I don't apologize for loving SEGA's Dreamcast. She brought me back to the gaming world and had some amazing games on her.
Among them was Crazy Taxi, a game for drivers in which the tongue was glued to the cheek. SEGA has revived Crazy Taxi, sort of releasing the original on PSN and XBLA with 720p support.
You will take on the role of one of four taxi drivers and compete against the total time to pick up and drop off as many passengers as possible. But just driving won't help your cause. You will have to learn a few different tricks such as Crazy Boost (for speeding up) and Crazy Drift (for drifting, in case this was not clear). To perform various movements, you need to slide your thumb over the forward and backward buttons, which can quickly cause a lot of pain - but this pain can be put up with, because it is a lot of fun to perform the movements.
The gameplay of the game has not changed from the original Dreamcast, it has all the modes, including Crazy Box (completing certain tasks) and the cities of Arcade and Original. While playing, I went back to my younger days, when games were better, because SEGA still held out hope that new and creative games would put the Dreamcast in every home.
If you have never played this game, Crazy Taxi is crazy fun. On the street, dozens of eager passengers are waiting to be picked up, all color-coded to indicate the distance to their destination. The more trips you make and the faster you deliver them, the more money you earn. And money is what you need to become a world class taxi driver.
Crazy Taxi has almost no depth, but that's fine. It's an old-school arcade game, the kind of quarter-eating game. It can be addictive, even if it looks old and a bit shabby, and the game looks like something out of your dad's basement. I love Dreamcast games, but poor Crazy Taxi is starting to show its age.
Even though SEGA made the game "HD-ish", it still doesn't look good on the big screen. Don't expect some superbly detailed remake. The game was made to play on modern TVs, but not to look very pretty. However, appearance doesn't matter if you just want to hang out with an old friend. Oh, Crazy Taxi, it's been so long.
But it's missing one very important ingredient that kills the nostalgia - and that's really the only reason to spend money on this outdated download. SEGA had no problem overpricing this remake, but didn't want to spend money to renew the soundtrack's licensing agreement.
Indeed, in Crazy Taxi it was necessary not only to go fast, pick up fellow travelers and then rush to your destination in order to get a solid reward. The music was an important part of what made Crazy Taxi so special. The Offspring/Bad Religion mix was as memorable and important as the crazy skids and new shortcuts. And while I hate The Offspring in any other context, I absolutely adored them when Crazy Taxi was playing on my Dreamcast. But there is no Offspring or Bad Religion here. There's just a bunch of shitty obscure punk bands that have nothing to do instead of a couple of cult bands.
It's rare that a soundtrack can ruin a video game. But here it happened. Perhaps if you've never played Crazy Taxi before, you can still enjoy this game a little. In the end, you won't know what you've lost. Fans will immediately understand what is missing, and the loss of music will destroy half the reason to pick up Crazy Taxi again.
Verdict
The Dreamcast ports are nothing more than fanservice. But I would say that Crazy Taxi is more of a fan service. It's no big deal that some branded stores have been left out (bye bye, Kentucky Fried Chicken), but music is really important to Crazy Taxi. You can still have fun here. The essence of Crazy Taxi is still there, and at its core, it's still an enjoyable game. It just won't satisfy those who cared in the slightest about the latest SEGA game console.
