Final Glimpse: If this was from Sega we would call this Crazy Taxi 3000.
It seems like the current gaming world is full of home ports of successful arcade titles. There's Crazy Taxi, Hydro Thunder, the Rush series of racing games, Silent Scopes 1 and 2, and on and on and on... Coming later this month on GameCube and XBox is the Namco and Point of View port of Gaelco's Smashing Drive. The first thing that needs to be said about this game is that it is like Crazy Taxi on futuristic steroids. Now that we have that out of the way let us take a look at what makes the arcade title tick and what we can expect from the home versions.
In the arcade, Smashing Drive is a one-player (or two-player if you find two units linked together) driving game in which you take the wheel of a "super-cab" in New York City. The crazy Taxi influence is heavy in the pick-up-your-fare-and-drop-them-off-for-cash gameplay but Gaelco did put their own flare into things. Unlike Crazy Taxi, Smashing Drive pushes you to find and use the plentiful shortcuts and vehicle power-ups to rake in the top-dollars. Finding the Bigfoot Truck wheels will allow you to drive right over obstacles while using Glider Wings and Power Boosts in tandem will allow you to fly over them. In the head-to-head mode you can use these boosts to take out the competition and help assure your victory.
The home editions of Smashing Drive are planning to capture all of the frantic action that made the arcade title a hit. A two-player competition mode is going to be standard fare as is the single player quest for more fares. At this point, the screen shots that have been released look okay, but aren't doing the arcade graphics justice. The real question that has yet to be answered is how will the control translate onto the consoles. Part of the magic of playing Smashing Drive in the arcade is the entire experience, specifically the rumbling seat and driving wheel. It will be interesting to see how the game holds up without them.
