It has been over five years since the last Crazy Taxi was released and SEGA has finally announced the next entry in the series. However, Crazy Taxi will not be returning to its console, it will be a free-to-play game on the IOS and Android. Furthermore, Crazy Taxi creator Kenji Kanno is developing this new entry in the once popular series.
Now the latest entry will be called Crazy Taxi: City Rush and it is a reboot or as Kanno said a “re-imagining” of the driving game. For those that do not remember, Crazy Taxi had a simple premise; the player has a limited amount of time to make money by picking up customers and delivering them to their locations. Of course, the more the player completed crazy stunts, the higher the score; well the new game will have this basic concept, but with one-touch controls.
Now besides the controls, Kanno has revealed a few details about Crazy Taxi: City Rush. The game will be free-to-play and released globally this year. The one-touch controls means that the player will have to swipe to change lanes or turn. On top of this, the new game has an “all new big city setting,” the ability to fully customize one’s cab, Facebook integration, “portrait and landscaping modes,” and finally a variety of missions with various challenges. All these features sound promising, but the big question is will thisĀ “re-imagining” have the look and feel of Crazy Taxi?
Kanno has commented on the fans’ worry: “We are delivering a truly fun game that captures everything our fans love about the original and infusing it with several new features to create an even more fantastic and memorable experience.” Now, if the game was being developed by anyone but Kenji Kanno I would be skeptical; however, the look of the game makes me nervous. Yes, the graphics of the original Crazy Taxi are dated but they still have their own distinct style; not only does this new game lack a distinct style, but it looks like any average ‘run of the mill’ IOS car game.
The cheap looking graphics do not have the distinct look of the original.
But for now, we will have to wait and see. The last truly great Crazy Taxi game was the sequel that came out for the Dreamcast in 2001. Again, this new entry will be available globally later this year for the IOS and Android. A part of me was hoping that a new Crazy Taxi game would be available on the consoles as a network download, but it is understandable why it is on the IOS and Android platforms. Crazy Taxi is such an old IP that there is no guaranteed market and to produce a game for the consoles is ludicrously expensive these days. So for now, us old Crazy Taxi fans will get to relieve the glory days of Dreamcast on our cell phones. Or if fans do not like change, they can currently download the original for free on iTunes. Here is the latest trailer, which attempts to sell the game on the nostalgia of the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em7kky1xaFc
What do you think of Crazy Taxi: City Rush? Do you like this “re-imagining” of the series? Would you rather have a console release? Let us know in the comments below. And for all other gaming news, please continue to visit Gamer Headlines.
Source: GameSpot