Game Review: Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars

Game: Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 7th August 2007

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars takes the Dreamcast classics Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2 and bundles them into a handheld collection of sorts. It should be known that I'm a huge fan of all 3 original Crazy Taxi games and so I won't be discussing the games themselves at length so much as the changes that have been made to them for this version, and the differences between this and the Dreamcast versions.

In terms of gameplay, both games have kept their fast paced feel and picking up/dropping off passengers is as fun as ever. There appears to be a little slowdown in frame rate every now and then, but it's not constant enough to be an issue. The controls are much the same as in the Dreamcast version though the layout of the buttons on the PSP means there are obvious differences. Tapping circle and the R button to boost is a little harder to do than B and the right trigger on the original.

With all the challenges and modes intact from both games, Fare Wars is probably the most complete and playable version of Crazy Taxi, succeeding where the Playstation 2 and Gamecube versions failed. There's a new multiplayer mode for both games, but without two PSPs I wasn't able to check it out. It's a shame that Crazy Taxi 3 wasn't able to make its way onto this compilation as well, but perhaps there just wasn't enough space on the UMD.

One of the more noticeable changes to the games is the removal of licensed destination names. No longer are we told to "Take me to Pizza Hut!", now it's simply named 'The Pizza Place'. While this isn't a huge change, it can be more of an issue when you've got used to all of the destinations in the original games. It's still pretty easy to tell which stores the game is attempting to display, however as the visuals are only slightly edited to remove the brand names.

The most glaring omission in the game is the removal of The Offspring and Bad Religion's songs from the soundtrack. Instead we're given songs which would sound more at home behind a race on Gran Turismo 4 (and that's not a compliment). It is possible to give the games a custom soundtrack by loading music onto your PSP's MemoryStickDuo, but it's a lot of effort to go to just to hear the games as they were meant to be. The in game voice clips have also been completely re-recorded, though they're mostly similar to what was there before.

Visually the game hasn't changed too much from the original releases, although there's an annoying blur effect which is unlockable, and should be kept off at all times in the option menu. Overall the two games are a good representation of the originals, and provide much of the excitement that went with them. There's not much more you could ask of a PSP re-release of these classics.

Rating: 77/100
Grade: B

Game Review: Simcity DS

Game: Simcity DS
Console: Nintendo DS
Developer: Aki Corp.
Release Date: 19th June 2007

While there are many games in the SimCity series, for the most part they can easily be divided into 2D and 3D games where the 3D instalments take a far more complex approach to city building compared to the fairly simple setup and zoning featured in the 2D games. SimCity DS is somewhere between these categories however, with a 2D graphical approach and fairly simple building options mixing with a few of the more complex features from later games such as water distribution and requests from individual citizens on behalf of particular demographics.

As a city building game, the goal of the main mode is to increase your population to the point where no more people can physically live in your city, whilst keeping the general happiness level high through a variety of factors. Information can be accessed regarding the quality of life, crime rate, amount of waste, power, fire risk, pollution and transport options in each area of the map.While there's no data for overall happiness, I can only assume it's an aggregation of the factors on each datasheet which is represented by the amount of people moving or away from the city.

In the main mode, a civic advisor offers insight into what needs to be done in order to expand the city, though this is only basic tips rather than a detailed plan of action. There's a choice of advisors, but for the most part they'll compliment whatever decisions are made. The build mode is accessed by tapping a small icon on the main game screen, and pauses the flow of time until exited. Within the build mode it's possible to place new zones, buildings, roads and other features with a fairly intuitive system of control.

Once build mode has been closed there's very little players can do, save for watching their city expand and waiting for citizens to petition them for new buildings and services. As such, much of the game is spent waiting for enough expansion to take place to warrant new zones and building. Often players will also need to wait for their bank balance to go up sufficiently to be able to afford to build.
While this is a problem with SimCity games in general, very few of the other instalments insist on the game being paused for building to take place.

Unfortunately the game doesn't feature enough depth to give an organic feel to the growth of the player's city. There's a constant cycle in place of building residential zones for people to move into, a little more industrial to give them jobs, some commercial for them to relax and spend their money and maybe a few parks and libraries for their free time before starting over again. It's only once a city reaches 50,000 or so in population that things become a little less simple. I found myself giving up on my city after reaching a population of 70,000, as a fire devastated one area, accidentally severing power to much of my city causing 40,000 people to leave. Despite my every attempt, I couldn't get the population back up to the level it had been at, so I decided to call it a day.

