Crazy Taxi 3
Crazy Taxi 3by Sega of America, Inc.
Platform: Xbox
ESRB Rating: Teen
ASIN: B00005YDNZ
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From the Publisher: Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller brings breakneck speed and wild automotive action to America's Playground! Get behind the wheel with one of four new characters, each with their own trademark attitude and a new set of wheels. Throw out the rules of the road to make it big, with wackier customers, devious shortcuts, and even crazier driving moves. Cruise around popular locations in and around the city on a quest to amass the highest amount of tips. Whether it's making crazy money in Glitter Oasis, conquering the new batch of minigame challenges, or trying out new tricks in the old stomping grounds of the West Coast and the Small Apple, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller guarantees the best odds to beat the house.
Customer Reviews:
A ton of potential, but not a lot of energy, November 9, 2002
Reviewer: Lisa from Massachusetts
Crazy Taxi 3 might have seemed like an awesome, whatever-you-want driving game if only GTA3 and GTA: Vice City had not come along. Against Vice City, Crazy Taxi 3 seems like a small mini-game.
Crazy Taxi 3 does have nice graphics, as you drive through 3 cities that approximate San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York City. Each city has its own personality, and you get to choose from a handful of taxis (and drivers) for each city.
In essence you grab a fare and have to take the fare to their destination. You rack up cash for doing so and the more fares in a row you can do, the better. There are also an assortment of minigames like 'jump through the flaming hoops' and 'pop the balloons'.
It this had come out say 3 years ago, the driving-whereever-you-want would have been amazing. The fact that you could just cruise the streets, plowing over sidewalks, taking shortcuts and looking at the nice graphics would have been great. Unfortunately for CT3, something else came along - Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto HAS taxi missions, with the same earnings and time limits. But in GTA, that is but one tiny part of a huge gameplay system. And when you don't feel like doing timed missions, you have the luxury of driving anywhere you want, in any car you want, and exploring the world you have.
You can say that GTA3/GTAVC is for the PS2 and Crazy Taxi 3 is for the XBox. But what does that mean? That because they were programming for the XBox, Crazy Taxi 3's developers could only put out 1/20th of the game? At least if they were going to solely concentrate on taxi-like things, they could have put in more cities, or more taxis, or more missions, or something. But the game comes across as an arcade port (which it was) that didn't have a lot of energy behind it (unfortunately). What they put out as a 'complete game' is something the Grand Theft guys kicked out as a fun little side toy. I am a HUGE HUGE fan of arcade games, and also a HUGE fan of driving games, so I really had high hopes for this. But unfortunately the game turned mindlessly repetitive too quickly.
I'm disappointed that the PS2 has the Vice City/GTA3 shining as their 'driving in a city' showoff and that the XBox can only hold this up as a comparison. It's time for the XBox developers to take the brilliance behind Halo and show us that they CAN have a Vice City like incredible experience on their platform.
Summary: Fun for a short while, but not something that grabs you for weeks or months.
Not as good as the original 2 for Dreamcast, November 4, 2002
Reviewer: ulitimatetoolfan from Seattle, WA USA
Not quite as good, as Crazy Taxi for Dreamcast, but seeing as how Dreamcast is dead, the Xbox's only Crazy taxi is a must have, if nothing else as a tribute to the Original.
Not Bad, copuld be better, October 14, 2002
Reviewer: A gamer from North Scituate, RI USA
It's alright no big suprises, XBOX control scheme slows you down a little.
Everything from the first 2, with much much more!, October 7, 2002
Reviewer: Bryan from Omaha, NE USA
If you've never played a Crazi Taxi game, you've really missed out. If you have, you know how much fun they are. Well, if u liked either of the first two, I can promise u that you'll like this one. It packs it all in. Here goes:
One thing you'll notice about this game is that the controls are just like previous Crazy Taxi games (right trigger go, left trigger stop). You stop in a customer's circle, he hops in and you take him to his destination. Speedy, nice tip. Normal, good tip. Slow, bad tip. You can pick any of 12 Taxi drivers, and drive your Taxi in any of 3 locations. Either one: the coast (from the first game), two: The Big Apple (second game), and third: the new Glitter Oasis. Make as much money as possible, and you'll get a license (either A,B,C,D,E, and or F). Drive for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. That's the game, now on to why it's so awsome.
Graphics: They're incredible. You really feel like you driving through a city, with beautiful buildings, scenery, streets, and cars. Sharp people and convincing worlds will give you the full expierience only Xbox can offer. There are hundreds of different people to pick up, and you'll notice your not picking up 3 people again and again during the run. I never see the same person in a run. It's weird. It's almost like really being a Taxi driver in New York City.
So, if you have a craving for more of the same great Crazy Taxi, with old and new people, envirements, and outstanding graphics, Crazy Taxi 3 is for you. An Xbox exclusive, a must buy for all current (or future) Xbox owners. Excellent game Sega, now on to Crazy Taxi 4! (*lol*)
Crazy Taxi is back and better than ever!, October 6, 2002
Reviewer: fjdmpd from West River, MD USA
Before I begin, I have to say that I loved the first Crazy Taxi in the arcade and on Dreamcast. It was an extremely fun game with great graphics, sounds, and controls. A year later, Sega unleashed a sequel onto the public in the guise of Crazy Taxi 2. In retrospect, I think I was harder on it then I should have been, but the controls did not feel right and it was not that much fun in comparison to the original. I was not sure if I would like Crazy Taxi 3 that much (considering how disappointing the last one was), but I was so happy to find that this is the series best installment yet.
