I'll definitely admit, it is rather impressive that this game even exists in the first place. They managed to essentially put most of the content in the dreamcast version of crazy taxi 1 into a tiny GBA cart and have it run with real 3D polygons. The only thing is I feel like this is a case where they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they never considered whether or not they SHOULD.

I've always looked at console ports of arcade games to be a training grounds of sorts, where you have infinite credits and freedom to experiment and improve for the real deal in the arcades. There are even plenty of examples of arcade ports on significantly weaker hardware that while certainly compromised in visuals or performance, preserve the core gameplay well enough to still be functional as an at-home or on-the-go practice ground.

This game is not one of those titles. Obviously the resolution and framerate from the arcade has taken a massive drop, that much is clearly to be expected. The problem is that the physics and controls don't function as well here for there to be any sort of skill transfer. With a game as extremely precise as Crazy Taxi, that is no good. While you still can do all the wacky gear-changing tech boosts and drifts here as you can in the arcade, the timing is different and sometimes the low framerate can eat your inputs leaving a game thats frustrating to control. To kind of compensate for that, the game is way more forgiving with timers for your passengers which makes the arcade mode somehow both frustratingly difficult AND boringly easy. The crazy box returns as well, god help us, but luckily the hardest challenges were omitted on the GBA. If I had to do crazy bowling with this control scheme I don't think I could make it out a sane man. The Crazy Pole challenge is a good example of how messed up the physics are, as in the main console version the idea is to teach players to drift into poles as a way to instantly stop at a spot facing the right way, but here you can just kinda slam into the poles and slowly turn around and still make it to the end. The entire control dynamic is just completely different with here compared to the arcade. The chase cam is also absolutely borked for drifting as well, only turning around your car once the turn is done so you have pretty much no idea where the car is actually pointing towards.

It feels like this game was more trying to be impressive tech demo than actual practical game. It's not horrible honestly and I feel like in its time it was probably a solid way to get at least some kind of 3D game/crazy taxi fix on the go to kill some time, but in todays day and age where you can download the arcade version of the game on your phone for FREE, you should probably do that. Would only rec for those that are curious like myself.

Obviously pretty bad to look at, but this isn't a horrible attempt at translating Crazy Taxi to the GBA. Simpsons Road Rage outdoes this in terms of framerate and general feel, but has its own problems like its mostly flat world being harder to parse at high speeds. In this game, I honestly felt that even going at high speeds I always had enough time to make a turn and avoid just crashing into every building. Because of this, the fully 3D world definitely doesn't feel like an inherently bad choice, even if it ends up causing a lower framerate and the need to have a loading screen. The map is smartly modified with the GBA in mind while still being a decent replication of the original map. It's also cool that all of the classic Crazy Taxi techniques are in this game, but the low frame rate means it's very easy to accidentally input a button too fast, and so instead of a Crazy Boost you're just losing speed in reverse. This makes the harder Crazy Box challenges needlessly frustrating, since those obviously require you to be able to consistently pull off those moves. A surprisingly decent port, but not really all that recommendable, just something worth checking out if you're a real Crazy Taxi head.