and screams as you fly down streets and plow through everything in your path. It’s all rather basic and generic, but gets the job done. However, Hitmaker again has failed to expand in another area by given the cities more audio life. They have also failed to give the people who populate the cities more to say and as a result they will quickly get on your nerves.
Closing
In the end Crazy Taxi 3 is a mixed bag and hard to recommend for everyone. It is more of the same, but not in a prettier package. That is not to say it is a bad game, it’s not, but it has its share of problems. Fans of the series will either love it as much as the other original two or feel incredibly letdown by its dated presentation, rushed feeling, and lack of anything really new. Gamers who have not experienced Crazy Taxi will likely find the game to be fresh and fun, and it is for them that I recommend the game for more strongly.
February 8, 2010
