A Brief Look Back at Crazy Taxi (1999) Today

Crazy Taxi was an arcade game developed by Hitmaker and published by SEGA released in 1999 in which you drive a taxi, very poorly around a big city, dropping people off at their desired destinations. The more reckless you drive without hitting any cars or walls - the more money you make (just make sure you get your passengers to their desired location in a speedy manor!) Crazy Taxi was ported to many consoles over the years such as the Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and even Mobile Phones. The version I’ll be revisiting today is the Dreamcast version running through true 480p VGA.

If you grew up in the 90’s through to the 2000’s, just by reading the title of this article, you probably already have ‘All I Want’ by The Offspring playing in your head. I know, for me at least, whenever anyone merely mentions Crazy Taxi, I instantly get ‘Yah, yah, yah, yah, yah!’ playing in my head. (Sadly, for people who didn’t play the Dreamcast or Arcade versions, you might have received a copy with a different soundtrack - and Crazy Taxi without the Offspring is a half-hearted experience.) That iconic song is likely the first thing you hear when you start up a go of Crazy Taxi. The premise is simple, get as many people to their destinations within their own time limit, driving as stylishly as you can before the main timer hits zero. It’s simple, yet addictive.

Crazy Taxi is the type of game that makes you want to try one more time to beat the score you got last time. Between those last minute parks to drop off your customers to the intense ramps that get you over heavy traffic or even watching customers jump out of your car if you're too slow, SEGA really brought the power when they released this classic game. The console ports also include an extra mode called Crazy Box, in which you need to pass certain challenges like popping all the balloons on a small map, navigating your passenger through winding narrow roads or even playing bowling with your Taxi - trying to get a strike by ramming your taxi into 10 giant pins on the road. Either mode you play, Crazy Taxi is a game that’s fun to play to this day, on any console and a highly recommend title for anyone craving that retro arcade type gameplay.