Review of Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller for Xbox Publisher: Sega
Developer: Hitmaker
Genre: Driving
# Of players: 1
Wait! This isn’t another port of the original Crazy Taxi? I’m stunned beyond belief after the PS2 and Gamecube ports, both of which were inferior to the Dreamcast version. Now the long-awaited sequel finally comes out, and it’s exclusively on Xbox. This version features new cities, new minigames, and new cabbies, while keeping the gameplay from the first two intact. Unfortunately, everything old is still old, so if your not a huge Crazy Taxi fan (or never played it before), this game really offers nothing new, even if it is pretty much what I’d describe as the definitive Crazy Taxi.
Graphics:
Well, all three cities look nice and everything animates fairly smoothly (in the very simple Crazy Taxi style of animation, anyways), but I’m kind of surprised because while this title in no way taxes the Xbox’s hardware, there are rare occasions where there is just massive slowdown. But there is no
glitching or pop-up, and everything just looks real smooth overall.
Sound:
Well there’s a much wider selection of music, but in my opinion, the only decent songs on the soundtrack are by Offspring, so you may want to listen to some cds instead (how about a custom track feature, what a good idea that would be!!!!!). The voices all sound like the same generic males or females whether it’s football players or marching band players and they all yell the same annoying pointless directions.
Gameplay:
Well, while the controls are all right, this is the first game where I have truly felt the need for either a Dreamcast or Gamecube controller in order to massively improve my ability to play. As for as the in game goes, collision detection is great (unlike say, Simpsons Road Rage which to rip off Comic
Book Guy had the “worst collision detection ever”), and all three cities have pretty good variety to them. And while the jump button is nice, the fact that you can’t turn in mid-air limits it (no it’s not realistic, but this is a game where the wilder you are, the better tip you get). And while there is a much bigger selection of cabbies, few of them have any real personality or drive differently enough; they really should’ve kept it to 6 max. Could also use a quick 180-degree turn button because that would make
turning around a lot faster. But the real big improvement is the “Crazy X” mode, which replaces the “Crazy Pyramid” mode from the previous version with tons of cool and interesting minigames many of which are brand new.
Features:
Well, the 3 cities and Crazy X mode are cool, but where the hell is the competitive mode this game so desperately is screaming for? And again, since this is supposedly an Xbox exclusive, why not make use of the custom track feature (especially since only one other game does)?
Funfactor:
Despite its shortcomings, this is really the ultimate version of Crazy Taxi, and it’s really fun perfecting driving like a total maniac, with more than enough to keep the player busy for a while. But again, I really think that a 2-4 player competitive mode (like who can get the most money or complete the
Crazy X tests the fastest) would’ve been added a lot of replay value and a new dimension to a somewhat stale series.
--Final Scores—
Graphics: 7.0-Everyhting looks nice and smooth, but this isn’t top notch, and yet there are some rare occasions where the game just chugs.
Sound: 5.0-You’re better off listening to some of your own Cds
Gameplay: 7.0-Controller issues and too many cabbies, but nice variety of cities and Crazy X games more than make up for it.
Features: 7.0-Minigames and 3 cities is cool, but where’s multiplayer?
Funfactor: 7.5-If you’re a Crazy Taxi fanatic, or by some miracle have never played the series before, you should definitely pick this up, for others though, it real doesn’t offer enough to warrant blowing $50 on what would probably be a $20 add on for a computer game.
7:18:07 AM 
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