The first thing that surprised me with this game was with its much improved controls. The game engine feels closer to the first game than the second, which is a good thing. All of the tricks you need to learn become second nature after a while. The Drift Hop, which I labeled "absolutely useless" in Crazy Taxi 2, is actually easier to use then before, and I am eating my previous words: The Drift Hop is useful. Also, the carpool feature spent some time in the shop. This fixes another problem I had with CT2. The radar is not confusing anymore, so you can now carpool with ease. Thanks, Sega!
Graphically, it looks nice, but most other next-gen consoles could pull this off with relative ease. However, there are some impressive touches, such as your taxi's headlights and the city lights at night. In the sound department, the game is a treat with good sound effects, music by the Offspring, Bad Religion, and others that perfectly set the pace of the game, and good voices. With the sound, however, I do have couple complaints. One, I wish Sega would have enabled a Custom Soundtrack option, although I really like the music here, so I am just nitpicking. Second, I wish that some of the voice actors from the first game would have reprised their roles for this 3rd incarnation (all the voice actors from CT2 are in this game). I really say this because I loved hearing Kent Frick as B. D. Joe, and he does not sound quite as good anymore. As I said above, though, I am just nitpicking here.
As far as features go, this game has a plethora of them. You get the arcade course from the first Crazy Taxi, the Small Apple course from CT2, and a new course, Glitter Oasis. This course is really great and just as fun as the older courses. In addition, the older courses have undergone some changes. This means that there are more locations to take passengers to and the CT1 course received a face lift. It now utilizes the jump feature allowing you to jump on top of buildings, cutting your times even shorter than before. In addition, you have the Crazy X mode. Much like the Crazy Box and Crazy Pyramid from the first two titles, these involve playing fun and inventive mini-games to unlock game features. One favorite game of mine is the Crazy Football game. You have to take the passenger to the end zone of a football field. All the while, cars, trucks, and 18-wheelers try to crash into you and knock you out of bounds (which, of course, makes you lose); it's a hoot. Furthermore, you can save your runs with replays (this is useful when you want to prove to a friend that you beat a very difficult challenge). Be warned though, some of these challenges are really hard, but the rewards are worth the blood, sweat, and tears.
The real star of Crazy Taxi 3, however, is the fun factor. This game is extremely fun and addictive; I could not stop playing it. The game is full of character and personality that will keep you smiling for many miles. I really loved this game. Sure any next-gen system (maybe even the Dreamcast) could handle the graphics, but who cares? This game is ultimate proof that gameplay and overall fun are much more important than graphics, resulting in one of the best games of the year.
Great fun and Difficulty, October 5, 2002
Reviewer: Donna L. Golden from Germantown, TN United States
I've been playing the game at target and toysrus and i really enjoy it. The object is to pickup customers and give them a wild ride; take them to the place they want to go to. It may not sound that interesting, but I can't explain exactly how fun the game is.
You will be hooked....., October 4, 2002
Reviewer: Jamie Ratliff from Texas
I have always loved Crazy Taxi on the arcade. I never had a PS or PS2, so I couldn't play it on a console. I was willing to buy it to play it, and wow, it is awesome. The game is fun to play, and even once you get tired of picking up paying customers, there are lots of bonus missions for you to accomplish. I think the game is 5 stars with a lot of replay value.
should I write something stupid here?, September 15, 2002
Reviewer: Gadget junkie from Atlanta, GA United States
Seems like everyone else does...
I played the hell out of the first, and I jumped at the chance to grab this one. It includes the first city, and adds two more. And the most notable change from the first is it adds a 'jump' button! You can jump on top of buildings, over cars, everything!
This is a very neat addition. Ignore the whiners who complain about this, that, and the other. This is a fun no-brainer game.
Didn't one reviewer complaian about not being able to pick up and drop off going full speed? What was that all about? Games do have rules, and that is one of the few this game has...
You'll be HOOKED!, September 3, 2002
Reviewer: A gamer from NY
Good!Great!Fantastic! Finally a game that has so much action that your Xbox will slow down on you. This is a true gamers game full of momentum and excitement. You can practically do anything you want with your cab (anything). Non stop action. Worth the expense!
The best game, August 27, 2002
Reviewer: Justin from LA, CA USA
Crazy Taxi 3 is still the only taxi that can break all the rules of traffic and physics. I thought Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 were super great, this is like 3 times better! The fire from the cars are pretty nice. And the graffics are so much better.
Even though this has only 1 new level and 2 levels from the previous Crazy Taxi levels, it's still the best. The 2 levels from the previous Crazy Taxi games is the Arcade level from 1 and Small Apple from 2. Both of these levels are modified. The level has more areas to drive and parts of it are a lot different. They look familiar, but the changes are good enough to buy this.
The Las Vegas level is very huge. There aren't any real locations in the real Las Vegas except Stratosphere Tower, which you can't drop anyone off. There is a desert, a lake, a dam (Hoover dam), a canyon, and a river. This level, you can jump from the dam or the canyon if you like to get major heights. It's a great level is all I have to say.
So people who enjoy the other Crazy Taxi games will love this one for sure, even if this game has the same levels. You won't be disappointed!
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