Crazy Taxi
1999 · Racing · Dreamcast
Overview
Crazy Taxi was an arcade racing game in which players drove customers across a stylised San Francisco for maximum tips before time ran out. The physics — cars that could be launched airborne by driving through traffic — and the Offspring and Bad Religion soundtrack made it one of the most distinctively exhilarating arcade games of its era. It sold over 1 million Dreamcast copies.
Deep Dive
Crazy Taxi was developed by Hitmaker at Sega and launched in arcades before its Dreamcast port. The game's physics — cars that could be launched onto cabs at high speed and thrown through traffic — were intentionally exaggerated to produce spectacle. The licensed punk rock soundtrack — The Offspring's All I Want and Bad Religion's Way It Is — was inseparable from the game's identity. The home Dreamcast version added a free-roaming mode beyond the timed arcade structure.
Developer Story
Crazy Taxi was developed by Hitmaker, Sega's internal arcade division, as an arcade game first and Dreamcast port second. The Dreamcast version launched in January 2000 in Japan, shortly after the console's Japanese holiday season. The game became one of the Dreamcast's best-selling titles.
Did You Know?
- Crazy Taxi's Offspring and Bad Religion soundtrack was licensed at significant cost — when subsequent ports and re-releases removed the licensed music due to expiry, players considered the replacement tracks a significant downgrade.
- The game's city — loosely based on San Francisco — was designed to have enough visual landmarks for navigation but simplified enough to learn in a few plays.
- A sequel, Crazy Taxi 2 on Dreamcast, added the ability to pick up multiple passengers simultaneously — a mechanical change that significantly altered the game's strategy.
- Crazy Taxi's 'Crazy Dash' technique — a forward jump that launched the car at high speed — was an unintended mechanic that became the most important skill for high scores.
