Chaos Taxi is not Crazy taxiBut it tries to be, and it succeeds in some important ways, while it fails completely in many others. Take this as a warning: don’t buy Chaos TaxiBut if you do, I can help make the game a little bit better.
I understand why some people power be tempted to buy Chaos Taxiespecially if you are like me, a fan of Sega’s fantastic Crazy taxi series. It’s been over 12 years since the release of the latter Crazy taxi game (I don’t count that moderately mobile spin-off games), and the last entry was a gateway from the arcade games to the PSP. So a possible knock-off can be tempting
But it costs $ 30, which is way too much for a game so small and clunky. A price of $ 10 or even $ 15 would be more reasonable. Yet something good is buried beneath the bad.
The driving is the real star of the show, and to honor the developers behind it Chaos Taxi, they usually nailed it. Weaving through game streets that are not in New York City feels nice. You can even do a big rabbit hop, which I don’t remember being in Crazy taxi, but it’s a cool and useful move. Anytime I came across a big mess of cars and buses I could just jump over it. It almost felt like cheating, but it also saved me time. And in Crazy taxi…I mean Chaos Taxi, time is money.
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Chaos Taxi looks nice too. It works pretty well, at least on my Xbox Series X. It has stylized visuals that work perfectly for a game that fast. There are some pop-in texture issues and plain-looking buildings in the city that stand out, but there’s nothing terrible.
However, this game has one of the most annoying dialogues I’ve ever come across. And it repeats. Over and over and over and over. During a session, I heard the same line repeated four times. After playing for just 20 minutes, I’ve heard every line of dialogue in this game at least ten times. Plus, it has awful generic “rock” music, a small map to drive, and only two boring drivers to choose from. This comes down to make up Chaos Taxi feels like a super cheap budget title.
If you buy anyway Chaos Taxi (which you shouldn’t), here are my tips to improve your experience. First, lower the sound levels for in-game music and dialogue to 0. Then play Offspring or Bad Religion with your favorite music streaming service. Suddenly, Chaos Taxi becomes more playable. Still not worth $ 30, but better.
Of course, you can also save $ 20 and the XBLA port of Crazy taxi, which costs only $ 10It lacks some of the original music and doesn’t look as good as Chaos Taxi, but it is backward compatible on Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S and is a much better game.
And who knows, maybe when a lot of people buy something Crazy taxi, someone at Sega will remember how popular the series is and let a studio try to make a new, real one Crazy taxi game Until then, I think I’ll play more Taxi Chaos.