You could call Crazy Taxi a precursor to the wildly popular open-world style of gameplay that's currently prevalent in games from Grand Theft Auto to Saints Row. Rather than presenting you with discrete courses, Crazy Taxi gave you a wide-open city to burn rubber through, as you attempted to get one passenger after another to his or her destination within a set time limit. The series hasn't been seen for quite some time, but now Sega is revisiting Crazy Taxi on the PSP with the newly announced Fare Wars, and we hit up associate producer Stephen Frost to fill us in on the nitty-gritty.
GameSpot: Why did you decide to bring Crazy Taxi to the PSP?
Fare Wars will give you the same high-flying Crazy Taxi action you know and love.
Stephen Frost: There are a lot of reasons why we decided to bring the Crazy Taxi series to the PSP, but the main one is probably the fact that it is still one of the most popular and well-known Sega franchises. The series has a great history and fan base as it has appeared on quite a few game consoles and the PC, so resurrecting the series on the popular handheld will provide us an opportunity to offer up this game to an even larger audience who may not have had a chance to take Crazy Taxi for a spin. The simple pick-up-and-play design of the series lends itself well to handheld gaming, which is why the PSP made so much sense.
GS: Why did you choose to include both Crazy Taxi games instead of make an original one?
SF: That's a good question. We thought long and hard about it and decided that there were still a lot of gamers out there who either haven't had a chance to play the original two titles in the series or would enjoy playing these games on the handheld. Both of those titles are great in their own right and are especially suited to short playing sessions, which is obviously great for gaming on the go. They still hold up against the test of time, so we felt that an enhanced version of these classics would be the ideal way to not only introduce Crazy Taxi to a new generation of gamers but also bring back longtime fans of the series who have been asking for a portable version.