Crazy Taxi 2

"Okay, where'd the fun go?"

In a time where a taxicab knows no boundaries...in a time where hapless civilians willingly put their lives on the line to reach their destination in a prompt and reckless manner...in a time when Sega was bringing arcade titles over to the Dreamcast, we had Crazy Taxi. Cut to a little while later and the sequel lands with mixed reviews, mostly because the game defies likeability and pure hatred in one fell swoop.

On the surface, it seems you can't go wrong with this game. After all, it's the sequel to the frenzied original, with two new city maps, new drivers, and new crazy challenges. It just falls short in a few key areas.

I flipped a coin and it landed on its side, so I'll start with something positive and work my way from there. It is Crazy Taxi. That's a fairly big positive, so let's expand on that. This game takes the very simple premise of driving a cab and turns it into a crack-infused ride of mayhem and vehicular manslaughter. There are no rules in this death-defying version of "Little Johnny gets his Driver's License." Signal lights? Lines on the road? Roads? Unnecessary! This isn't a simple matter of driving on the sidewalk. This is cutting across town at a hundred miles an hour on the wrong side of the road, sideswiping cars by mere inches, and all the while your passengers scream and cry and sometimes laugh as you cheat death again and again.

To put it even simpler, you pick up passengers marked by colored circles in various locations, then take them to their destination before time runs out. Be quick about it and additional time will be added to your score, in addition to a higher payoff. That's the only real goal in this game, after all, to make money. Well, that and to go nuts in an indestructable taxi. And maybe to scare a few pedestrians on the way.

The sequel expands a little on the original, letting you pick up multiple fares at once rather than a singleton. Often there will be multiple people in a fare circle, and it's these you want to watch out for, since they provide the big pay-offs. Unfortunately, they will also want to be dropped off in different locations upon occasion, and you only receive payment upon releasing the last passenger. This wouldn't be so bad if, after driving across the city and back five times, you reach the destination circle a second or two late and your entire fare is denied because the last guy refused to pay. On the other hand, it can be a windfall if you manage to rack up a solid tip by doing some stunt driving and actually making it in time.

The stunts are what give life to the game. After all, if there were no reward from taking off the side mirror of a car going the other way, why bother driving in the first place? Besides the money, that is. Aside from the tip bonuses you get from driving close to other cars (a greater bonus is given if they happen to be going in the opposite direction as you) Sega has implemented a 'jump' feature into this game. This lets you hop over cars, onto buildings, and gives you the ability to reach places that were once only accessible through ramps and trick jumps in the previous game. These new areas lead to shortcuts that can get you to a destination faster than you thought possible.

The thing is, the game gets too dependent on these shortcuts. There's almost no way to score big if you stick to driving the city streets, and making it worse is that some areas of the maps aren't readily accessible by shortcut. So you can hop all you want, you'll still have to race through rush hour to get your fare. It's this basic design flaw that hurts the game, since if you happen to pick up the wrong fare that just happens to want to go to a section of the map that just happens to be closed off except by road, you'll lose precious time receiving a payment that doesn't reflect your efforts. Even worse, you're sometimes given insufficient time, as the location is technically nearby...if you were to remove the buildings in your way. This can lead to a lot of unhappy customers, which will in turn make you very unhappy.

While this can be a problem, it is alleviated somewhat by memorizing the locations of some shortcuts and how to utilize them properly. This still means you can be stuck with a fare that wants to go to a secluded locale with no quick shortcut, but the ones that are a little more forgiving can be turned into money machines thanks to knowledge of the maps and their secrets.

There's a downside to the jump as well, since with the inclusion of your own personal lift machine, you no longer have need of the various ramps and high hills that made the last game such a blast to just pick up and play. The maps are mostly flat, the only real height gained from your own induced jumping mechanism. It's a darn shame, and a shame that is only offset by the fact that I still play Crazy Taxi, the original.

Getting off on a tangent, Sega decided to bring back the Crazy Box challenges, except now it's more of a pyramid. Once again you're given various tasks that will examine your driving ability. At first they're basic tutorials of how to control your cab (jumping and such) but then escalate into weird and wacky tests of skill that have you doing everything from leaping hurdles using your new jump to dodging traffic on the narrow road with no room for error.

While it all sounds rather bad, bear in mind this is still Crazy Taxi at its core, which means the enjoyment gained from the original will transfer over to its sequel. The only question hanging is whether you can stand the changes done to the game. It still has its plusses, including the various and often humorous comments made by your passengers upon doing something particularly dangerous or impressive. There's still that frantic sense of speeding through traffic to get across town in under thirty seconds. And of course, there's still the challenge to get as much money as you can in the time given.

So what may make or break this game for you is its arcade nature. There's no greater goal than the seemingly old-fashioned high score. It's all about skill, quick reflexes, fast thinking and good driving ability. The reward is merely bragging rights. Nothing more, but then, sometimes you don't need a well-defined reason to play a game. Sometimes it can just be about having fun. After all, isn't that what it's all about?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/04