Number 63: Crazy Taxi, Sega 2000 (Dreamcast)
Intro:
The game starts with a simple "Press Start screen" and a simple list menu spiced by the items being slanted and a voice over that sounds like someone's cousin trying to mimic the actual game's announcer. The character select is simple, but as the first part pulled from the original arcade game it starts in with the original voice over, some simple music, and the first hints of the frantic and simplistic adreneline rush to come through the visuals.
Getting Going:
A player can play it safe and learn all of the modes of play through the "Crazy Box" challenges, the first few of which behave like tutorial missions. Most players will just dive in, and the game's arcade origins are clear: the first few fares are lined up near the starting point, and many of their destinations are just down the straight, walled in street the player is oriented toward at the start. Streets quickly become more branching and hazardous, and fares demand more varied destinations. The time limit can be very short for players with no sense of the controls or their destination, but most first-timers can get at least a few fares on their first try.
Fun:
The game's fun relies on it's arcade-style gameplay: play hard, smart, and fast to push the score up. The player MUST drive fast and dangerously to make even the most generous time limit, a feat made even more difficult by the slow traffic and the temptation to risk for a high tip. After a few play throughs, it is clear the game relies on beating high-scores, much like Tetris. Also similar to Tetris, the basics are dead simple to learn and enjoy while skills lead up to an ultimately organic bell-curve of potential. Despite the varying degrees of mastery, they lie merely in tighter controls and better knowledge of the map: the game's mechanics lack depth.
Visuals:
The world is bright, free of clouds, flat shaded, repetitive, and full of dull texures on obtrusive product placement. Seeing the same people over and over again, the same dull cars, and same flat building textures gets monotonous. This is broken up by the fact the different districts do have their own individual styles, and the architecture variation is a nice variation. It feels like the designers expected players to be moving too fast to notice and slacked off.
Intelligence:
There is apparently no intelligence in the citizens of Crazy Taxi's city. Cars ignore the player's presence, and fares and their locations are largely planned. This makes one feel that they are clearly playing a game.
Immersion:
The game's immersion is highly dependant on the game's needy pace. The game-play is as shallow as the visuals, and the music is very simple and energetic, as if the developers understood the pace and appearance of the game and found the perfect soundtrack for it.
Cameras:
A simple wall-riding third person floating camera. It does fine, considering few things are capable of get in the way. If something sneaks into the wrong position, however, the camera can jitter or fly to useless positions. The lack of control over the camera gets frustrating around blind corners and hills, especially when every corner promises more braindead traffic to interfere with the player's progress.
Control:
The controls are very, very simple. Players used to using the face buttons for accelerating and braking are very confused and frustrated by the gear shifting, considering the convention is to ommit such controls in favor of using the brake control as a reverse control when hit or held from a stand-still. Practice can make it comfortable, but any other racing game will ruin the carfully maintained muscle memory and force a frustrating need for retraining.
Ideas:
This game is a sugar-rush. The pure arcade rush this game delivers is second only to the original arcade cabinet, a title won at the sacrifice of any depth.
Memory:
A great way to blow off steam, but the lack of depth and free-driving fun of Grand Theft Auto has made caused it to age noticiably.
The game starts with a simple "Press Start screen" and a simple list menu spiced by the items being slanted and a voice over that sounds like someone's cousin trying to mimic the actual game's announcer. The character select is simple, but as the first part pulled from the original arcade game it starts in with the original voice over, some simple music, and the first hints of the frantic and simplistic adreneline rush to come through the visuals.
Getting Going:
A player can play it safe and learn all of the modes of play through the "Crazy Box" challenges, the first few of which behave like tutorial missions. Most players will just dive in, and the game's arcade origins are clear: the first few fares are lined up near the starting point, and many of their destinations are just down the straight, walled in street the player is oriented toward at the start. Streets quickly become more branching and hazardous, and fares demand more varied destinations. The time limit can be very short for players with no sense of the controls or their destination, but most first-timers can get at least a few fares on their first try.
Fun:
The game's fun relies on it's arcade-style gameplay: play hard, smart, and fast to push the score up. The player MUST drive fast and dangerously to make even the most generous time limit, a feat made even more difficult by the slow traffic and the temptation to risk for a high tip. After a few play throughs, it is clear the game relies on beating high-scores, much like Tetris. Also similar to Tetris, the basics are dead simple to learn and enjoy while skills lead up to an ultimately organic bell-curve of potential. Despite the varying degrees of mastery, they lie merely in tighter controls and better knowledge of the map: the game's mechanics lack depth.
Visuals:
The world is bright, free of clouds, flat shaded, repetitive, and full of dull texures on obtrusive product placement. Seeing the same people over and over again, the same dull cars, and same flat building textures gets monotonous. This is broken up by the fact the different districts do have their own individual styles, and the architecture variation is a nice variation. It feels like the designers expected players to be moving too fast to notice and slacked off.
Intelligence:
There is apparently no intelligence in the citizens of Crazy Taxi's city. Cars ignore the player's presence, and fares and their locations are largely planned. This makes one feel that they are clearly playing a game.
Immersion:
The game's immersion is highly dependant on the game's needy pace. The game-play is as shallow as the visuals, and the music is very simple and energetic, as if the developers understood the pace and appearance of the game and found the perfect soundtrack for it.
Cameras:
A simple wall-riding third person floating camera. It does fine, considering few things are capable of get in the way. If something sneaks into the wrong position, however, the camera can jitter or fly to useless positions. The lack of control over the camera gets frustrating around blind corners and hills, especially when every corner promises more braindead traffic to interfere with the player's progress.
Control:
The controls are very, very simple. Players used to using the face buttons for accelerating and braking are very confused and frustrated by the gear shifting, considering the convention is to ommit such controls in favor of using the brake control as a reverse control when hit or held from a stand-still. Practice can make it comfortable, but any other racing game will ruin the carfully maintained muscle memory and force a frustrating need for retraining.
Ideas:
This game is a sugar-rush. The pure arcade rush this game delivers is second only to the original arcade cabinet, a title won at the sacrifice of any depth.
Memory:
A great way to blow off steam, but the lack of depth and free-driving fun of Grand Theft Auto has made caused it to age noticiably.