Crazy Taxi: Lost in Transition (Dreamcast to Xbox 360)
By:
Andre Segers
|
June 23, 2010, 8:59 pm

During last week’s E3, it was announced that Dreamcast would be making a comeback of sorts by offering up many of its games on Xbox Live. Among the announced titles was the fan favorite, Crazy Taxi. The game is fondly reminded by gamers for its crazy action, punk rock soundtrack, and contemporary gameplay. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), not everything has made the transition to the Xbox platform unscathed.

Soundtrack

You may not want to hear it, but the soundtrack has been completely replaced. Gone are Offspring and Bad Religion, instead replaced by some other punk rock bands. Why, we’re not quite sure, but it’s likely due to Sega’s crazy inner logic. Granted, it may not change the world, as only four tracks were ever actually used during gameplay itself, but those tracks have no doubt ingrained themselves into fans of the original. I mean, the original tracks are really all I want, but distraught gamers should be find some solace in that they’ll able to re-add the tracks themselves when the game’s released way down the line thanks to the Xbox 360’s custom soundtrack feature.

Unfortunately, since only one cab driver was playable (whose voice remains unchanged), we weren’t able to verify whether the other three were altered as in the ports put our by Acclaim years ago on the Xbox and PlayStation 2.

Locations

The original Crazy Taxi version is widely known for its use of real-world locations scattered around the city, such as KFC, the Levi’s Store, and Pizza Hut. Unlike most in-game advertising, these were generally looked upon favorably by fans as it leant an aura of believability to this otherwise exotic world. We grabbed some pictures from the show floor to demonstrate some of the changes:
 
Dreamcast Version - KFC
 
Xbox Live Arcade Version - Now FCS
 
Dreamcast Version - Pizza Hut...
 
Xbox Live Arcade Version - Becomes Pizza Parlor
 
Dreamcast Version - Tower Records...
 
Xbox Live Arcade Version - Becomes a generic Record Store
 
Improvements
Luckily, it’s not all bad news for Crazy Taxi fans. The game’s visuals have been upgraded to support widescreen with the addition of 720p. Though the graphics are quite obviously still dated, it’s certainly a welcome addition. Online leaderboards have all been added, allowing gamers to finally show their mettle to the world.
 
Despite the changes, Crazy Taxi is still as fun as ever, and we look forward to its release later this year on the Xbox Live Arcade.
 





 
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