Crazy Taxi
Crazy Taxi is a series of video games, developed by Hitmaker and published by Sega, first released to arcades in 1999. The success of the arcade version prompted Sega to release the game on their Dreamcast console in 2000. It was the fourth best-selling game on that system, selling over a million copies. The game was later ported to the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and PC with sequels also appearing on Microsoft Xbox and Game Boy Advance systems.
About the games
The object of the game is to pick up passengers and transport them to their chosen destination in the shortest possible time, you should be careful of vehicles and/or anything else that can slow you down. The player is not required to obey traffic laws, and the vehicles take no physical damage. Unlike many driving games, which are essentially set on an invisible, fixed track that cannot be escaped, the city of Crazy Taxi is realistic and navigable, and is laid out similar to an actual city (in the case of the original's arcade map, San Francisco). The city also has realistic traffic patterns that vary as time passes, which provide a large amount of the game's challenge.
The game begins with a time limit, typically 50 seconds, which is extended by picking up passengers (the amount of the extension depends on the distance the passenger wishes to go) and by dropping off passengers quickly (a "speedy" delivery earns five extra seconds, "normal" earns two). After picking up a passenger, a green arrow on the screen points out the way to go, and the destination is ringed by a flashing green border. Longer fares are worth more money, and the player receives bonus tips for performing jumps, near-missing cars, drifting, and getting to the destination quickly. The player’s score is measured in the income he or she earns before running out of total time.
Crazy Taxi has a distinctly American feel, with such taxi stops as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. It also includes a strong soundtrack from punk rock bands The Offspring and Bad Religion.
Design
In an era where arcade games are becoming more expensive and shorter in duration, Crazy Taxi is notable because it is possible, with practice, to play for a long time on only one credit. The degree to which this is possible is often startling to novice players; first games tend to be finished after a couple minutes with a couple customers, but experts can often play for over half an hour. "Awesome" and "Crazy"-ranked scores, at $10,000 and $20,000 in game fares, seem impossible at first but with practice are quite feasible, and the world record score for the arcade edition registered with the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard is $106,184.94, achieved by J.C. Padilla, of Orlando, FL, on August 27, 2001. Crazy Taxi has no "continue" feature, making it impossible to reach high scores by buying repeated game extensions.
One interesting note about the design of Crazy Taxi is that while there are hundreds of potential passengers to pick up and deliver, there are only a limited number of fares in the game. While the various passengers scattered throughout the city randomly turn on and off as time goes on, once one is picked up he is gone for the rest of that play. This means during a long game it becomes harder and harder to find new fares, thus extending the timer, which imposes a hard limit to the length of play.