During the Dreamcast’s heyday, Sega churned out one original title after another – including the arcade fun Crazy Taxi, in which you play as a chauffeur racing around like crazy and getting passengers to their destination in no time at all. The first two episodes were released in 2000 and 2001 and are now celebrating their comeback on the PSP as Fare Wars. The ill-fated third part, High Roller, is not included, but no one will really miss it…
The UMD offers you faithful reproductions of the two races, each with two city areas, all drivers and quirky mini-games. Only the soundtrack has been changed: Offspring would probably have blown the budget, so now a few lesser-known but acceptable replacement bands are rocking.
Technically, the implementation looks great, although many of the textures are quite muddy – but you’ll hardly notice this while driving. The controls also take some getting used to before you can get the hang of the trickier actions. Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars doesn’t have quite the same kick as it used to, but it’s definitely good for fun joyrides.
