I got to learn about Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom via a little press release which immediately caught my attention when it stated the game was a love letter to collectathons from the Nintendo 64 era. Dammit. They got me. My one true Achilles’ heel. Even though some recent “love letters” with the same premise ended up just being alright at best (look at Cavern of Dreams for further details), this is the kind of premise I simply cannot ignore. Then I started playing the game, only to be utterly bombarded by a barrage of lights, sounds and nonsensical imagery which would be too much for the faint of heart. I also didn’t exactly think the game felt like a Nintendo 64 title at its core. But that’s not a bad thing at all. I still really liked Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom.

How to even describe this… thing? Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is a lot. It’s roundhouse kick of stuff onscreen. You play as a mechanical toy taxi, one not powered by oil. In this particular world, oil has been corrupted by its sole provider, the company Tosla, owned by Alien Mosk. I wish this was a joke but that’s basically what happens. You were created by Morio (again, not joking, this game just isn’t subtle), and you need to defeat Alien Mosk by collecting a ton of green gears scattered throughout various levels. In essence, a good ol’ collectathon. With the difference that this isn’t a platformer. Well, kinda.

Level design and progression are identical to games from the Nintendo 64 era, as well as some from the Gamecube era. In particular, Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario Sunshine come to mind, with the latter’s influence being really apparent throughout most of the Mediterranean and Italian-themed levels. There’s even an entire level dedicated to pizza, for crying out loud. The thing is that you play as a car, so you’re not exactly doing actual platforming. You can only jump by performing an initially convoluted series of button presses and cancels, which can grant you just the bare minimum of height over two hops. It’s just enough to let you reach some platforms, but for the most part, you’re driving down roads.

This is not a bad thing, as Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom‘s levels are massive and varied. They are divided into two groups. Some of them act like your standard collectathon courses: big, open, meant for you to explore at will. The other half is even more interesting, as it adds Crazy Taxi elements to the mix, such as a timer, passengers, and time bonuses. It might sound like there’s not enough time to complete a level or collect enough items in one go, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-style, but fear not: grabbing extra seconds is super easy, and objectives are somewhat close to one another. If you find a secret area hiding a puzzle (which usually grants you a gear), the timer stops inside of it as well.

The more gears you collect, the more levels you unlock, but this also results in the main hub world, called Grandma’s Island, getting more inhabitants, with more additional objectives to complete. As you can already imagine, this results in even more mini levels to explore and gears to acquire. Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom looks small at first, but there’s a shocking amount of substance to this chaotic jab to the senses.

The presentation is… something else. First of all, I don’t exactly think the game looks like a title from the Nintendo 64 era. It’s too colorful, too detailed. The aforementioned excessive amount of (fully knockable) people and props onscreen at any given moment reminded me a lot of the Katamari games, in fact. Don’t think of this as a bad thing, mind you: it might be tiresome to the eyes after a while, but Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom‘s visuals are creative and wacky.

Wacky is also the perfect way to describe its soundtrack. It’s hyperactive and loud, as to be expected. That being said, it’s also very catchy. It fits perfectly with the amount of chaos happening onscreen. If you’re in an exploratory level, the music can usually be a bit more soothing. If you’re in an arcadey level, where you need to blast from one place to another in order to amass extra seconds, the music morphs into something that can only be described as a happy rave. My favorite song in the entire game, however, was the Eurodance-inspired banger being played during the gym level. Yes, there is a gym level in Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom. Because why wouldn’t it have one?

Did the juvenile sense of humor annoy me? At first, I thought I was going to loathe Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom‘s humor, as it was just too much. It wasn’t offensive or anything like that, but it was just too on-the-nose. It was aiming for the lowest common denominator of laughs. The more I played the game, however, the funnier it became. Well, it’s either that, or I just ended up appreciating the game’s sheer stupidity. I can’t deny it was charming, despite feeling a bit tryhardish at times.

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is a truly bonkers collectathon with some wacky ideas and excellent level design. There is a lot to do, a lot of places to explore, tons of gears to collect, and dozens of references and pop culture nods to unearth. It is an excessive game in terms of its presentation; it can be too much at times. It’s loud, it’s abrasive, and it’s (adorably) juvenile. But that’s also what makes it so charming, in my opinion. It might be ridiculous at times, but it wears that crown of stupidity with gusto. Part Super Mario Sunshine, part Banjo-Kazooie, part Crazy Taxi, this game is quite confusing to get a hold of at first, but it becomes impossible to put down after a while.

Graphics: 7.5 It looks more like Katamari Damacy than an actual Nintendo 64 game, but it’s got some wacky designs and lots of colors. The screen is never empty; there’s always a crapton of… crap, for lack of a better word, flooding your field of vision.	Gameplay: 7.0 Trying to drive a car in a 3D platformer environment, with a limited movepool and confusing jumping system, is confusing at first. It feels rewarding when you get a hold of its intricacies.
Sound: 8.5 The soundtrack is as hyperactive as the rest of the game itself, but it works. It works oh so well.	Fun Factor: 9.5 It is a completely bonkers collectathon with some wacky ideas and excellent level design. Part Super Mario Sunshine, part Banjo-Kazooie, part Crazy Taxi, this game is quite confusing to get a hold of at first, but it becomes impossible to put down after a while.
Final Verdict: 8.5

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom was provided by the publisher.