In addition to the main Build-A-City mode which is freeform for the most part, there's also a Save The City mode in which players take on cities in crisis and attempt to fix whatever problems exist. Usually these problems focus on a singular aspect such as traffic jams, the economy or the crime rate. This mode is a refreshing break from building your own city, and can be more of a challenge as much of the time, players will be directly in control of the traffic/crime rate etc. in their own cities.

Graphically the game isn't particularly bad for being on a handheld, and I'm definitely glad that the developers didn't take the cartoonish route, but when zoomed in the map details are pretty fuzzy and low quality. The musical accompaniment to the game can get fairly annoying as there aren't that many tracks and one of them has a repeating note which sounds like a warning alarm.

Overall Simcity DS isn't the worst it could have been on the console; it plays quite a bit like the original SimCity for SNES, with a couple of upgrades in detail and the use of the bottom screen comes in handy much of the time. In terms of being able to compete with more modern PC and console versions of SimCity however, there's really no contest as this version of the game lacks complexity. Once you've built one city, you've pretty much experienced all the game has to offer, save for the scenario modes.

Rating: 71/100
Grade: C

Game Review: Midtown Madness 3

Game: Midtown Madness 3
Console: Microsoft Xbox
Developer: Digital Illusions CE
Release Date: 17th June 2003

With the first two instalments on PC, Midtown Madness was a series that largely flew under my radar at the time of its release. The third and final release in the series, Midtown Madness 3 challenges players to go undercover in 2 cities; Paris and Washington D.C. in order to solve 2 cases through working in a variety of jobs such as Delivery Worker, Limo Driver, Ambulance Driver and finally breaking their cover to solve each case.

Each job has 4 missions, 3 of which are available once the job has been unlocked and a fourth which unlocks after every other mission has been completed. Beating the final mission on a job will unlock the next job and allow players to continue progressing through the game. Most missions are under 5 minutes in length though their difficulty increases as the game progresses, and some of the harder ones take a few tries to beat.

While the handling is arcade like for the most part, it's pretty easy to get used to and despite crashes being difficult to avoid sometimes, driving is still a fun experience. The overall sense of speed isn't anything special, and often 120mph on the speedometer will feel more like 60-70mph. The range of cars featured in the game is good, although there's a large amount of service vehicles such as taxis, ambulances, and delivery cars rather than licensed vehicles. Alternative paint jobs for each car are hidden around the two cities, though they're not really worth collecting unless you're a completionist.

The two cities featured in the game are fairly large in size, especially for the era though they're certainly not as large as their real life counterparts. Paris feels as if it has more character and point of interest than Washington D.C. but this may be true in real life as well as in game. Aside from the main undercover mode, there's some race modes and a free roam available, but these are only supplementary and don't entertain for long.

Undercover mode has some interesting moments and is well worth playing, but can be inconsistent in terms of overall difficulty. Both campaigns are fairly similar, with the same mission types and even some of the same professions appearing across both cities. Gameplay is reminiscent of such games as Super Runabout and even Crazy Taxi at times, with a floating arrow that sometimes sends players the wrong way.

While the overall story might not be all that enjoyable, the mission based concept and humourous presentation give the game an element of fun and light heartedness that is perhaps missing from many games of the present day. Sometimes it's fun just to see how much mayhem can be caused, though without much of a damage engine, it's difficult to measure quite how much chaos has occurred.

Graphically the game features some impressive visuals for having been released in 2003. The cars, buildings, and scenery are all fairly detailed, especially for the map size, and the only real letdowns are the slightly wonky physics engine and lack of damage to cars. Musically the game has a fairly bland electronic accompaniment which is drowned out by engine noise, and most other sound effects.

Overall Midtown Madness 3 is a decent driving game which allows players to work undercover in a variety of jobs, following a humourous storyline with a few standout missions. There's nothing to keep players coming back though, and one playthrough of the undercover mode should be more than sufficient to experience all the game has to offer.

Rating: 64/100
Grade: C