As a city-dweller, I’m in a taxi a few times each week. I’ve had my share of bad drivers — the ones that take the long way, the ones that jabber on their phones, the ones that go over San Francisco’s hills so fast that your stomach drops — but none can compare to the drivers of Crazy Taxi. I’m not sure I’ll be getting in a taxi for a while.

I knew that this game was well-loved by SEGA fans, but I had never played it before. So when we were picking games to play and blog about for the PSP Go launch, I snapped this one up. I love driving and generally like driving games. Plus, I just wanted to see what all this hype was about.

I cracked open the case, put in the game, and got started on Crazy Taxi 1. The game actually has both Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 on it, but I figured best to start at the beginning. Even though I was really terrible at first (I think I killed the population of a small country on the first go), I was also really hooked. As I started to learn the city more, I started to attempt some of the crazy moves — the Crazy Dash and the Crazy Drift being two that I got pretty good at.  Even though I kept accidentally drowning my passengers on that evil patch of road with water on either side, they kept talking, screaming, and jumping out just the same.

Having mastered some of the moves, I forged ahead to Crazy Taxi 2. I don’t know if it was me or the game, but I did much better at Crazy Taxi 2 than I did at the original. First, no water driving. Although I never got the hang of the Crazy Hop, I did manage to improve on my skills to the point that I got a B license. (Starting from a D, I was pretty proud of myself.)

There are lots of options in this game. You can play the course from the arcade version as well as the course from the first console version. There are mini-games you can play to help hone your driving skills, and there are two courses in Crazy Taxi 2 to master. There’s also multiplayer modes for two PSP systems, so you can play with a friend.

This is a really robust game that will keep you playing over and over. I can see what all the hype is about on this game, and I’m now a fan as well. Crazy Taxi is also Crazy Fun, and I’m excited that it’s on the PSP Go for more people to pick up and get hooked on.