A wild concept that is well executed, but is missing that last bit of focus to truly make it exceptional.
Before getting into that last bit, I do want to stress that the game truly feels novel in a way that 3D platformers rarely have since the PS1 days, where developers were constantly experimenting with weird ideas and control schemes. For the uninformed, 'Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom' is a 3D collectathon, with many gameplay elements lifted from 'Crazy Taxi'. It basically takes that game's general mechanics and chaotic gameplay, and translates it to a 3D platformer with big sandbox levels, often set in cityscapes. In an exceptionally bold choice for its genre, the game lacks a traditional jump button, instead relying on bizarre techniques to pull off this function. I won't spoil them all here, but as an example, one of the hidden tricks you can perform requires you to prematurely cancel your dash, which lifts you up slightly into the air, enough to get up small platforms. Most of the time, however, the game wants you to use the momentum from your dash to launch into the air. This trick is the game's biggest accomplishment and was a large part of why I was so initially enamoured by it.
The level / world design draws a lot of inspiration from the sandbox 3D Mario games. There are actually a lot of references to those games here, from the pan-over of all the major landmarks at the start of the level, to some explicit level concepts ripped straight out of 64 / Odyssey, to the Peach's Castle-esque hub world that hides many secrets of its own. As a big fan of those games, those references were more than welcome, yet never got in the way of the game forming a distinct identity. The humour mostly misses for me, but the PS1-inspired art style was quite charming overall. The flow of the levels feels similar to Super Mario Odyssey, with many hidden rooms that contain more focused platforming challenges and a plentiful amount of Gears (the main collectible) to find. Most Gears are placed in a such a way where you have multiple ways of obtaining them, using any combination of dashes, ramp, dash cancels etc. to reach them. The game is much harder than its inspirations, as you REALLY need to master the moveset and all the hidden moves to 100% the game.
The game felt fantastic to play at the start, but starts to feel tedious as it goes on. It follows a disappointing string of platformers recently that struggle to coalesce in a satisfying way, like the best platformers do. Think of how well the Mario games build to a dramatic conclusion, through great use of theming and escalating level design. Penny's Big Breakaway and Pepper Grinder suffered from this issue, and Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is yet another game that encounters this issue. By the last few worlds, it gives up on the novel level design that made the game initially so captivating, in favour of generic platforming segments that feel so awkward within the game's unconventional mechanics.
I recommend this overall. It was not on my radar at all, so I was shocked by how much I ended up enjoying it. I'm excited to see more stuff from this developer in the future.
Before getting into that last bit, I do want to stress that the game truly feels novel in a way that 3D platformers rarely have since the PS1 days, where developers were constantly experimenting with weird ideas and control schemes. For the uninformed, 'Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom' is a 3D collectathon, with many gameplay elements lifted from 'Crazy Taxi'. It basically takes that game's general mechanics and chaotic gameplay, and translates it to a 3D platformer with big sandbox levels, often set in cityscapes. In an exceptionally bold choice for its genre, the game lacks a traditional jump button, instead relying on bizarre techniques to pull off this function. I won't spoil them all here, but as an example, one of the hidden tricks you can perform requires you to prematurely cancel your dash, which lifts you up slightly into the air, enough to get up small platforms. Most of the time, however, the game wants you to use the momentum from your dash to launch into the air. This trick is the game's biggest accomplishment and was a large part of why I was so initially enamoured by it.
The level / world design draws a lot of inspiration from the sandbox 3D Mario games. There are actually a lot of references to those games here, from the pan-over of all the major landmarks at the start of the level, to some explicit level concepts ripped straight out of 64 / Odyssey, to the Peach's Castle-esque hub world that hides many secrets of its own. As a big fan of those games, those references were more than welcome, yet never got in the way of the game forming a distinct identity. The humour mostly misses for me, but the PS1-inspired art style was quite charming overall. The flow of the levels feels similar to Super Mario Odyssey, with many hidden rooms that contain more focused platforming challenges and a plentiful amount of Gears (the main collectible) to find. Most Gears are placed in a such a way where you have multiple ways of obtaining them, using any combination of dashes, ramp, dash cancels etc. to reach them. The game is much harder than its inspirations, as you REALLY need to master the moveset and all the hidden moves to 100% the game.
The game felt fantastic to play at the start, but starts to feel tedious as it goes on. It follows a disappointing string of platformers recently that struggle to coalesce in a satisfying way, like the best platformers do. Think of how well the Mario games build to a dramatic conclusion, through great use of theming and escalating level design. Penny's Big Breakaway and Pepper Grinder suffered from this issue, and Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is yet another game that encounters this issue. By the last few worlds, it gives up on the novel level design that made the game initially so captivating, in favour of generic platforming segments that feel so awkward within the game's unconventional mechanics.
I recommend this overall. It was not on my radar at all, so I was shocked by how much I ended up enjoying it. I'm excited to see more stuff from this developer in the future.
evy96
2 months ago