Genre: Arcade
Developer: Hitmaker
Publisher: Sega

Outside of occasional framerate issues, the Dreamcast has no problems rendering what appears to be the Naomi version of the engine. Aesthetically, the game is bright and pleasant looking, with a clear blue sky above, and an even color spectrum representation between the cars, pedestrians, and buildings. The geometry is a bit simplistic compared to some other Dreamcast titles, but not distractingly so.

The title's soundtrack contributes to the game's satisfyingly frantic mood, with songs from The Offspring and Bad Religion. Customers stand up in the car and cheer if a good stunt is done, or make funny remarks such as, "Ow, that hurt, be more careful!" after you nail a car head-on. The sound of a group of bystanders screaming as they dive out of the way adds tremendously to the light-hearted humor of the game.

Crazy Taxi's gameplay hinges on two elements: memorizing the sprawling yet relatively linear city stages, of which the game contains two, and utilizing the "crazy dash" mechanic, which is used to perform a variety of other useful stunts. The control scheme is set up perfectly for the player make full use of the game's mechanic repertoire.

Crazy Taxi is a modern day incarnation of the purely Era 1 titles of yore; like games of that era, such as Pacman, there is a definite learning curve, and it takes dozens of attempts to attain even a level of mild competence. Unfortunately, the gap between a highly skilled and a new player in this title is not quite as wide as it should be, almost relegating Crazy Taxi from "wonderful arcade title" to "fun party game" status.