Crazy Taxi has been around for many years, starting in arcades (hey... remember those?) to the Sega Dreamcast and even making its way to the Microsoft Xbox. It is a total arcade racer that has you driving around town picking up a multitude of characters who are wanting to get from point “A” to point “B”. And Sega brought the best of what Crazy Taxi has had to offer to the Sony PSP system. If you are a fan of the arcade games as well as older Sega Dreamcast games then this should be a treat for you...
          
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars brings multiplayer gameplay to this fan-favorite series for the first time. It’s an all-out bumper brawl as cabbies race, ram, smash and dash to steal fares and score big tips. Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars combines Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2 with hilarious new features that allow players to meddle with their opponents in brand new ways. Players will ram their opponent’s cab to steal their fare or use the new interference feature to make them crash or slow down their fare delivery time. This is no ordinary cab ride – this is war!

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars Features:
New multi-player function via Ad Hoc: Go head-to-head and compete for the highest fare. As a bonus, a turn-based multi-player feature is also available that allows two players to challenge each other on a single PSP system.
Custom Music Player: Transfer your favorite songs to the PSP system to create your own personalized soundtrack.
Mega mini-games: There are 32 mini-games where you can perfect your skills, making it ideal for people on the go.
Intuitive controls: Crazy Taxi maintains its classic arcade-style gameplay with easy pick-up-and-play controls.
Save your best games: Show off your best fare runs to friends.

The PSP just got crazy...

So what is Crazy Taxi? If you have ever been to a Wal-Mart and played that crazy game in the arcade/vending machine section where you get behind the wheel of a Taxi and you drive around a colorful town picking up people who are trying to get to various places then you know what I am talking about. This is not a simulator of what a taxi driver does. After all, how many green-haired taxi drivers have you rode with to the airport? This game is basically the definition of arcade-racer. It is all about having fun and not taking anything serious. It is about meeting a deadline for someone who needs to get somewhere in a hurry. If you do the job you will be rewarded with your taxi fee... if you do not get the job done then you will not get paid, or better yet your passenger will hop out of your Taxi. Sounds pretty easy right?

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars is basically 2 good packages bundled into one small package. Sega has taken Crazy Taxy & Crazy Taxi 2 and smashed it down to a nice little UMD for our gaming pleasure. Now you can relive your old arcade experiences on the road, in the back yard or anywhere else you see fit to play your Sony PSP. Sega always has a way of making games fun, this is no exception with the Crazy Taxi series. While the old Crazy Taxi acrade version used the trademark steering wheel (and so did the Sega Dreamcast version if you owned the Dreamcast steering wheel) the Crazy Taxi universe makes a nice move over to the portable controls for the Sony PSP. Driving around town and picking up passengers is fairly easy to do. You can also reverse and jump your car as well.

Also a nice touch in Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars is the multi-player mode (via Ad-Hoc) which will pit you against another friend on another Sony PSP system. Multi-player is also turn-based as well. Sadly there is not real online play, which would have been kind of sweet. But like I said, Crazy Taxi is not really about multi-player, its about having fun, racing across the town and pissing people off. :)

So how does this game look on the Sony PSP? Like many PSP games, the graphics are pretty good in terms of a handheld. The PSP IS the most powerful handheld system on the market so I would worry if it didnt look good. Sadly some developers do not take advantage of the PSP’s power, instead just making horrible half-ass ports of PS2 games (see Scarface and The Godfather if you want to know what I mean). Sega has always taken care of PSP owners though. It is not bad to have two Sega arcade games in one game, and the game has that old Sega arcade feel (graphics that are colorful and bright). If you own a Sega Dreamcast, you will know the graphics style I am talking about (Sega Bass Fishing 1 & 2, Sega Marine Fishing, Crazy Taxi 1 & 2, etc). Characters have green hair and style. The City looks colorful and full of animated life. While both versions of Crazy Taxi looks the same, I found that Crazy Taxi 2 has a lot more detail then the first (in terms of look)... The downside is that Crazy Taxi has been around for years, and it is extremely dated compared to today’s standards. If you are looking for a game like Ridge racer, Need for Speed or Grand Theft Auto then you need to look elsewhere. Crazy Taxi is and has always been a game about arcade fun and total speed. So overall, Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars a colorful game for your Sony PSP that takes you back to the good old days of Arcades and Sega Dreamcast systems...

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars has all of the tunes from the first two Sega Dreamcast Crazy Taxi games. The music is generally basic rock tunes that rip out as you drive from place to place. Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars also has a very cool feature. Since the Sony PSP has that nice little memory card slot that allows you to store MP3’s, you can also use a custom soundtrack if those basic rock tunes are not your thing. The game also has a nice mix of sounds for the many characters that populate the city. If you are late your passenger will scream at you. Drive crazy around town and hear the screams and yells of people as they duck out of the way from your taxi.Overall, a very good package in terms of music and sound.

The Bottom Line:
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars is actually a pretty good deal for the Sony PSP system, clocking in at only $30.  It’s Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 for the Sony PSP. Not a bad little package. The upside is that you can use your own music. The controls are also not that bad on the PSP. The bottom line is if you were a fan of the Crazy Taxi series, then this game will be for you. You have 2 games in 1 and there are a lot of small bonus (over 30 bonus games) games as well. It is a nice little deal from Sega, and I honestly would not mind seeing more Sega Classics on the PSP (Sega Bass Fishing 1 & 2 and Sega Marine Fishing to name a few).