The History of Crazy Taxi Online and Offline

There aren't many 00s games that are more iconic than Crazy Taxi. When you start playing this game, the concept seems easy. You pick up customers and drive them across the city within specified times.

What starts out easy becomes difficult fast. The Crazy Taxi online difficulty increases fast and it becomes a twitchy, frenetic affair within minutes of starting it up.

Let's take a look at the history of Crazy Taxi and learn what's become of this famous Sega franchise. Strap in and read on!

The Origins of Crazy Taxi

The history of Crazy Taxi starts in the arcades of the late 1990s. While most players are more familiar with Crazy Taxi as a console game, it made its debut as an arcade game back in 1999.

The game was an instant hit. Its fast pace, superb difficulty curve, fantastic gameplay, and great soundtrack meant it ate up more coins than a magnetic tyrannosaurus at the US Mint. 

Yet while it was a big success, it was released at the wrong time. Due to the success of the home console market, arcades were dying fast. Crazy Taxi's next fare had to be console gamers, so Crazy Taxi got ported to the Dreamcast, which might not have been the best idea given the Dreamcast's fate.

Its popularity grew more when it got ported to the PS2.

Crazy Taxi 2

In 2001, Crazy Taxi 2 hit the PS2! This sequel brought in a bunch of new features including the "crazy hop" feature. This feature took racing game conventions and chucked them out the window: you could bounce around the city like a hyperactive rabbit.

You could pick up more than one passenger at once, too, which made gameplay even more frenetic. Like in the original, you could do stunts while ferrying passengers around, and you got more cash for it in Crazy Taxi 2 than you did in the original.

Crazy Taxi 3

After the widespread popularity of Crazy Taxi 1 and 2, the third installment in this franchise was a disappointment. It didn't do anything new other than including a satire of Las Vegas, called Glitter Oasis, which was boring to explore.

Other Installments

The franchise pretty much withered after the third installment. While the mix of score multiplication and fast action is still fun today, we never really to a follow-up.

There were a few attempts like Catch a Ride on Game Boy Advance and Fare Wars on PSP, but these did little to innovate. The closest thing we have to another Crazy Taxi game is The Simpsons: Road Rage, which took a lot of inspiration from the series.

How to Get Your Crazy Taxi Online Fix

So that's the history of Crazy Taxi: what can you do if you want to play it today? You could always dig out a PS2 or Dreamcast and play it but if you want a more accessible experience, you can play Crazy Taxi online right here: Crazy Taxi M-12!

For even more fun games, why not check out our selection of skill-based games? Lose yourself in a fast and fun gaming experience!