Crazy Taxi (series)

"That was hella fast!" Yeah, That's What She Said.

"Hey hey hey, c'mon over, have some fun with Crazy Taxi!"
Yah yah yah yah yaah!!

Crazy Taxi was another of Sega's wacky concepts that upon first glance honestly would make you think, "what the hell were they smoking?", but once played, made you think, "I sure am glad they smoked that."

A 1999 arcade driving/racing game, ported to Dreamcast in 2000 and to PC in 2002, the game focused upon four "extreme" independent cab drivers[1], each with his or her own special car and attributes, who picked up random members of the population of a city that bore more than a passing resemblance to San Francisco. Each of these lovely passengers wished to be driven to a destination within the city: a church, a baseball game, KFC and so on. Your job was to get them there ASAP, even if it meant plowing through outside tables, driving off parking garages or even underwater. Your fare increased via tips when you performed tricks like Crazy Jumps or Crazy Drifts, and your passenger reacted in real time with excitement or disdain, depending on how you drove.

The game was also noted for its soundtrack, featuring punk bands The Offspring and Bad Religion.

Tropes used in Crazy Taxi (series) include:
  • Attract Mode: "Hey, hey, hey! Are you ready to have some fun? I got some kicking music, and I'm ready to see you drive! Get those coins out of your pocket, throw them in the machine, and let's get started! CRAZY TAXI!"
  • Big Applesauce: Around Apple and Small Apple from Crazy Taxi 2.
  • Camp Gay: Implied with Angel from Crazy Taxi 3.
  • Cool Old Guy: Hot-D from the second game.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Right there in the title. The passengers give you tips when you get jumps or drive near other cars.
  • Easily Forgiven: "Watch it, you nearly killed me! Take me to Kentucky Fried Chicken."
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: You drive a taxi, like crazy!
  • Fictional Counterpart: Averted in the original game, where they got the rights to use KFC, Levi's, Tower Records, FILA and some others. Played straight in the downloadable rerelease, which declined to resecure any licenses.
  • Hide Your Children
  • Irony: Delivering the priest to the church and having him exclaim "You're one hell of a driver!"
  • Mission Pack Sequel: Crazy Taxi 2 and Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller are just like the first one, but have new cities to play in. Although they do add a controllable jump.
  • Nintendo Hard: The Crazy Box/Pyramid/X. You'd better know how to Crazy Boost and Drift with nigh perfect accuracy if you want to complete every mission.
    • This is sometimes lampshaded in the harder levels, such as a bunch of elderly ladies getting into your cab right before you brave an obstacle course with bottomless pits. Gee, Sega, how about ferrying a dozen pregnant women through a minefield on a volcano?
      • Don't be giving them any ideas, above troper.
  • Optional Traffic Laws: The only penalty you suffer from crashing into other vehicles is that they'll slow you down. Aside from that, you can break about every conceivable traffic law there is without any problems.
  • Product Placement: All over the place, though mysteriously absent in the PSP and downloadable rereleases (probably because the licenses expired).
  • Racing Mini Game: Crazy Box, Crazy Pyramid and Crazy X.
  • San Francisco: Or rather, West Coast.
  • Secret Car: Completing all of the minigames nets you a goofy new taxi to drive (a rickshaw bicycle, a baby stroller, etc). In Crazy Taxi 2, you can also unlock the original cabbies from the first game... along with their cars, of course.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: Think you know the map by heart? Turn off the guidance arrow and find out.
  • This Loser Is You: After the end of the game if you get a class D license or lower, these are the kinds of messages you get.
  • Timed Mission: The entire point of the game; if you're slow, your customers will get out of your taxi.
  • Totally Radical: Delights in it.
  • Updated Rerelease: The Dreamcast port of the original added an original level as well as Crazy Box mode (later to become a Crazy Taxi staple). The PSP port adds a multiplayer mode (thanks, Sega, it only took 8 years).
  • Viva Las Vegas: Glitter Oasis from Crazy Taxi 3.
  • Widget Series: A colorful arcade racing series where you look for customers who are waiting on roofs or even underwater for a ride, and take them to their location as quickly as you can, while ignoring any and all traffic laws, doing crazy stunts that would otherwise kill everyone on board for a serious tip, all in famous U.S. cities while punk rock music blasts in the background. The sequels add all kinds of weird passengers, including aliens, and the Crazy Box/Pyramid/X minigames have you hitting golf balls and bowling pins, popping balloons and destroying UFOs.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair:
    • Axel, one of the playable drivers, has green hair. In CityRu$h, he loses this, instead wearing an identically-colored bucket hat.
    • In High Roller, Angel has red-dyed hair, and Mrs. Venus has pink hair.
    • Gazillionaire has numerous cabbies with all kinds of hair colors.
  1. ↑ Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena and Gus.
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