Crazy Taxi is good to pick up and play. I played this a bit back in the Arcades, then a bit when I borrowed a Dreamcast, then played it several years ago on the XBox 360. I could have sworn I wrote a review for this game at some point. Anyway, I am playing it again in 2020 on the PC.
I read that Sega went a bit wild with the patents which is why you didn’t see many clones aside from Simpson’s Road Rage, which Sega filed against. You would have thought Sega or someone would have tried to revitalise this concept even if it was a low budget game because it is simple but fun.
The game has two maps, Arcade, or "Original". I was confused by the name Original because Arcade is the map I’m familiar with, but it just meant it was new (an original creation) for the consoles.
Once you have selected a map, you can select your time from “Arcade rules”, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. The latter ones are a set time, whereas Arcade lets you play until you run out of time. You gain time by picking people up, then if you get them to the destination quickly, you get an additional time bonus.
In terms of controls, you can accelerate, brake, and switch gears between Drive or Reverse. I’d recommend checking the manual for gameplay tips since the game doesn’t explain the mechanics. Changing gear from reverse to drive, then accelerating triggers a boost. You can do a similar thing whilst turning to powerslide quickly.
You need to stop in the circle radius around a person to pick them up. Text and image will illustrate their destination, but you are guided there by an on-screen arrow. The arrow is really helpful on the Arcade map, but is pretty hopeless on the Original map since the road layouts are a bit strange and it tends to point in the general direction, and not where the roads are.
Fares are color-colored by reward (so reverse of difficulty): green fares are the hardest, yellow fares are easier, and red fares are the easiest. You can earn extra money for jumps, near misses, stunts.
The maps are a good size, and there were large parts of the city I didn’t see until lots of practice, or going out of my way to explore. The gameplay is pretty similar on each attempt though because the locations of people or their desired destinations are fixed.
The version on Steam has a different soundtrack to the classic soundtrack people remember. People always talk about The Offspring and Bad Religion, but I think this one has unknown artists, but the songs seem quite fun.
There are four characters to choose from which have a different looking taxi; Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena, and Gus. No idea if their stats are different, or if it is just cosmetic.
Crazy Taxi is still fun today, but it would be great to see a more modern take on it, with more cities, and a mode where the people and location are randomised.