Crazy Taxi 2 has arrived - just in time to save you from this large drought of Dreamcast games. This awesome sequel manages to maintain the same flavor as the original game, yet throws in just enough new elements to spice it up a bit.

The game has the same look as Crazy Taxi with one major difference: The sequel is in a New York inspired city setting, whereas the first game was in a San Francisco inspired city. It seems as if there are less polygons used in this game, but the speed and framerate never dip as they did in Crazy Taxi. All in all, the game looks gorgeous and zips along at a great pace with no pop-up or slowdown.

There are 4 new drivers to choose from, PLUS the 4 original drivers are unlockable, making the total of choices 8. The bike is unlockable once again too. To unlock the goodies, you must play the Crazy Pyramid game. This consists of mini-games(pop the balloons before time runs out, take passenger to destination without falling off the road suspended in the sky etc.) set up in a pyramid which you must beat to ascend. Each mini-game gets increasingly difficult as you move up the pyramid.

Gameplay stays the almost the same. There are two cities to choose from, full of passengers that need to get somewhere, usually some real place like FAO Schwarz or Burger King. You can play by arcade rules, or work for 3,5 or 10 minute shifts. The major differeences in gameplay in the sequel are: Multiple passengers and the Crazy Hop. CT2 has multiple passenger pick-ups this year. This means you can pickup 2,3,4(5?) passengers at a time, you're given a large chunk of time, and you've got to get all of them to their destinatations in time. Pretty cool. Even cooler is the new Crazy Hop. You just press Y and your cab jumps in the air like the Mach 5. This comes in especially handy when you're nearing a cross intersection and you need to hop the traffic, plus the passengers give you good tips for jumping!

New tunes by The Offspring and others give the soundtrack a similar sound from Crazy Taxi, but the addition of a lot of new voice work and one liners from the passengers and cabbies really embellish the game in a great way.

All said,Crazy Taxi 2 is a fun game that improves upon its predecessor without forgetting it's roots one bit. It should make a for a solid purchase for anybody who was into the first game.
---Mike O'Toole