Development and Marketing
The arcade game was developed by Hitmaker as a variation from then-current arcade titles. The Crazy Taxi cabinet ran on Sega Naomi hardware. It was originally released in arcades as a sit-down machine. An upright version was later released. Over the next few years, the game would be ported to the Dreamcast, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. The ratings board for South Korea revealed on June 1, 2010 that the game was rated for release on Xbox Live Arcade. On June 10, 2010, Sega officially announced Crazy Taxi would be one of several Dreamcast titles to be released for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, and that it would be available in Fall 2010. These ports originally were to force a 4:3 aspect ratio, with widescreen monitors showing blue bars on either side of the screen. In October 2010 it was announced that Crazy Taxi would feature full widescreen support. The game is a port of the Dreamcast version, including both the original arcade and the Dreamcast-exclusive level. The PlayStation Network port was released November 23, 2010, while the Xbox Live Arcade version was released the following day.
In October 2012, Sega announced that Crazy Taxi would be bought to the App Store on iOS devices. The game includes the arcade map and the map introduced for consoles. It also includes all Crazy Box challenges. As in the console versions, if all challenges are completed, a pedicab is unlocked to play the main game with. The taxi can be controlled though either the touch screen or by tilting the device making use of its accelerometer. Critics were impressed with this port as the maps remained unchanged and the controls were intuitive.
Sega applied for and was awarded U.S. Patent 6,200,138–"Game display method, moving direction indicating method, game apparatus and drive simulating apparatus" – in 2001. The mechanics in the "138 patent" describe an arcade cabinet similar to Sega's previous arcade game Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders (1997), but also describe the arrow navigation system and pedestrian avoidance aspects that were used in Crazy Taxi.
Crazy Taxi producer Kenji Kanno noted that the time extension on gameplay was a breakaway of the current "100 yen for 3 minutes" that persisted at the time for arcade games, and rewarded players with longer playing times by performing well in the game. In addition to providing a game that could be played in short sessions, Kanno wanted a game to explore the "daily life and routine" of a taxi driver. In the development of the Dreamcast version of the original arcade game, the developers included a larger map in addition to the arcade one, as to create a feeling of "being lost" and allowing home console players to have fun "learning the town". Mini-games were developed for this version as to "let the player play longer if he improve skill" by offering challenges that were both fun and educational. Over one hundred different ideas for mini-games were developed by the team but then pared down for the Crazy Box mini-game challenges for the game.
Crazy Taxi is also notable for its soundtrack featuring the bands Bad Religion and The Offspring, who provided all of the tracks for the arcade, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and GameCube ports. The PC featured an entirely new soundtrack, omitting the original bands in favor of music from Pivit, Too Rude, and Total Chaos. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Crazy Taxi also exclude the original bands, providing an original soundtrack for the ports. Custom soundtracks can also be used on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 via their system firmware. The iOS version will feature the original soundtrack.
In addition to generic destinations such as the city's police station, rail terminal and lookout point, passengers may also request to be taken to Pizza Hut, Tower Records, the FILA sportswear store, Levi's store or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Crazy Taxi also featured vans on the roads with the WOW! logo on the side. Each of these chains are modeled as a location in the game. This is considered one of the most prominent examples of product placement in video gaming history. These establishments have been replaced with generic businesses in later versions due to licensing difficulties.
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