Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Crazy Taxi delivers a high-octane arcade racing experience built around one simple premise: grab a passenger and deliver them as quickly (and recklessly) as possible. Right from the start, you’re dropped into a sprawling cityscape teeming with civilian cars, pedestrians and tight alleyways. The game’s loose driving model encourages you to drift around corners, launch off ramps and even skim across sidewalks to shave seconds off your route. There’s no health or damage meter, so you can crash as often as you like without penalty—only your timer matters.

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The core Arcade mode sets a ticking clock that only resets when you pick up a new customer. Passengers are color-coded—green for long hauls with bigger fares, yellow for medium trips, red for quick hops—and each ride spells extra seconds on the clock when you succeed. The frantic urgency of racing against both the city’s traffic and your own dwindling timer ensures every moment feels tense and exciting. Pull off a “crazy drift” or “crazy boost” by timing your gear shifts just right, and you’ll shave precious seconds off the journey while earning bonus tips.

Beyond the classic Arcade rush, Crazy Taxi offers multiple modes to keep the action fresh. Original mode dials down the timer pressure for a more measured pace, while Crazy Box challenges you with objective-based mini-games—think parking challenges, stunt checkpoints and target pulls. At the end of each run, your performance is rewarded with a driver’s license grade (D through A, with S for near-perfection), giving clear goals for repeat play and mastery. Four distinct cabs and drivers are available, each with unique speed, handling and tip-earning quirks, letting you select a style that suits your risk tolerance.

Replayability stems from the simple joy of perfecting routes, discovering hidden shortcuts and chasing higher scores. Every city block offers multiple paths, secret ramps that launch you onto roof tops, and often a surprise underwater tunnel to bust through if you’re brave enough. Whether you’re gunning for a belt-buckling S-rank or just looking to rack up coin for bragging rights, Crazy Taxi’s tight controls and wildly varied courses keep the gameplay loop fresh and addictive.

Graphics

Visually, Crazy Taxi embraces a bright, cartoonish aesthetic that matches its over-the-top gameplay. Buildings pop with exaggerated angles, pedestrians flail in comical modes when you brush past, and cars boast bold color schemes. This stylistic choice not only looks great at speed but also ensures important elements—like upcoming ramps or busy intersections—stand out clearly, making split-second decisions easier.

The city environments are packed with detail: blinking neon signs, splashy downtown fountains, cluttered street markets and even a beachfront complete with palm trees and vendors. Each route feels alive, with dynamic traffic patterns and pedestrian flows that force you to adapt on the fly. Though textures may seem dated by today’s high-definition standards, the overall design remains charming and functional, helping you focus on your next jump or drift rather than lawn-mowing every polygon.

Performance across platforms generally holds steady, with smooth frame rates ensuring your high-speed maneuvers never stutter. On more powerful hardware, you’ll enjoy improved lighting effects, crisper textures and faster load times, but the core visual appeal remains intact even on lower-end systems. Occasional pop-in can occur in particularly dense areas, but it rarely disrupts the frantic flow of pickups and drop-offs.

One standout feature is the memorable soundtrack, featuring punk-rock anthems from The Offspring and Bad Religion. These catchy tunes not only amp up the adrenaline but also fit the rebellious spirit of flouting traffic laws. While the Xbox 360 version omits these licensed tracks, alternative scores still carry the same driving energy, making every chase sequence feel like a burst of electric fun.

Story

In true arcade fashion, Crazy Taxi offers very little in the way of narrative. You play as one of four unruly cabbies, each with a quirky personality and distinctive attitude, but there’s no overarching campaign or cutscenes to follow. Instead, the “story” unfolds through your own exploits: the near-misses, hair-raising shortcuts and triumphant rides when you beat the buzzer by a hair’s breadth.

This lack of structured plot is by design—it keeps the experience focused on pure gameplay thrills. Your motivation comes from the city’s vibrant setting, the rush of the timer, and the escalating tips you earn for stunts and speedy deliveries. Each driver’s bio hints at a larger world—there’s an ex-racing prodigy, a thrill-seeking gearhead and a daredevil stuntman—but these are more flavor text than actual storyline drivers.

While some players may miss a traditional narrative arc or character development, Crazy Taxi’s anarchic world-building more than compensates. The city itself feels alive, with hidden shortcuts that tell their own stories—an abandoned subway tunnel here, a collapsed pier there. Discovering these secret passages becomes a form of emergent storytelling that rewards exploration and creativity.

Ultimately, the “story” you experience in Crazy Taxi is the one you write: the time you squeezed through a half-inch gap to reach a customer, the leap you made off a rooftop ramp, the perfect run that left you teetering on the edge of S-rank glory. It’s a sandbox of vehicular mayhem with you in the driver’s seat.

Overall Experience

Crazy Taxi remains one of the most exhilarating arcade racers ever made, marrying simple controls with wildly dynamic courses. Its pick-up-and-play nature makes it perfect for short sessions when you need an adrenaline boost, while deeper challenges and multiple modes offer hours of replay value. The risk-versus-reward timer system instills a constant sense of urgency and encourages experimentation with shortcuts and stunts.

The game’s vibrant visual style and pulse-pounding soundtrack combine to create an atmosphere that’s equal parts nostalgia and pure fun. Even if some textures look dated by modern standards, the core design decisions ensure clarity at high speeds and maintain a cohesive, energetic world. Licensed punk tracks (where available) inject authenticity and drive each delivery home with added gusto.

While Crazy Taxi doesn’t boast a traditional story mode, its character roster and hidden city secrets craft an emergent narrative that feels more personal and replayable. Each run is a new story, a fresh challenge, and the pursuit of that shiny S-rank never grows old. Whether you’re a casual gamer seeking quick thrills or a hardcore time-attack enthusiast, the game offers levels of depth and mastery suited to all skill levels.

For anyone craving a break from methodical sim racers or realistic street-driving titles, Crazy Taxi is an absolute must-play. Its relentless pace, open-ended courses and addictive scoring mechanics have aged remarkably well. Climb behind the wheel, slam the gas, and prepare for a wild ride through the neon heartbeat of arcade racing.

Retro Replay Score

7.6/10