Crazy Taxi

Crazy Taxi is an arcade game about wild taxi driving that arrived on the GameCube as a port of the originally arcade title from Sega. The player drives a taxi around an open city, picks up customers and has to deliver them to their destination as fast as possible - with special abilities at hand such as the Crazy Dash for a fast start or the Crazy Drift for spectacular cornering at high speed. The riskier and faster the ride, the bigger the tip and the better the score at the end of the time limit, which motivates the player to drive ever more boldly.

The city in the game is full of shortcuts, ramps and dangerous maneuvers against traffic, which rewards the player for courage and knowledge of the routes rather than for careful driving, and experienced players gradually build up their own repertoire of favorite shortcuts between stops. A characteristic feature of the game is also a soundtrack made up of punk rock and rock tracks, which underscore the feeling of a rushed, adrenaline-fueled drive through a city full of traffic lights and roundabouts. The graphics are simple, but thanks to a high frame rate and clarity the game feels brisk and responsive, which was crucial for this arcade style of play.

Thanks to its originality and easy accessibility, Crazy Taxi became one of the iconic titles of the turn of the millennium and inspired a number of later open-world games with time pressure. The GameCube version allowed players to try out this popular arcade concept even outside arcades and without owning Sega's Dreamcast, on which the game had its home console debut. To this day, Crazy Taxi is remembered as a fresh and timelessly fun affair for short gaming sessions, ideal even for players who don't have time to finish more demanding games but still want to come away after a few minutes of play with a feeling of improvement and a better mastery of routes through a city full of ramps and shortcuts.

Why play it: For short gaming sessions, this is a fresh and timelessly fun affair, ideal even for players without time for long games who want to feel improvement within a few minutes of driving through a city full of ramps and shortcuts.