Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller

"Not really a 'Director's Cut', more of a 'Greatest Hits'"

Many people say Crazy Taxi 3 is a lot like the 'Director's Cut' of Crazy Taxi. While I CAN see where this is coming from, a more accurate term would be the 'Greatest Hits' of Crazy Taxi. I say this because, unlike what 'Director's Cut' implies, this does not have everything. It only has the best of everything.

Gameplay: 10/10
It's Crazy Taxi. Refined. If you've ever played Crazy Taxi 1 or 2, you know what you're in store for. Drive around, pick customers up, and drop them off, not necessarily in that order. It's most like Crazy Taxi 2, with the 'Crazy Hop' move still implemented, as well as multi-part fares.
As I'm sure you've heard by now, this Crazy Taxi incarnation contains the levels from the first and second games of the series. This is half right. The game contains three cities you can do your insane driving in; West Coast, Small Apple, and Glitter Oasis. West Coast is the 'Arcade' level from the original Crazy Taxi. It's been highly revamped, however. About half a dozen new stops have been added, and there is a lot more freedom. Unlike the original, you can now jump atop the building's rooftops, and into the Ocean that grazes along at some points. Small Apple is taken straight from Crazy Taxi 2, with only a slight graphical upgrade. Glitter Oasis is the newcomer, based on Las Vegas, you'll find yourself cruising down a makeshift Strip, and through some midwestern canyons.
All of the drivers from the previous two of the series are in here, but at first, can only drive in their home towns. There is an un lockable goodie that will change this, however.
But sadly, there were some omissions. The 'Original' level, my personal fav, was not brought over with it's 'Arcade' companion. And the 'Around Apple' was also left behind in Crazy Taxi 2.
Now for the mini games. Crazy Taxi had it's assortment with the 'Crazy Box', and CT2 sported the 'Crazy Pyramid'. As expected, this one contains a new set called the 'Crazy X'. A total of 25 mini games arranged in an X pattern. Yes, this probably was some form of irony on Sega's part, being this was released on the X-box. Unlike previous ones, secrets are unlocked sequentially. If you beat all the 1x-level mini-games, you'll unlock one secret, if you beat all the 2x-level mini-games, you'll unlock another, so on and so on.
The gameplay is almost perfect for a game like this. There is a learning curve, even for players of the previous Taxi's. But nothing that would take horribly long.

Graphics: 6/10
The graphics aren't all that much better than those we saw on Crazy Taxi 1 for the Dreamcast. The character models and cars have only been slightly improved. Pop-up and Draw-in are still major issues which plague this series. The graphics do have their high-points, though. For one, the addition of headlights. Since Glitter Oasis, and the re-mixed Small Apple both take place at night, they added highlights to your car. Actually, they added good lighting effects to everything. Nothing jaw-dropping, but still noteworthy. Overall, these graphics just aren't up to par with what the X-box can produce.

Sound: 7/10
Everything from the previous Crazy Taxis. The same voice-samples all over, the same sounds that traffic makes[or doesn't], and the same sound of sparks flying when you flip over an SUV by ramming it.
The music is also brought over. The same 6 or 7 tracks from the first two Crazy Taxis are brought over, but are level-specific. You'll only hear the songs from the first CT in West Coast, and not in Small Apple or Glitter Oasis, and vice-versa. Of course, with the addition of a new city, we need new music, right? Yep, 6 or 7 more new tracks to drive along to in Glitter Oasis. If you like Offspring or Bad Religion, you'll like the music. But, it will get repetitive after a while. If only Sega used the X-box's soundtrack feature. But hey, ''If it ain't broke, don't fix it.''

Controls: 9/10
I pretty much went over this with Gameplay, but I'll do it again.
The controls are identical to CT2. A/B switches between reverse/drive, respectively. Y does the crazy hop, R accelerates, L decelerates. Nothing terribly complicated, which works perfectly for a game like this. A trick that I can't see documented in the instruction manual, but have seen elsewhere, if you push down on the right analog stick, it will turn off/on the headlights on your car. Useful if they get too annoying in Small Apple, or Glitter Oasis. My only complaint is when doing the Crazy Dash, they upped the delay between hitting B, and hitting R, so it took some getting used to. Despite what the manual says, it's NOT a simultaneous push of these buttons.
I've heard some complaints about using the X-box's controller. To these people I say ''Get a Controller S.''

Replay: 7/10
It's as replayable as Crazy Taxi 1. But a bit more. Completing the Crazy-X will take you a while, getting Crazy's in all 3 cities will also tax your time. But beyond that, that's it. No multiplayer, which Sega still needs to add in. But I've always found this a good small party game. But without being able to name yourself on your high score, when you make a record, it will get meshed in with all the others. They really should've added in naming on the high scores, that's what really took this category down. Maybe if they had added 'Original', and 'Around Apple', this would've had more replay.

Total: 39/50, 8/10
Rent/Buy/Pass-by: Rent

If you like Crazy Taxi, you'll like this. If you've never played it before, this would be a good chance to try. If you didn't like the previous games of the series, or nit-picked on all it's weak points, well this probably isn't the game for you, then.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/02, Updated 07/25/02