Level Up Times’ Kieran gets in the driver’s seat and while flooring the accelerator gets ready to make some crazy money in this Crazy Taxi review.

Eleven years ago the cult hit Crazy Taxi was first introduced. Since then it has seen its fair share of expansions, sequels, spin-offs and remakes. This iteration however is the original Crazy Taxi.

As the name may suggest Crazy Taxi is about transporting people in and around the town and performing the duties of a taxi driver. There are multiple game modes that are available for play, such as: Arcade and Original modes that consist of you working for a certain amount of time and completing fares. Crazy Box is another mode which features you and your virtual cabbie trying to complete stunts like jump a certain distance, do something in a certain amount of time or complete a certain amount of fares.

Just like the game modes the graphics, audio and general gameplay hasn’t changed at all over the past decade. The graphics are just as they were: horrible and grainy. I understand that this is a port for the hardcore Crazy Taxi drivers but would it be too much to update the graphics? Compared to most arcade games the visuals are horribly dated and sometimes flat out hard to understand what is what. Crazy Taxi also suffers from severe texture popping which can ruin your taxi fare as you can run into recently introduced objects that were not previously shown.

Sound-wise Crazy Taxi features a punk rock soundtrack which you’ll either love or hate. It seems repetitive, but if you’re into this genre you’ll love cruising around to it. Characters are full of things to say, some of which are funny and others completely random. But it adds to the taxi driver atmosphere. Sound effects for the most part are fitting and well done.

It's time to earn some crazy money in Crazy Taxi.

The gameplay is the same craziness you’ve come to love from Crazy Taxi. It’s faced paced, pedal to the metal driving action. You’ll be driving on the wrong side of the road at 100 mph trying to get that fare in time. You can also do special moves like boosts and drifts. All of which are explained horribly, due to the fact that you have to manually gear shift from reverse to drive because a lot of moves are based on the transition in gears. None of these moves are explained in detail and the game lacks any sort of tutorial. Special moves should aid you greatly… if you can pull ‘em off.

It’s clear by now Crazy Taxi has not changed at all. This game is only for the hardcore Crazy Taxi fans. Newcomers need not bother because you don’t get much bang for your buck. There is a severe lack of online or any kind of multiplayer, in addition to repetitive and short gameplay. Crazy Taxi is a bad, unchanged, untouched and unpolished port. Even to the hardcore fans I’d recommend popping in your old copy of the game. It’s free and probably better than this port. If you need a Crazy Taxi fix or just interested in achievements, Crazy Taxi is here for you, just don’t blame me when you play it for five minutes and forget about it.