|
We all remember the first time we laid eyes on Crazy Taxi. For the fortunate, it was in an arcade, seeing a gloriously huge cabinet with giant screens and a steering wheel, shifter, and pedals. In all likelihood, the next words out of your mouth were "I wanna play that!" While Crazy Taxi was never anything close to revolutionary, it was one of those great embodiments of a larger-than-life gaming experience. Sporting vibrant and colorful graphics, a wildly adventurous city, a surprising level of depth, and even in-game advertising before we all hated that, it remains a beloved symbol of joyful arcade gaming.
Fast forward almost a decade later, and the latest version in the series lands on your PSP. Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars is actually two games in one - Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2, a pair of titles originally seen back in the days of the Dreamcast. To be sure, that's a lot of stuff packed into a single UMD.
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars is mostly a fan service to devotees of the series
|
If you're unfamiliar with the two games on their own, they're incredibly similar in style, with the biggest different between the two being the latter version's more polished visuals. In either case, the object is simple – simply pick up passengers and drive like a complete lunatic to get them to their destinations on time. There are also some nifty mini-games in the Crazy Box and Crazy Pyramid modes, which involve all sorts of wild events such as ski-style long jumps, hurdles, and so forth. In the days before Grand Theft Auto, doing all this in a living, breathing 3D city was damn near the coolest thing ever. Nowadays, though, it's remarkably hard to stay very interested in keeping up the pace for more than a few minutes at a time.
To be fair, both games are solid ports of the originals, down to the bright and vibrant visuals, bouncy gameplay, and frenetic pacing. The controls are a little tough to come to grip with, though, as the lack of a shifter on the PSP caused Sega to make a strange choice. Instead of using a more traditional approach of an X button to accelerate and square (or even left bumper) to go in reverse, the face buttons control the gears of forward and reverse while the bumpers handle the gas and brakes. Naturally, this takes more than a little getting used to. In addition, sometimes it feels like the cars just aren't steering in the directions you are, creating some frustrating moments when trying to get out of tough spots.
The most glaring weakness, however, is its overall graphical stability (or lack thereof). There's a ton of pop-in resulting in an atrocious draw distance, as the UMD can't really keep up with the speed of your driver. Large buildings randomly appear nearby as you turn corners or head across ramps. Even worse are the occasions when the entire road just disappears for a few moments, and you're left wondering just what you're exactly driving on.
The biggest addition to this port is multiplayer, which actually works well in the Crazy Taxi setting. While I wasn't able to test out the ad-hoc features, the easy-to-use "pass it around" approach of choosing your drivers and competing head-to-head against a buddy was by far the most enjoyable experience to be had. It can definitely get tense when you're desperately trying to beat your friend's score by getting one extra passenger or make that extra super-jump combo over a passing double decker bus. Good times, indeed.
Ultimately, Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars is mostly a fan service to devotees of the series. While it can be great fun in multiplayer, single player experiences are short-lived bursts at best, and after a few jaunts around the city you'll likely be done playing on your own. Even without some of the visual issues, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend it to someone who's not a longtime fan of the series, especially since you can get this game and about a zillion percent more in either of the Grand Theft Auto PSP titles. Sega hardcore followers should check it out; the rest should just take the bus.
|
