CRAZY TAXI TECHNIQUES

Here are some additional skills you may find useful when playing Crazy Taxi.

Crazy Turn

[Crazy Turn] (from full stop)
Turn Wheel Sharply Left or Right > Floor Gas Pedal

How Do I Do It?

When your cab is at a standstill:

  1. Turn the wheel sharply to the left or right.
  2. Floor the Gas Pedal.

How Can I Tell If I Did It Correctly?

The front of the cab will be anchored in the same position while the rear of the cab rotates around it. You'll keep turning (I believe) until you return the wheel to the forward position or release the Gas Pedal (though I can't imagine an instance where you'd need to turn more than 180°).

Anything Else?

Uh-huh...

  • This move rotates the cab in place like the Crazy Tailspin, but at a much slower speed. That's why it's better to use the Crazy Tailspin just before you drop off or pick up a customer rather than a Crazy Turn afterwards.
  • It's important to turn the wheel hard to the right or left before pressing the Gas Pedal. If you try to do both simultaneously, you may drive forward while turning instead of just rotating.
  • This move is most often used when you pick up a customer that wants to go in the opposite direction your cab is facing. However, a much better plan is to study the customer colors and patterns listed in the Locations Index so this doesn't happen very often.
  • In the event you either can't tell or don't remember which direction a customer wants to go, the best option is to Crazy Drift and/or Crazy Tailspin your cab to a "neutral" direction before stopping on a their pickup circle so you can drive off in either direction without wasting much time. The less often you have to spin your cab around, the better!

Crazy Backdash

[Crazy Backdash] (from full stop or very slow speed)
Drive > Floor Gas Pedal > Reverse

How Do I Do It?

This move can be done while your cab is at a standstill or moving very slowly. Essentially, it is just changing gears to Reverse just after a Crazy Dash. For the record, the elements of this move are:

  1. Tap the gearshift to Drive from either the neutral or Reverse position. (I usually hold it in the Drive position as well.)
  2. Floor the Gas Pedal immediately afterwards.
  3. Change gears to Reverse just as the cab starts to move forward, keeping the Gas Pedal floored.

The Crazy Dash portion of the move is executed just as it's described on the "5 Skills" page.

How Can I Tell If I Did It Correctly?

Your cab will accelerate backwards going much faster than it would drive in reverse normally. If you change gears to Reverse too quickly (or too late), the move may not work. Ideally, the cab will lurch forward just a few inches before rocketing backwards.

Anything Else?

This is not a move you'll use very often, but occasionally it's just what the doctor ordered:

  • At the Yacht Harbor and Lookout Tower destinations, you can use the phone booths to help stop your cab, keeping it parallel with the road. Then if the customers directly behind the phone booths appear and are desirable colors, you can Crazy Backdash (hitting the brake just after you start moving backwards) to quickly pick them up. At the Lookout Tower, you can also use this move to drive backwards to the other side of the street to pick up one of the two customers there.
  • Another use for the Crazy Backdash is when you've overshot a drop-off zone or customer. If the distance is a little more than a few car-lengths, this move can get you right where you wanted to be. However, you should be very familiar with the move's execution first (so you don't accidentally Crazy Dash away from your target.
  • Note that the Crazy Backdash speed burst does not go as fast (or last as long) as a regular Crazy Dash does, so you don't want to drive backwards for long distances. Also, the camera angle does not change when you're driving backwards, so if you have to make any turns, you'd better have a good mental picture of where you're going.

'Official' Crazy Stop

['Official' Crazy Stop] (immediately after a Crazy Dash or Limiter Cut)
Release Gas Pedal > Reverse > Hold Brake

How Do I Do It?

This is the most difficult move in the game to learn:

  1. Execute a Crazy Dash from a standstill or a Limiter Cut while driving at Crazy Dash or Limiter Cut speed.
  2. Immediately release the Gas Pedal.
  3. Then immediately change gears to Reverse and hold down the Brake Pedal.

How Can I Tell If I Did It Correctly?

Breaking a few pertinent laws of physics (not that Crazy Taxi follows most of them anyway), your cab will go from Crazy Dash or Limiter Cut speed to a full stop in a matter of inches. In this process, the rear of your vehicle will rise into the air and sparks will shoot out from the sides.

Anything Else?

An observation and some words of warning...

  • If you know how to Crazy Dash and Crazy Stop, you may have executed the 'Official' Crazy Stop already. It commonly occurs when players Crazy Dash towards then Crazy Stop to pick up the nearest orange customer right at the beginning of the game. If you routinely do this, watch for those tell-tale sparks.
  • It's not too hard to execute the Crazy Dash version of this move (cab starting from a standstill). The Limiter Cut version, however, will take an immense amount of practice to become proficient at. (Hey, it's tough enough just to learn the Limiter Cut.)
  • This is an amazing move that removes about 98% of the time you would normally spend slowing down your cab. Unfortunately, it's not terribly useful at all. Here's why...
    • Obviously, the Limiter Cut version of the 'Official' Crazy Stop is the one that would be most helpful during the game. There aren't very many opportunities for the Crazy Dash version to save you much time.
    • The Limiter Cut version is extremely difficult to pull off successfully — too difficult. Your foot must be completely off the Gas Pedal before you do the Reverse and Brake portion of the move. Also, the window of time for executing this move after the Limiter Cut is very small, which increases the chances that you'll make a mistake.
    • If you do flub the execution, you'll Limiter Cut way past your intended target (unless you can prevent it by driving into something). Even though you apply the Brake at the very end, the overshot distance can still be enormous. This discourages most people (myself included) from becoming proficient at it. Both the learning curve and the price for failure are just too steep.
    • Even if you become able to execute the Limiter Cut version consistently, figuring out when to is still problematic. Given the same distance, the speed your cab is traveling would determine how early you'd want to start the Limiter Cut that leads to the 'Official' Crazy Stop. Stopping with a good degree of precision just isn't possible due to the speed burst you get from the preceding Limiter Cut. That's why you can really only use this move for delivering customers to large drop-off zones. Even if you could use this move to accurately stop in a customer circle, they'd just somersault away from your cab costing you the seconds you were trying to save.

In conclusion, the 'Official' Crazy Stop is not a move that's required to fully enjoy this game.