Who doesn’t love Crazy Taxi? That franchise is easily one of the best series Sega has ever created. It’s an addictive arcade game featuring crazy stunts, fast-paced action, and most importantly, one of the best licensed soundtracks in the history of gaming. Whether you were playing it on a Dreamcast, PS2 or GameCube, you most certainly have great memories of that game. We haven’t seen a new game in the franchise in years, as Sega just simply can’t be bothered to make a new one. You know what that means: a smaller studio will come to the rescue to develop a low budget “spiritual successor” to scratch your nostalgic itch. This is basically the premise behind Taxi Chaos.

Taxi Chaos is, well, Crazy Taxi. It’s pretty much the same exact thing: drive around, pick up passengers, deliver them to the destination as soon as possible, do tricks to earn more money, and keep doing so until the clock runs out. There isn’t a single new gameplay feature in here. It’s basically what you know and love, and what you have been playing since 1999, but with one major issue: it’s absolutely devoid of charisma.

We all remember so many things from Crazy Taxi: the iconic San Francisco-esque map, the funny characters, the amazing and quotable narrator, and of course, the licensed soundtrack. Thanks to that game, I found out who The Offspring and Bad Religion were. It’s absolutely impossible to listen to The Offspring’s “All I Want” without thinking about Crazy Taxi. I can’t even think of Pizza Hut or KFC without reminding myself of the fact both restaurants were featured in that game.

Taxi Chaos has none of that. The only map included in the game is not exactly exciting to drive around, as it doesn’t feature that many wacky shortcuts as the maps from Crazy Taxi. It might run decently, but only at 30fps, while every single version of Crazy Taxi ran at a blistering 60fps. The visuals are pretty ugly, with characters looking like they came straight from Planet Coaster. The soundtrack is comprised of dull stock pop rock, and none of the characters in here, be it the drivers or the passengers, are charismatic. They are as boring as can be and yet they never shut up.

The controls are decent, even if not as refined as the ones in Crazy Taxi. You can have fun driving around and you do have the jump button that was implemented in Crazy Taxi 2. Besides this, there’s little else to do in the game. You can unlock a few extra cars, but they aren’t exciting to drive. There is also a Pro Mode and a Free Roaming mode, which essentially removes the time limit that made games like Crazy Taxi so addictive and challenging to begin with.

I know I sound harsh, but to be honest, Taxi Chaos isn’t really terrible. All in all, it’s a decent attempt to replicate what made Crazy Taxi so good twenty years ago, but in a new era of consoles. It’s just completely devoid of charm, with dull characters, visuals, and soundtrack. It’s fun for a few minutes, it manages to scratch your nostalgic itch for a while, but it’s definitely not a substitute for Sega’s near-perfect arcade franchise. It will just make you even angrier with the fact that there isn’t an proper Crazy Taxi available in current and next-gen consoles.

 

Graphics: 4.5 Despite being colorful and cheerful, it doesn’t run at 60fps, nor do its characters look interesting. Its resolution is pitiful.	Gameplay: 6.5 It plays just like Crazy Taxi, but its controls aren’t as tight and responsive as its main source of inspiration. It also doesn’t run at 60fps.
Sound: 5.0 A lot of annoying and uninteresting voice acting, and a soundtrack that tries to emulate what Crazy Taxi achieved decades ago, but without any of the charm or the licensing power.	Fun Factor: 6.5 It’s a fun game despite its issues. It scratches the Crazy Taxi itch for a few minutes, but you’ll begin to want to play an actual Crazy Taxi, as Taxi Chaos is absolutely devoid of charm.
Final Verdict: 6.0

Taxi Chaos is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch.

Reviewed on PS4.

A copy of Taxi Chaos was provided by the publisher.