Today Brad and I buckle up and take the classic arcade game Crazy Taxi for a spin, a game we just learned was coming to iOS earlier this week. Crazy Taxi was one of those games that back in 1999, when 3D games were still fairly new in arcades and on consoles, was impressive for not just its visuals but its over-the-top style and driving mechanics.
Your goal was to pick up passengers and zip them to their desired location as quickly as possible at all costs. That means that any pedestrians or traffic that happen to be in your path better watch out, because the slower you are at shuttling passengers around the less money you’ll earn for your fare.
Crazy Taxi on iOS is a fairly straight port of the game that came to consoles beginning with the Dreamcast in 2000. You have the original Arcade level to play as well as an additional Original level that was part of the home console releases. Both environments look about the same, with similarities to San Francisco and Southern California, but each has slightly different layouts. You also get the Crazy Box mode which is a set of challenges to complete to break up the normal fare-toting play of the main mode.
If you have warm fuzzy feelings towards the original Crazy Taxi then this iOS version should make you feel right at home. It even features the soundtrack from the original game, which was strangely absent from the most recent re-releases of the game. Crazy Taxi should be hitting the US App Store along with the rest of this week’s scheduled releases tomorrow night, so keep your eyes peeled for it.
