| Now
that Sega has announced a February 1 release date for Crazy Taxi,
it no longer seems like some distant promise -- it seems more like a real,
tangible, and exciting soon-to-be-released Dreamcast game. Crazy Taxi
is especially exciting because it returns to a gaming age of old -- fast-paced,
colorful games with loads of character instead of the humorless simulations
and first-person shooters we've kind of gotten used to.
Crazy
Taxi's premise is very simple. You drive around San Francisco (Sega
swears it's not San Francisco, but we live here, and believe us, this is
San Francisco --and the taxi drivers are indeed crazy) and pick up passengers.
Taxi drivers refer to passengers as "fares," and you'll treat yours with
just as little respect. All you're interested in doing is getting to the
fare's destination as quickly as possible. If that means bending a few
laws or ignoring a few street signs, then so be it.
The
gameplay feels somewhere between Driver and San Francisco Rush.
The handling of the various cabs errs on the side of arcade-y rather than
realistic. You may take the role of one of four cab-driving lunatics --
Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena or Gus -- each of whom has a slightly different cab.
Passengers will flag you down and demand that you get them where they want
to go. The trick is to not only get your passengers to their destinations
but to impress your passenger with mad skillz, stunts, and retarded shortcuts
that way you'll earn a bigger tip. Shortcuts in Crazy Taxi are
even more insane than those found in Rush. You can drive through
a beach, scattering sunbathers, or leap from the top of a parking lot.
The amount of air you catch seems to be inversely proportional to the size
of your tip -- so what the heck? Take the aerial route whenever possible.
Technically,
the conversion from Naomi arcade hardware to Dreamcast will look largely
flawless. Sega hasn't been lazy here though, and several enhancements are
being made to ensure this isn't just a rehash of the arcade game. That
means a brand new soundtrack, with real, vaguely trendy bands like The
Offspring and Bad Religion. The whacked-out voices and screams will hopefully
stay the same, however.
The
graphics, as far as we can tell, are identical to the arcade game. We're
sure there will be the odd compromise here and there --the Dreamcast just
doesn't have the RAM that Naomi does -- but there shouldn't be any really
noticeable downgrade. The gameplay is the key here, though, and after extensive
play of the coin-op, we can assure you that this is one of the most fun
driving games ever. We can't wait for the DC version, and thankfully, we
only have a few weeks till it's here. Yeehah!
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