Now, if I was to ask you to name a car game on the Dreamcast whats the first game that comes to mind?.. Sega gt?.. Sega Rally2?.. what about San Francisco Rush 2049? Probably Crazy Taxi yeah?
Me too, Crazy Taxi was not only the first car driving game I played on the Dreamcast but was also the first game in general on the Dreamcast, but im not a big fan, although the world is big and the game has a great arcade feel, but its lack of variety means I cant keep myself sitting there playing it for more than an hour at a time. Mind you that’s partly because of the music too. The crazy box extended it out a bit but really its just drive, pick up a passenger, drive, drop them off, rinse, wash and repeat.. You can’t upgrade your car and there’s no real variety of missions. Don’t get me wrong im not hating on the game but there was defiantly room for improvement, taking the open city and having the ability to drive around where ever you want is good, but having a change of missions would of been nice and that’s where super runabout comes in.
History:
Here we have the third game in the series previously exclusive to the PlayStation 1 following Runabout 2 and Felony 11-79. The ps1 version was good but needed some serious upgrades as the old 32bit system wasn’t really able to handle what that type of game required, so high expectation was held when it came to a sequel on the Dreamcast, Sadly Super Runabout San Fran falls so short, not even close and its a real shame cause it had real potential with great game design and a solid team developing it but it was just rushed. See, where Super Runabout shows its flaws is where Crazy Taxis strengths are, like strong handling, solid controls, well designed physics and good visuals, but where Crazy Taxi falls short is where Super Runabout is good with its ton of options and car upgrades, mixed up missions and even two separate scenarios.
The 2 scenarios are:
Scenario A:You play a messenger service that does delivery’s and bomb disposals, and such or..
Scenario B: You play a laid back cop doing missions like ramming into a runaway cable car to stop it, or delivering mustard and ketchup to city hall.
The game does not really give you a test of challenge but more a test of patience, as u find yourself dealing with some very odd physics as well as some very strange AI like when your driving along and then out of nowhere a jeep from the other side of the road will just bee line straight into you, thus stopping you from reaching your destination before the timer runs out, which in turn will make you want to pull your hair out b4 rage quitting. On the lighter side the game does offer plenty of car choices from motorbikes to trucks and even offers upgrades to your cars like breaks or grip, not that it counts for anything as the game lacks any form of normal physics at all, For example when u crash into another car or wall your car will roll backwards forwards sideways and anyway it can but the way its meant to its very strange but funny, while spinning there is no way you can ease it with some clever steering or weight manipulation like GTA, its just a matter of sitting back and watching the car do its trippy thing. The graphics are but an after thought compared to Crazy Taxi, the characters look like their right out of a ps1 game or even a Saturn game all blocky and choppy and I know its not important compared to the game play but when you have seen so many other Dreamcast games outshining it and showing of how powerful the DC can be, then its hard to understand why the developers settled for less than what could be done at the time. Also with a very low draw distance that would be closely compared to the first Daytona on the Saturn.
I know it sounds like im giving the game a good bashing here,, but there is a lot of fun still to be had, The bad physics is great to have a laugh at with friends. And the missions are always fresh and interesting.
But if you haven’t played a driving game on the Dreamcast, start with something else, like San Francisco Rush 2049 or Sega Rally2 or even, even Crazy Taxi.
Score:
Graphics: Blocky, short draw distance: 51
Sound: Cool surf music, mostly drowned out by the voices : 90
Playability: Very odd physics to get used to but very fun lots of exploring to be done: 81
Lastabillity: Lots of options and choices means that game can keep changing so as long as your still into it: 87
Value For Money: You can get the pal version for about 10 Aussie dollars so for the amount of fun you can get out of it that is pretty good: 88
Overall: Quirky game, fun interesting missions. nice big open world, misfires in some places but overall its very worthy: 85
