Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller

"CT3 is awesome!"

Welcome to my first video game review at Gamefaqs.com. I am a huge fan of the Crazy Taxi series, so I just had to do a review of this game, Crazy Taxi 3 for the Microsoft Xbox.

Crazy Taxi 3 is a game in which you must pick up passengers and deliver them in the time limit as fast as possible, but you don't have to follow the normal rules of the road in doing so. You can break the speed limit, knock over other vehicles, drive on the wrong side of the road, and even jump over buildings.

The gameplay gets a solid 10/10. The gameplay is almost perfect in this edition. Crazy Taxi 3 has the same gameplay as the first 2, but with the hop ability that was added in Crazy Taxi 2. There are three levels available in this CT3: West Coast from CT1 inspired by San Francisco, Small Apple from CT2 inspired by New York, and introduced in CT3, Glitter Oasis inspired by Las Vegas. West Coast still remains the most fun, and is even better now with the hop ability and multiple passengers features added. Small apple is okay, but inferior to Around Apple from CT2, which was an enjoyable course. Glitter Oasis is another good level to play, but is too rural for my tastes. Most of the time playing is spent in the desert. I would have liked for them to add the other level from CT1, Around Apple from CT2, and an alternate version of Glitter Oasis to this game. But even so, Crazy X mode makes up for this. Crazy X is Crazy Taxi 3's version of Crazy Taxi 1's Crazy Box and Crazy Taxi 2's Crazy Pyramid. While some of the objectives are similar to past games, like Furthest Jump and Crazy Bowling, others are very original such as Crazy Football and Crazy Tornado, but many of them are just delivering the customer to the destination within the time limit, but add obstacles to make them very difficult, especially the final ones in which you must deliver so many passengers in a certain time limit that spans the whole course. But again, those were in previous games. The only problems with the gameplay are that there should have been more levels, Crazy X is very similar to past games, and there is no 2 player mode, which could be done, because there's one in Simpson's Road Rage, which is a similar game.

Graphics get a 8/10. The game has better graphics than the older games, but the graphics aren't what you would expect from an Xbox game, but when a game is this fun, graphics mean nothing.

Sound: 6/10. I'm not very fond of the music in this game. Most of the songs were in the previous games, so I've heard them so many times. There are some new tracks, but some are plain horrible. The one that starts ''Have you been to the desert, have you walked with the dead?'' is just terrible. This would have been the perfect game to include custom soundtracks in. Usually when I play, my game lasts over an hour, so I'm forced to listen to the same couple of songs over and over. It would have been great to be able to listen to some Rob Zombie, Metallica, Nickelback, Puddle Of Mudd, Our Lady Peace, Breaking Point, Drowning Pool, etc., instead of The Offspring, Methods of Mayhem, and Bad Religion. they better add the feature if there is a Crazy Taxi 4.

Control: 10/10. There is absolutely no problem with the controls. They are incredibly easy for beginners, and very easy to master. Since the Xbox controller is nearly identical to the Dreamcast's, the control remains the same as before. The only new thing is that the white button changes the arrow from the way to get to the destination by taking streets to the way you get to the destination by using shortcuts. The greatest thing about this game is that the one problem from before has been fixed. On the DC controller, the R button was really tight and hard, so pressing down repeatedly to do Crazy Dashes over an extended time would give me a blister between the top and middle sections of my right index finger.

The game gets an overall 9/10 from me. Despite graphics that aren't up to par, and a bad soundtrack, the incredible gameplay and control helps to earn it a 9. Heres hoping for a Crazy Taxi 4!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/29/02, Updated 07/29/02