Price: £39.99

Players: 1-2

Crazy Taxi. is an arcade racer that began life in that very dwelling. The premise is simple: drive around town, pick up fares, drop them off, then move onto the next unsuspecting punter. Each time they have a time limit. The sooner you arrive, the more cash you'll score. Some people will also pay more than others. When you stop, your fare will tell you where to go and a picture of their destination is shown. A green arrow will appear atop the screen and if you follow it you'll get closer, although note that it doesn't always point out a direct route. When you're nearly there, the arrow turns yellow and eventually changed to red before zooming off and pointing out the place the stop. If you can't see it after that, then you are the proud owner of a white stick. If you have to get to where you're going by not quite sticking to the roads, then so be it. You can drive into the parking lot and jump off the first floor, cruise down the railway line or underwater and I even managed to replicate John McClane in Die Hard with a Vengeance when he drove along the interstate, saw what he wanted was on the road below and just took off from the side of the road to land down below with a thump. At the start of game, choose from the original or Arcade tracks, then one of four drivers each with their own attributes - I tend to stick with Gus as he seems to get about the fastest - and then choose whether to play for 3, 5 or 10 minutes or as long as you can manage before running out of time, the latter not being particularly easy as you get extra time for picking people up and doing the right thing, but I never managed to get beyond four or five punters this way.

I haven't played the arcade machine but it's a safe bet that it only contained the main game and not the nine sub-games that are also included in the PS2 version in which speed is of the essence and they either base themselves around trying to get from A to B in a set time with only one passenger, or doing something similar with several customer drop-offs and pick-ups, plus a game where you have to perform a jump off a long slope that takes you over 150 metres in length. It took me a few times before I managed it, but I'm reliably informed that Crazy Dashes and Limit Cuts are the way to go here. You almost get the feeling that real taxi drivers don't have to take a proper test - they just have a go on this for the afternoon before being let loose on the roads. The graphics are fast, furious, colourful, fun and absolutely gorgeous. That's the best way I can describe the graphics in Crazy Taxi. As you drive about the speed of the game is mind-blowing and it runs like lightning. There's some very slight pop-up as you drive along and something rather odd happening when you see future customers walking through cars or other solid objects to get you, but there's nothing to compare, when you drive down very steep streets (say that quickly after a few pints) while playing on a 32" widescreen TV, to give that perfect stomach-churning effect of feeling in danger. The sound is the only let-down in this game, although sonic effects were never a driving game's strongest point. The rock music from the Offspring is loud and energetic, but repetitive - despite All I Want (the one that begins "Ya! Ya! Ya! Ya! Ya!") being a favourite of mine - there's the usual rev of the engine - albeit useful when determining if a "Crazy Dash" has worked, while the dialogue is basic with customers shouting at you when you get it wrong and miss their time limit, or complimenting you when you do your job properly and one of the male passengers sounds like Beavis and Butthead's elderly next-door neighbour. The handling of the car takes a little while to get used to and I find it's easier to perform tight turns by using the D-pad and not the analogue joystick, so tend to use that throughout most of the game. There's also special moves to consider such as the aforementioned Crazy Dash and Limit Cut which will take some time to perfect. At times, if you get involved in a crash it's not always easy to tear your way out of it if there are several cars involved and the time continues to tick down...

Hints and Tips A personal tip I have: when you drop someone off, as the camera spins around, try to spot another fare waiting to be picked up. Thanks to The Great Cthulhu from uk.games.video.dreamcast for his advice on Crazy Dashes and Limit Cuts : When you start before you accelerate,put the car into R then straight into D and accelerate if you get a fast start (no wheelspin) that's a Crazy Dash (CD) (the engine pitch goes up real high). Use the same principle when you are moving, it works easier when you are moving at speed. Let go of Accelerate, shift into R, straight back into D then floor the accelerator. Make sure your finger is completely off the accelerator when you shift from D to R and back to D, it's really all in the timing. Practice doing them from a dead stop then you'll know if it's working or not and you'll get used to the engine noise that you should be hearing. A Limit Cut is a CD straight after a CD, you need to do the second (or third, fourth etc) CD just before the previous CD winds down, once again you need to learn what noise the engine makes. This should be all you need to know,it's basically a matter of timing, then practice, practice, practice........... If you have the Dreamcast version, click HERE for the review of that version which includes a load of cheats for that console.

Overall, what the game needs is improved physics around the town. I loved Microsoft's Midtown Madness (that's the last time you'll hear me praise anything from the Gatester) and the cars should have actual damage inflicted upon them when hitting something and the ability to cause a pile up on the interstate whenever you feel like it. I've give anything to be able to drive round the centre of Manchester like a madman too if they could arrange it for future sequels. The important question is: how does this compare to the Dreamcast original? As far as I can see it's identical. It plays just as fast an frenetic and is as much fun with no slow-down at all. Of course, if you already own a DC and this game then there's no need to buy it, but if not then I'd plump for the PS2 version because, at least in my house, it's the one of the two consoles that's plugged into the mains a lot more often.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.