When it comes to titles I first loved in the arcade, then on a console, and wish would grace my screen once again, Crazy Taxi is absolutely a title high on my list. The mix of frantic action, ridiculous physics, cranking soundtrack, and relatively strong play that you could enjoy in bursts, to then come back to later, absolutely made it memorable. Unfortunately, the game’s success has since also felt like lightning in a bottle, with pretty well every attempt to replicate or somehow improve on it failing to make any headway. 

In the case of the first Taxi Chaos, the goal seemed to be to try to replicate the OG experience as best as possible, but it instead came across like a pretty soulless rehash that lacked both energy and excitement. Now, with the sequel, it feels like the plan was instead to try to add new elements and features to try to update the classic formula instead. While the result does show glimmers of hope, and some of the new abilities you can add to your ride over time do enhance the core potential for navigating the city, the game still struggles on the whole to make for a satisfying package.

The thing is, at least some of the issues in theory could be addressed to improve things. The main one that comes to mind is that the in-game help trying to get you to your fare destinations is pretty awful. Granted, if you opt to take on the game’s Pro Level you won’t be getting any help for getting where you need to go, but even when the game is trying to be helpful it comes up woefully short. The biggest mistake is the decision to try to make the directions layered onto the roadways themselves, instead of as something like a mid-air indicator arrow like many titles use. Not only is this method quite unreliable, often just not working, it is obviously of no use when trying to take shortcuts or going off road in some way. When you then throw in the verticality of the city, attempting to find reliable alternate routes to get around is harder than it should be, and it often feels like you’re being penalized for trying to cheat the clock.

Of course, if there was still something here to get your pulse racing, perhaps the experience could have been salvaged, but much like the original this sequel has a hard time trying to inspire excitement. The cranked high-energy soundtrack has been replaced by loads of random comments from your fares, which hardly compensate at all. The simplicity of moving as quickly as possible from Point A to B has been augmented by goals and objectives that will vary at different times of day, with some special events that will pop up as well that do at least often change things up in some way, but they still don’t really deliver on added excitement either. While there’s plenty to grind for and unlock, and some of the new rides or features you can work with can add to the fun, at the end of the day it still lacks the addictive rush and energy of the classic arcade title that inspired it, so it’s ultimately a bit disappointing.