Crazy Taxi 3
by Sega Of America, Inc.
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: Sega Of America, Inc.Platform: Xbox
Publisher: Sega Of America, Inc.
Product features:
- Platform: Xbox
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Genre: Driving
Video Game Reviews of Crazy Taxi 3
Customer Review: TO SPEED UP IN A FLASH, DO A CRAZY DASH! God...
Summary: 3 Stars
If for anything else, you can count on the Crazy Taxi series for quick, easily accessible fun. Give the game to someone who's never played a game since the first Tetris iteration, and they'll have a blast in no time once they get the controls. Give it to a strict racing fan, and they'll even admit o having fun playing a not so racing racing game. When the first Crazy Taxi came out almost 10 years ago, I didn't know what to make of it- you got paid to drive around town, flipping cars, disobeying the road laws of all U.S. cities, and even driving under water? Sign me up! But I never liked driving games outside of the first Mario Kart, so I was 50/50 on the whole situation. But the second I played it, I knew that I had to have the game. It's pure arcade fun at its finest, and I'm glad I got it when I did. But a few years later, when the Dreamcast was on its last legs, a sequel came out. Not many bought it for various reasons, but to me, it just didn't look like much. One city opposed to the DC's two (the original Arcade level, and one made just for the DC), the addition of picking up and dropping off multiple passengers at once, and a jump feature? Doesn't sound like much of a sequel, but a small upgrade. I didn't buy it, or play it until I picked this one up- Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller for Xbox. CT3 didn't do very well at all, like most Sega games for the system. By that point in time, people had moved on to other games, or just lost interest in the series. Not one to give up on something that started out great, I ended up buying it when I learned that the first two games were included, and that this new city for CT3 was huge. CT3 is a good purchase if you liked the first Crazy Taxi, but it's far from perfect in many ways.
I don't know who hasn't heard of Crazy Taxi by now, but here's a simple summary: you pick a car and driver, then drive around town picking up people and taking them to their destinations, like taxi drivers do. You have a time limit to do this, as well as one base time limit for your gameplay. What I mean is, you can pick someone up when you have 50 seconds, but that person can have a 20 second time limit before they give up and not pay you for taking too long. If you get them to their destination fast, you'll get a few seconds added to your base time limit. That's about it- drive around and make money until time runs out. There's no real way to "beat" the game aside from getting a high ranked license once your time's up, but even then, all you get are credits, no real ending. The first Crazy Taxi game has you driving around the streets of a town in California. The second has you in a town modeled after New York. And the third has you in a small portion of Las Vegas more or less. Passengers come in different forms- some have a red dollar sign over their head, showing that you won't get much money. That color changes to yellow for a moderate amount of money, and then to green for the most. So to get a good score, try to go only for the green marked ones. But keep in mind that their destinations are usually the ones farthest from where you pick them up (naturally). Included in all 3 games here is a jump feature, making it easier to avoid traffic when zipping around town. It also nets you some extra bonus cash in the process. There are some tricks to attaining higher money, like speed boosts pulled off by hitting reverse, then drive quickly while slamming on the gas. Your cab's tires will practically explode and you'll get a great boost, almost ensuring you to get to your destination on time. There are 4 different cars and drivers for each of the 3 games, each with their own minor differences, but nothing too much. Handling, maneuver, things like that vary depending on who you pick. That about does it for the actual game- it's easy to get into, and that's something that many games don't have these days.
What goes wrong with the game, are tiny nitpicks. The jump feature makes the game almost too easy since you can easily leap over trucks and any other obstacles in your way. Physics, something I normally don't care about in games, is just messed up here. You can be driving around, pulling off drifts one second, then be tossed around like a rag doll the next when you bump into a curb. The first Crazy Taxi game had this problem, and to see it prominent in both sequels, as well as STILL in the first game with this new port, it shows me that there were shortcuts taken in the programming process. Anyone who played the original Crazy Taxi will know what I'm talking about when I mention getting stuck in walls and other fantastic aliasing problems that should be fixed by now. There's no rewarding in mastering the gameplay- if you've mastered one Crazy Taxi, you'll have no problem getting through the others you haven't played. Of course, this isn't entirely true- the first two cities have been redesigned slightly to make use of the jump and multiple passenger features. Remember trying to make it onto the roofs of some buildings in the first game? Now you can, and it's actually worth it, but not as rewarding as you'd hope. The graphics are also worth noting as a negative- the third game, made seemingly just for the Xbox, looks like a Dreamcast game no matter how you look at it. It makes no use of the Xbox's hardware, which is a crying shame. Slowdown from the first games are still here too, making me wonder why they even bothered throwing them in in the first place. And get this- the voices of the cabbies, at least in the first game, have been changed. No more great Gus voice acting- he now sounds like a generic mugger for hire. The controls will also still give you a hard time, as usual. Basically, if you've never liked the Crazy Taxi games, CT3 isn't going to help change your mind. At least the game has mini-games to fall back on. Those were something that kept the fans coming back, though I can't say that I enjoyed them much myself. Also, why the hell wasn't a custom soundtrack feature included? I love Bad Religion and all, but listening to the Offspring mixed in with them nonstop gets grating fast. I'd often turn off the volume and play something on my stereo instead. Crazy Taxi is an ideal game for the custom soundtrack feature. Finally, the original level made just for the Dreamcast is missing from the game. That was a fantastic level, and it's sorely missed. Why not include it when you include the first two games and their drivers as well?
Visually, everything looks about the same as you remember it. Maybe slightly sharper, but nothing noticeable. Loading times are actually slower than the Dreamcast's for some reason, the slowdown's still here, some jaggies, and more. But, the game usually runs smooth, and generally looks good. It's just a shame no upgrades were made in the graphics department. Again, as I've mentioned, the voices have been changed, and the soundtrack is still all-Bad Religion and Offspring. If you don't like those bands, you're screwed. I won't get into an argument over music taste here, but you can't mix a great band like Bad Religion with a generic ponk band like the Offspring. It's not right.
I'm not mad with my purchase of the game- I still have fun playing it every now and then, but I'm glad I never bought it when it first came out for full price. At this point in time, it doesn't look like a new Crazy Taxi will be coming out, so you may as well catch up if you haven't tried the series out now. Just keep in mind that most of the games are the same, and that they were made for arcades. So don't expect some in-depth racing simulator or anything of the sort.
Description of Crazy Taxi 3
Cabbies, fire up your flashy rides, you're going to the Glitter Oasis. The glitzy strip is loaded with high rollers with money to burn and no time to waste, and you know what that means - cha-ching! In Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller for the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, you'll rocket your fares through and around the popular sites of America's Playground with hair-raising shortcuts and maniacal maneuvers to score the big tips. There are 4 new crazy drivers who attack the roads day and night with the no-fear attitudes you've come to expect from this wild ride series. Be prepared for hilarious interactions with quirky customers, such as groups of bunnies, can-can dancers, boxers, skateboarders and more. You can even take a spin through the revamped city streets of the Crazy Taxi West Coast course and the Small Apple course from Crazy Taxi 2, where you'll find new shortcuts and maneuvers.All Games
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