"While it may not be Crazy Taxi, it's the closest thing to it. that's good."

Ah, Crazy Taxi. One of the best games ever, or so I've heard from all of my friends. Unfortunately I haven't played it yet, since I don't have a Dreamcast or a Playstation 2 until September 28. Recently a local arcade(the only one near me) re-opened, so I went to go check it out, hoping that Crazy Taxi was there. I walked into the arcade, but it wasn't there. Damn. Instead, there was a weird racing game there called Smashing Drive which involved you as a Taxi driver. It's the closest thing to Crazy Taxi, so I tried it and it wasn't a shameless rip-off that I thought it would be. This game really kicks ass.
Okay, now on to the review.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics in Smashing Drive are really good and up-to-date. The game goes at 60 frames per second(fps), without any sign of slowdown whatsoever. There is fogginess in the game, but it doesn't affect your performance since there is hardly any. The only thing that isn't very good are the character models. I thought that they would be more smooth, but instead they look like your average character model: a bunch of polygons in the form of a human. Man, for an arcade game, I'D think that the character models would look better. Fortunately, you only see them in the beginning and ending of every course. The powerups, as well as your taxi, have lots of good detail. For instance, with the ''Glider'' powerup, wings will pop out of the side of your taxi and it'll look like they've been there from the start. Plus, when you crash into cars, not only will they be damaged, but so will your taxi, and depending where you got hit as well as how hard you were hit, the damage will be on the right part of the taxi with the right amount of detail. So if you've been damaged in the front of the taxi, your hood will start to flap up and down for a second, it might even fly off!

Sound FX/Music: 7/10
The sound effects are well-done, possibly the best that I've heard in a while. The thing that I'm most impressed with is the sound of the powerup after you receive them. The ''Cutter'' powerup, for example, sound like two large buzzsaws, just like what they look like. The game sounds real, from the the crashes and your horn, to the screams of people and smashed terrain. The voice acting is quite average. Each passenger will say something in the beginning and end of the course, but it tends to get repetitive after a while. Sadly, the music isn't very good. It sound like techno-type song or something. I really couldn't hear it well since I was in a loud arcade.

Controls: 10/10
The controls are very good in this game. There is a gas pedal, a brake pedal, a steering wheel, and(of course) a steering wheel. Sometimes, you'll have to use different combinations with the pedals, like holding the gas and brake pedal then quickly turning left or right to do a sharp skid turn. Another cool thing is that you just have to hold down the gas pedal, since there's no gear changing in this game!

Gameplay: 10/10
Well, the gameplay's simple: Get to your destination in a time limit, failing to do so will make you lose. But, this is no Crazy Taxi, my friends. This is a RACE. Apparently, there's a rival taxi driver picking up another passenger with the same destination as yours. So, you have to get there first in order to score lots of points, as well as advance to the next race. In order to do this, you'll have to get there first AT ANY COST. If it means driving through malls, driving on airplanes, driving on the top of a suspension bridge at 80 mph, then so be it, because that's how you'll have to drive. But unlike Crazy Taxi, you can't go anywhere but the destination point, which means no heavy exploring. But to make up for that, you can collect some nifty powerups that will help you big-time. There's at least 7 powerups, such as:

TURBO-which makes you go faster
GLIDER-which makes you glide when you're airborne with a softer landing
REPAIR-which repairs your taxi 100% instantly
BIGFOOT-which enables you to run over cars with little or no damage
CUTTER-which lets you cut through some walls that weren't breakable.
and some other ones. Believe me, you'll need them to make your destination on time. AND, you don't even have to beat your rival, just get to the destination point on time, and you'll be able to get to the next race.

Challenge: 9/10
Unless you're a top-notch driver, you'll have a bit of a problem beating this game. You'll need to hit a lot of those powerups to make it to your destination on time, let alone beat your rival.

Fun Factor: 10/10
This game is fun. While it may not be as good as Crazy Taxi(I haven't played it yet), it's the closest thing to it. Trust me, this game is awesome. If you're not good at racing games, I advise you not to play this, because it will eat all of your money/tokens. But if you're not afraid of fun as well as losing money/tokens, then play this game, you won't be disappointed. Well, you might since everyone's opinion is different. Let's just that this game comes to the Playstation 2...

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/01, Updated 08/15/01