365//365: Day 357 – Crazy Taxi (360) [PP]

"Still as crazy as ever, though not quite the strong port."

The Xbox 360 has slowly become the rebirth of a generation gone by, with re-releases of some classic Sega Dreamcast titles. While Garou: Mark of the Wolves translated quite well, titles such as Sonic Adventure aged a bit poorly. The middle ground so far has to be Crazy Taxi, one of the premiere titles on Sega’s massively underrated platform. Everything seems a step off, from the controls that feel just a bit too loose, to the somewhat underwhelming sound bytes, right on through to the visuals that don’t seem to take advantage of a 720p boost. Just about every trademarked aspect of Crazy Taxi has been axed, and replaced by generic locales (no more Tower Records, which shut down half a decade ago). Perhaps the biggest crime to some is the removal of the iconic “soundtrack”, which has been replaced by a vastly more annoying set of two hipster tunes with no place in the franchise. While it doesn’t affect me much, as I frequently belted out my own tunes instead, it can be a sour point to a whole set of fans. As a whole, the gameplay is in tact, with the crazy traffic dodging, racing to get your fare to their destination in time, the useless mini game bits and so on, with controls that don’t want to steer you towards an easy ride down the congested hills of San Francisco. If you own a Sega Dreamcast and Crazy Taxi, stick with your unmolested copy. For those without any access to a Sega Dreamcast or an Xbox, which featured all three Crazy Taxi titles within the Crazy Taxi 3 package, if you have a bit of patience with the controls and a Zune laying nearby for your own musical selection, Crazy Taxi can and will offer you some wild arcade racing mayhem.

Offspring and product placement-less, Crazy Taxi also lacks as much command over your cab when compared to the Dreamcast incarnation.

Rating: 6.5