Really car-azy or just plain cabbage? Future Gamer take a look at Sega's latest arcade-to-home port.
Andy Ashwin

Never heard of it. Anyway, I drank too much port over Christmas.
Oh dear. We're talking 'port' as in a conversion. You see, Crazy Taxi is a really popular arcade driving game, whereby one drives a taxi in a less than sensible manner. It runs on Sega's NAOMI board, which is essentially the same as the guts of your Dreamcast. This makes the conversion of the game for home use a relatively simple task.

I see. So why is the game so popular?
One word - fun. You won't find any of your 'realistic fizzics' nonsense with Crazy Taxi; no sir. This is mindless arcade tomfoolery at its very best. Whizz around a beautifully realised city, pick up 'fares' and take them to their destinations in the shortest time possible, causing mayhem en route. You'll earn cash for getting there on time and also for being crazy. Weaving in and out of oncoming traffic can earn you tips from a thrill-seeking punter, but put them in grave danger and they'll more than likely refuse to pay. Of course, in reality all cabbies are excellent drivers who make their money by taking the longest route possible.

Sounds mint. I can see how that works in the arcade but won't it get a bit dull after, say, 20 hours of play?
As with Namco's Dreamcast port of Soul Calibur, Sega have added a host of extras to keep us amused. As well as the standard Arcade mode, Dreamcast owners will be treated to an exclusive Original mode, featuring a whole new city. There are also four car/driver combinations to choose from, although we found that they all handled pretty much the same. Furthermore, there's a bunch of mini games to test your driving prowess. We've counted eight so far, including an insanely difficult long jump (we don't get any instructions with such early code - that's our excuse anyway).