Taxi Chaos

Is Taxi Chaos going to blow you away? Of course not, but it is pretty decent. You won’t care for its soundtrack, its visuals won’t wow you, and its handling is as simple as can be. Blasting around New Yellow City while picking up passengers and dropping them off at their desired locations is fun though, while pro mode is highly rewarding for those who learn the ins and outs of the game’s map. So, if you’re after something to scratch that Crazy Taxi itch, Taxi Chaos may well be of interest to you.

Taxi Chaos is like the usual knock-off. At first, it might look and feel the same as the quality product it was fashioned after, but when you get to know it better, it turns out to be just a cheap copy of the original (cheap not in the way of its price because this costs a whopping 30 bucks, mind you). ”But wait”, I hear you cry. ”What if I have never played Crazy Taxi, could I enjoy Taxi Chaos then?” I’m afraid I can’t answer that question because I simply can’t turn off my sweet memory of Crazy Taxi (that I can return to any day, thanks to the backwards compatible X360 version of the game!).

I love a good nostalgia trip and I don’t mind a bit of pandering here and there, but Taxi Chaos takes it too far by essentially doing nothing more than replicating the game it was inspired by. Paying homage to one of the greats wouldn’t be an issue if it added its own ideas and flair, but there just isn’t much here that wasn’t already done — and done better — by Sega.

If someone never heard of Crazy Taxi, played Taxi Chaos, and then tried Crazy Taxi; they would think that Taxi Chaos was some sort of rudimentary precursor to the series. It's not a terrible game but it's certainly not nearly as enjoyable as its 22 year old counterpart.

If all you want is a facsimile of Crazy Taxi that you can play without dusting off your old Dreamcast then Taxi Chaos just about fits the bill. But that's all it does. For anybody coming into this without the benefits of nostalgia or more money than sense, Taxi Chaos is just a dull arcade driver with precious little to offer other than the dubious pleasure of chasing a high score. Send this one to scrap yard.

For anyone who’s never heard of Crazy Taxi, Taxi Chaos will be a good enough racing title that’s fine for a quick pick-up-and-play experience. For everyone else, this near-duplicate ride likely won’t be worth the cab fare.

An utterly pointless spiritual successor to Crazy Taxi which adds nothing new to an ageing arcade game and somehow manages to remove what made the original so playable in the first place. A missed opportunity to improve or update the gameplay renders this instantly moribund.

Whether you have nostalgia for Sega’s Crazy Taxi franchise or not, Taxi Chaos by Lion Castle Entertainment is a hard sell. The game is a poor attempt at mimicking a classic IP in the hopes of bringing the formula to a new audience and fails to capitalise on any of the elements that made the original experience so fun to play in the first place. Taxi Chaos lacks any flair in the gameplay, visuals or audio department, while turning the once entertaining concept into an exercise in boredom.

While some additions to the old formula provide value, particularly the ability to leap onto buildings to shave time on fares and online leaderboards, falling short on all the other parts of the experience drags the entire game down. The lack of Crazy Box-style minigames further reduces any replay value. Crazy Taxi succeeded by offering players the feeling of chaos and excitement, either through its then-novel gameplay mechanics or its untouchable sense of style. Taxi Chaos brings neither to the table and offers only minimal appeal to folks who might have missed all the hoopla twenty years ago. 3/10 beaded seat covers.

No more advanced than Crazy Taxi was back when it debuted all those years ago, and without the same trademark attitude, Taxi Chaos is a real missed opportunity to modernise an arcade favourite.