Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire isn’t exactly the type of game you might expect from the popular arcade franchise, however it’s simplistic formula can keep you hooked for a little while.
SEGA has been busy reviving the Crazy Taxi brand recently, with the last release happening just before Christmas. We’d argue that the latter was a more faithful rendition as this one feels nothing more than an idle-clicker. These types of games tend to offer the same gameplay no matter what the theme, so we were interested to see if developer Demiurge Studios had managed to throw in any new stuff to spice things up a bit.
Crazy Taxi Gazillionaires throws you straight into the thick of it with only a small tutorial, though thankfully that’s all you’ll need. The mechanics are incredibly simple; collect fares and hire more staff to speed up income. Initially, you’ll only be able to pick up one customer at a time, though this quickly changes after only a few minutes of gameplay.
Within ten minutes I already had a fleet of three taxis taking fares around the city, with my average income around 30K per hour. It’s worth noting that you continue to earn money even when the game isn’t running (albeit at a slower rate), so the paywall issue commonly associated with such titles isn’t quite as bad.
Once you’ve begun to amass a favorable amount of cash, the dilemma emerges of whether to save up for higher level cabbies or upgrade existing ones.
Fares are acquired by clicking on the numerous customers that appear on screen. You’ll then see one of your taxis speed to the location and collect the passenger, where they’ll then drop them off at a designated point. Bonus money can be earned for hitting the yellow hazard markers, which will make the taxi perform a stunt or smash into a police car (this is Crazy Taxi after all).
Once you’ve begun to amass a favorable amount of cash, the dilemma emerges of whether to save up for higher level cabbies or upgrade existing ones. I found the most success by utilising a careful combination of both, focusing on lower level cabbies and bringing their income up to that of more expensive vehicles.
Upgrading cabbies to make them faster is one thing, but increasing their average fare income is something else. To do this, you need to promote your driver using special tickets. These are unlocked for completing certain milestones and can be repeatedly cashed in every few hours. Using a combination of the two is pretty much like a multiplier, making overall income go through the roof.
Demiurge Studios has managed to get a nice balance between purchases and natural progression, implementing a system where you can watch advertisements to cut waiting times and increase income.
With all of these different upgrading options at your disposal, you’re probably surprised that we haven’t mentioned the obligatory in-app purchases yet. That’s because in Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire, it’s actually not much of a problem. Demiurge Studios has managed to get a nice balance between purchases and natural progression, implementing a system where you can watch advertisements to cut waiting times and increase income.
We’ve seen this mode work brilliantly on titles such as Nonstop Knight in the past and it works equally well here, allowing players to completely avoid the paywall if they’re willing to grind a little.
Unfortunately, this is where Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire has perhaps its biggest downfall. While the game is fun to start with, the repetitive nature of the title offers little to keep players coming back. Buying more expensive cabbies in higher tiers will unlock new areas to play in but the end result is always the same; lots of clicking but very little engagement. It’s at this point where we started to realise that despite the pretty graphics and wealth of unlockables, there just isn’t that much to do.
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