/vr/ - Retro Games

Crazy Taxi is perhaps the pinnacle of Arcade driving produced by maybe the best 3D Arcade developer ever. This is a bold claim for sure but I think there are a few aspects of Crazy Taxi's design that really innovate the arcade driving game.

>Fare system impact on gameplay
This is the system that I feel like really separates it from Sega's other driving games, which are mostly racers, and other driving games in general which tend to be racing based or combat focused. Crazy Taxi falls into an under represented third genre which could be described as "Technical Driving". Games like Driver or Smugglers Run would fit this category, games where it's not racing but also not also nessecarily combat that is being tested, but rather technical control of the vehicle. However both of those games are home console experiences, and are very mission focused with ebbs and flows in urgency. Crazy Taxi is relentless from the word go.
>The Fare System produces a constant technical, strategic, and speed based test of player skills
What's so genius about the Fare system, which rewards the player in two dimensions, is how it keeps the intensity level of the game at a high pace that you might expect of the most intense racing games. This is accomplished in part due to the fact that fares reward you in two ways, from a score perspective and (potentially a time perspective). This keeps the player in a constant balancing act of playing in a technical manner to improve their score multiplier while also playing in a relatively quick manner to keep earning better time bonuses. Furthermore there is an element of strategy introduced into what fares the player chooses, but the importance of this aspect doesn't even fully reveal itself until high level game play.

10/10 pinnacle of arcade driving games.

>>7915396
Crazy Taxi is better

>>7848065
Feel free to dislike the video for not only me linking it here in /vr/, but I also know my execution is really sloppy and people can do better.

https://youtu.be/sceEvJZZ4sc