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Crazy Taxi 3 (PC) Review
Date of Review: Jun 20, 2004
The Bottom Line: In the end, Crazy Taxi 3 is a fun game that is worth sitting down and playing occasionally, but is by no means excellent.
(Note that this review refers to the PC version)
In Crazy Taxi 3, you are a cab driver out to make as much money as you can in the limited time that you have. You can cruise around one of three available cities picking up passengers and dropping them off at their destination for cash. In addition, you will earn tips for driving close to other cars, going off huge jumps, and doing other crazy stuff. You will also get extra time to drive if you drop your customers off quick enough. When time is up, depending on how much money you have earned, you will get a license. If you do well enough to obtain a class S license (earning $5000), you have beaten the level and the credits will roll. However, the real goal of the game isn t beating the level, but rather in consistently improving your run to obtain the Crazy license (earning $20000).
Here is the breakdown:
Presentation
The Good: The menus are all clean and well organized.
The Bad: Instead of putting the control and some video/audio options in the game itself, they opted for a config. program instead. These options belong in the game itself. In addition, the arrow that directs you on where the customer wants to go is sometimes misleading because it assumes you always want to stay on the road. Perhaps a second arrow that points to the absolute location would be helpful. One glaring error is the absence of a tutorial to practice the crazy dash, crazy drift, etc., which are essential to perform at the top level.
Gameplay
The Good: This is where all the games in the Crazy Taxi series shine. It is amazingly fun to drive around the city and do crazy stunts while the customers are cheering in the back seat. The levels are HUGE so there is a lot to explore.
The Bad: The Crazy X mini-games aren t really that much fun. They are only useful as a quick diversion in between breaks of trying to break your high score in the main game. Also, the Glitter Oasis and Small Apple levels lack ingenuity. The design of the original West Coast level surpasses these two newcomers.
Graphics
The Good: For the most part, the environment and characters are all colorful and interesting to look at. The animations of the customers are well done, as well as the animation of destructible objects.
The Bad: The character models and other graphics really don t look that impressive, but even on my high end computer I experienced some slow-down. An especially annoying aspect is the motion blur they employ on the Glitter Oasis and Small Apple levels.
Sound
The Good: They did a great job selecting the soundtrack for the game. The tracks include songs from Pivit, The Kings of Nuthin, Total Chaos, and more. It s cool that they didn t include big name bands, giving other artists some exposure. All the songs really helped enhance the feeling of the game.
The Bad: The terrible voice acting gets annoying after a while. Some of the comments the customers make are funny, but they are few and far between. A few of their remarks are even misleading, such as them saying Turn left when their destination is directly to your right. Even the main announcer s voice eventually gets old.
Replay Value
The replay value of Crazy Taxi 3 for most people will be modest at best. You can really get as much as you want out of the game, though. Most people will not have the desire to master the same three levels repeatedly, but it will always be fun to cruise around every once in a while. The Crazy X mini-games do not do much for extending its value either.
Concept
Honestly, it feels exactly like the first Crazy Taxi game, with the exception of picking up multiple passengers and the crazy jump. Hopefully, if they make future versions of this game, they could include some sort of story line or multiplayer to help freshen it up. Also, some type of level editor would be great, although I would imagine it would take a long time to create an enjoyable level.
Overall
In the end, Crazy Taxi 3 is a fun game that is worth sitting down and playing occasionally, but is by no means excellent.
3.5/5
::Mike OrangeLazarus.com A cool and refreshing blend of the best on the web.
