- Pretty faithful arcade
translation
- Sharp, colorful graphics
- Lots of fun to be had in short spurts
- A three-in-one package make the ultimate Crazy Taxi experience
- Only fun in short spurts
- Too hard to perform CRAZY moves
- Repetitive tunes
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Crazy
Taxi 3: Highroller
Score: 7.2 / 10
Last time I played Crazy Taxi was in 1999
when it appeared in the arcades. It pulled more than a few dollars out
of my pocket but I didn’t give it much thought afterward even when it
and its sequel appeared on the Dreamcast (or when the series showed up
on GameCube and PS2). Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller (CT3) is about as near
an exact replica of the original arcade game with the addition of two
other areas: Small Apple and Glitter Oasis. This is a blessing and a
curse.
The Crazy Taxi series has always been about picking up customers and
taking them from point A to point B, taking available shortcuts to
complete the task before time runs out. Essentially, CT3 is an amalgam
of the first two games (with some minor alterations) and capped with a
new city to roam. In this way, it’s a little like Tony Hawk Pro Skater
2X, which contained the first two Tony Hawk games with updated graphics
and few new skate parks. Unlike THPS2X, CT3 doesn’t seem to offer any
graphical upgrades. It looks almost
identical to its original 1999 incarnation. Call me crazy, but after
three years a graphical overhaul might have been advisable. (And what
about body damage?) But at least it’s consistent – the cartoony look
fits and it moves smoothly almost without exception.
Probably CT3’s greatest asset is the choice to play under regular rules
or in 3, 5 or 10-minute
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frames. The 10-minute mode isn’t quite as
good as a full-fledged free-roam mode but it does allow more exploration
of the environments than playing under the regular rules. Playing under
the regular rules gets repetitive. You start to fall into a routine
after a few run-throughs as you discover the most profitable fares. Some
of this could have been avoided with three or four random starting
points instead of one. This is during the regular play mode. Accessing
the Replay menu and entering a Crazy Drivin' sub-menu allows starting
from different points on each map, but why it's buried under the Replay
mode makes me scratch my head.
Maybe I’m an isolated case, but I had problems with the control. More
specifically, I had problems performing any CRAZY move with consistency.
CRAZY moves include a burst of speed, turning sharply, etc. underlined
by twin streaks of flame coming from the back wheels. Making effective
use of the CRAZY moves is tough for a few reasons. There’s no practice
or tutorial mode. It was only through trial and error (even after
studying the manual) that I was able to perform any CRAZY moves. There’s
also a fundamental flaw with the manual stating that buttons have to be
pressed simultaneously to perform the moves when in actuality the button
presses are a split second apart. This fact makes for some frustration
when you can’t break fast enough at a delivery point – CRAZY stop! CRAZY
stop! Damn you! – to get paid and get a few more seconds added to the
clock. Performing CRAZY jumps/hops is a simple button press so why
couldn’t the other CRAZY moves be executed in the same way? Say, hold
down a modifier button and direction like SSX Tricky? All that being
said, most of the CRAZY moves are for expert gamers and the basic
controls are easy enough to grasp that anyone should be able to pick it
up and play. (After all, CT3 has an arcade heritage and there aren’t
many arcade games that have complicated controls or instructions.)
The music hurts my ears with its repetitive repetitiveness. Every Xbox
game should be able to play music from the hard drive. I’ve got nothing
personal against Offspring or Bad Religion but after hearing the same
tune four or five times in ten minutes I turned down the music to barely
a whisper. The sound effects and the constant comments from your various
passengers are all well done especially when you have four passengers
and you’re sailing off the top of a hill. There is one exception. The
“narrator” is entirely annoying. Imagine a deep raspy voice aiming for
falsetto saying, “CAAAAA-RAAAAAZZZY TAXI!” over and over. And his
summary of your performance doesn’t change much either.
As driving passengers to their destinations tends to grow a bit old
there are a variety of CRAZY-X challenges. These can be quite
challenging/frustrating – mostly because the more advanced ones require
a firm handle on CRAZY moves. Some are just fun, especially one
challenge that tasks you with delivering a customer while avoiding an
onslaught of cars tossed at you by a tornado.
I haven’t mentioned anything about the three levels, but they are worth
a review of their own. All three environments are huge, detailed, and
full of color. A free-roam mode would have been nice since sometimes you
just want to drive. But beyond ferrying people around – admittedly the
whole point of the game – there’s not much to do. A few straight vehicle
challenges for extra cash would have a good addition to the environments
instead of separate in the challenges – nothing like Grand Theft Auto
III’s vehicle play but maybe a race against three other cabbies or going
through drive-thrus to collect a number of meals -- along the lines of
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions -- would have livened things
considerably.
Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller had the opportunity to add new features to the
Crazy Taxi mix but instead relied on the tried and true formula of the
previous games. That’s not to say it’s not enjoyable or that it’s a bad
game – it is very easy to pick up and play for enjoyment in short spurts
– it’s just average. If you want the definitive Crazy Taxi game, this is
it. And if you missed the previous games it's a good look at what all
the fuss was about. All others find another ride.
