Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride

"I think I'll take the subway..."

While some games may need more time to develop, a developer can only wait so long before a game is released, despite gameplay problems or inconsistencies, graphical glitches, loss or lack of features, or even technological limitations. Fable was released after delays without several promised features, but it fared very well, for example. No amount of time, however, would have prepared it for Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride.

The Crazy Taxi series, developed by Sega and Hitmaker, has always been a fast, adrenaline-pumping arcade driving rush with impressive draw distances and framerates. When the speed is knocked down, the draw distance is drastically cut, and the framerate trips over itself to stay functional, it is a mediocre version of what so many people like about Crazy Taxi.

Instead of being a completely new game from the ground up, like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the GBA, Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride is a scaled-down version of the arcade and Dreamcast game. Essentially the game entails selecting a taxi driver and driving various fares around to places scattered around a large city. The faster and riskier the driving, the bigger the bonus received by the fare upon reaching the destination. If the fare doesn't get to where they want to go, they hop out of the car.

The general play concepts are the same, but also simplified. Instead of having two separate buttons for each gear shift, both Triggers can be used to switch between "Drive" and "Reverse". This makes certain maneuvers a lot easier, but it is far too easy to accidentally press one of the Triggers, expecting it to change just one gear.

Catch a Ride features graphics that are impressive for the GBA, but are not good enough to let the game function. The game attempts to handle a streaming cityscape, along with flat sprites representing the taxi, its driver, and the fares. Every texture is a repetition of the same texture. The framerate stutters to keep up with such an environment, and is left for broke, even with the addition of a load time.

The taxi sprite looks quite good, and is fully rotatable, but looks almost out of place with the rest of the sloppily-rendered environment. Additionally, the fare is invisible upon being picked up, which is really quite strange.

Cities in Catch a Ride are strange, to say the least. Nearly all buildings feature the same texture. When driving through the city, it is hard to discern any geographical differences. That is, except for certain stops, it is hard to tell one building from another. The road is simple to see, but the water is simply one plain blue abyss.

To extend replay value, the "Crazy Box" is a special mode to help hone the skills of potential crazy drivers. Various mini-games are set up, and were great additions to the Dreamcast version. Drivers will have to pull off some impressive stunts in order to complete the goals, like pop balloons, do some impressive driving maneuvers, pull off combos, and more. However, with the oversimplified game mechanics, the games are extremely difficult to play.

Aurally, the game features the same voice quips from the Dreamcast version, where are impressively compressed. It can still be funny to hear the sarcastic drivers taking it out on their hapless passenger. The music is completely original, and while there is some good guitar and drum work being played, the loops are only four to eight measures long. Driving sessions can last as long as ten minutes. It can become rather tedious, as one might imagine.

I still pull out my Dreamcast every once in a while to get my adrenaline pumping with Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2. Crazy Taxi is even available on the PS2 and Gamecube, and there has been a third game released for Microsoft's X-Box. However, the impressive technology of Crazy Taxi can not be handled by a Gameboy Advance, and while the effort is definitely commendable, the game's shortcomings are not enough to impress a potential player, casual or seasoned. There are a select few of good driving games available for GBA, but this is not one I consider to be one of them.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/05, Updated 12/01/05