Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller for Xbox

First debuting on the defunct Sega Dreamcast, the Crazy Taxi series has now spanned all of the current generation of consoles, with the porting of the original (and arguably best) Crazy Taxi to the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube. However, the Xbox is the only console to receive a full-blow sequel to the hit series; and that sequel is Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller. Not only is CT3 an actual sequel with a brand new city, it also includes the previous 2 cities, making a sort of "Director's Cut" edition of the Sega classic. The question remains though – is this update worth a buy, and does it carry enough new stuff to warrant a purchase? And honestly, that's a decision that's up to a particular gamer; if you're burned out on the CT series, you'd do best to avoid the game, but if you just cant get enough of the crazy action, it's well worth the dinero. Either way, the best route definitely begins with a rental.

High Roller comes with the standard features – with 3 different tracks in the West Coast, Small Apple, and the brand new Glitter Oasis, there's just enough tracks to feel new and fresh. You can play each of them in the standard 3, 5, 10 and normal time limits. Also, the Crazy X makes a debut; just like the Crazy Box from the original Crazy Taxi, Crazy X is a series of unusual, yet addictive minigames, which extend the replay value of the game, given the insane difficulty of the games. Being able to hit a grand slam with your cab, or go for a touchdown while driving against other, ticked off cars is great, but challenging – but definitely worthwhile if you get bored of the regular modes of play.

If you've never played Crazy Taxi before in your life, it goes a little something like this. You pick one of the charismatic drivers (all the ones from the first 2 CT games return, and 4 new ones occupy Glitter Oasis), hop in their cab, and pick people up, taking them wherever they want to go. At first, the concept sounds awfully boring, but once you realize that you are able to go as fast as you want, and take any shortcuts possible, and generally drive as insanely as you possibly want, the game gets exciting. Add in a ruthless clock that never seems to give you more time than necessary, and a load of slow traffic and the intensity increases. While CT3 is definitely a very old-school arcade game, it works for that very reason.

After all, old-school games never were about in-depth stories and endings – they were all about getting the highest score, and playing as long as possible by spending the least amount of money on the arcade game. Of course, this is a console game, thus you don't have to spend money beyond the initial purchase, but the concept is still the same. While lacking any true multiplayer, High Roller definitely carries a back and forth multiplayer, pushing friends to compete for the highest score, and taunt the other guy while he tries to break it. Pure fun, huh?

Unfortunately, what hampers Crazy Taxi 3 slightly is the "been there, done that" mentality that veteran CT players will experience after a while. Yes, Crazy Taxi 3 also carries that addictive quality where the game feels all new after not playing it for a few weeks, the formula now is so common that it doesn't carry the challenge it did 2-3 years ago when the original found it's way into arcades and on the Dreamcast. The game plays well and has tight, easy to master controls with a lot of freedom for Crazy Drifts, Crazy Jumps, and Limit Cuts, which is a definite advantage, and the huge cities mean you'll probably never play the same game twice. Which is great for newcomers to the series, and the die-hards who can't get enough of the Crazy Taxi experience, but gamers burnt out on the concept won't find anything to awaken them. Personally, I'm a die-hard CT fanatic and the game is a true blast for me, and rarely gets old – but I know I'm not the only gamer out there…and the truth is if the game bored you before, it will now, unless you're a huge fan of Las Vegas and must play the Glitter Oasis level to see all the cool stuff they did in making the admittedly awesome level.

Another hamper of High Roller is the substandard visuals. While competent, they take about zero use of the Xbox power – the code almost looks ripped straight for the Dreamcast with a bit of Xbox touch to try and say it's made for Xbox only. The old levels only have extra touches to include places to use the Crazy Jump, but aren't much better than the DC versions. The Small Apple does have some very nice particle effects, as does the Vegas portion of Glitter Oasis (naturally), but that's about the extent of it. CT3 also fights with some nasty slowdown in places on the GO level – unacceptable given the console it's on. Really, it's almost as if Sega and Hitmaker built the game to be easily ported to the other systems without making the game look worse off – a very poor job by one of the biggest Xbox supporters.

High Roller uses essentially the same soundtrack, same voices, and same sound effects as the old CT games – which means the audio is a matter of taste. While I find the soundtrack to be pretty good and fits the game well, it does get annoying to hear the same songs going over and over again to the point of turning it off or even setting the options up to play different music. The voices are rather unintentionally hilarious, with some terrible lines and awful acting. But it's an over the top arcade game, what can we expect? At least Gus doesn't sound like he's talking through a Kane-style voice box this time.

Recommending Crazy Taxi 3 is a matter of preference – liking past games means you'll enjoy it, but everyone who got burnt out after the somewhat disappointing CT2 won't find reason to play this again. Substandard graphics and recycled audio doesn't take advantage of the Xbox hardware (no custom soundtracks – blasphemy), which does make the game feel rushed and ported, but if you can look past these problems, you'll find an entertaining diversion that can either be a 20 minute game before getting bored, or a game with endless replay value, depending on your old-schoolness. For everyone else, it's a rental just to see how the series has somewhat evolved – let's hope for a total overhaul for Crazy Taxi 4; complete with a real Xbox game engine.