Games We Can't Forget #1:
Crazy Taxi

In this new ongoing series, the OXM staff reminisces about the long-lost games that lifted our spirits, fired our imagination, and cemented our love of our dearest hobby. They’re the games we’ll always remember — the games we can’t forget.

“Yeah yeah YEAH YEAH YEAH!”

If you’ve ever played Crazy Taxi, that Offspring song (“All I Want”) is ingrained in your head — and it'll be there forever. It repeats incessantly throughout the game, and it’s a mantra for what is, in my eyes, one of our industry’s greatest creations.

My first exposure to the game was on the Dreamcast, a system I still miss sometimes. For me, that system was Crazy Taxi, in that I owned dozens of Dreamcast games but almost always loaded up that one beloved disc.

You remember the game, right? On the surface, it was ridiculously simple: as one of four cabbies, you’d drive through a virtual metropolis, picking up passengers and taking them to their destinations. Because you were constantly on a timer, you’d have to race like crazy through the city, dropping riders at their stops and picking up new fares to add seconds to the clock. If the clock ran out, the game ended — at which point you were presented with a license that reflected how well you did.

And man, I’d do anything to earn that treasured Class S license…or, for truly magnificent driving, an Awesome License or [cue shining beam from heavens] a Crazy License. In Crazy Taxi, colliding with other cars simply slowed you down — no damage! — and pedestrians always dove out of your way, so you could haul serious ass over lawns, roads, and freeways without an ounce of guilt. It was all about pleasing your passengers and winning their compliments, or even a high-five, when you made a Speedy delivery. (Funny how, in real life, I dread high-fives, but god, how I craved them in Crazy Taxi. Slap my hand, fella — please!)

What’s more — well, I don’t know about you, but I’m a pretty impatient gamer: I rarely read manuals and hell no, I’m not taking the time to learn special moves or button combos (unless I’m reviewing the game)! But I practiced Crazy Taxi’s Crazy Dash like a madman until I could pull off multiple Dashes with ease, burning down the street like a big yellow blur. It was almost stressful, steering that out-of-control cab — but the voices of Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena, and Gus calmed me down. When Gus told a fare to “relax,” I did, too.
 
And even so, I think that whole out-of-control feeling was exactly what the developers wanted you to feel. “I just don’t want to be controlled,” sang the Offspring — and that’s what Crazy Taxi was for me: unfettered, unhindered driving bliss. Hurtling through the city at breakneck speeds and pleasing people in the process. Wow, was it cool.

Yeah yeah YEAH YEAH YEAH!

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NOTE: If you’ve never played Crazy Taxi and want to try it — or if you share my sacred memories of the coin-op and/or Dreamcast versions — you can track down the original-Xbox game Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller for as low as $10 used. This sequel contains a modified version of the first Crazy Taxi that adds a jumping ability and some visual effects (like the Crazy Dash flames shown below) but is essentially the same classic original game. Regrettably, CT3 isn't backward-compatible, so you can't play it on Xbox 360; but it's a must-have for every original-Xbox owner.