Driving simulator is such a boring name for the frantic pace of Crazy Taxi, which pitted cab drivers against, well, the rest of the world. This wasn't a simple drag race arcade game, there was money and reputation at stake when you assumed one of the four cab driver personae: B.D. Joe, Axel, Gena and Gus.

The object of Crazy Taxi was actually very realistic. As a taxi driver, you had to pick up customers and drive them to their preferred destination as quickly and safely as possible. At that point, Crazy Taxi waved goodbye to reality and you could, nay, you were encouraged to drive against the flow of traffic, hop sidewalks, and weave through rush hour bottlenecks. Granted, the majority of real life cabbies do all these things anyway.

Each cab driver had different strengths and weaknesses. For example, novice players might start out with Axel who was fairly balanced and average. B.D. Joe was a speed demon but hard to control. Gena had the best reflexes and acceleration times and Gus drove a boat of a car that was heavy enough to bust through traffic but not very fast. Other than other cars and road obstacles, drivers had to watch out for signs of impatience in their passengers, who were likely to jump out of the cab if you took too long. Losing a customer meant losing whatever money you had accumulated on the meter as well. At end of play, licenses were awarded to the cabbie ranging from the very poor Class E (boo!) to A (yay!) or even a 'CRAZY!' license that meant you could drive a cap at light speed, breaking every single traffic law on the books and some laws that weren't even invented yet.

The nutty, fast-paced fun of Crazy Taxi won over arcade players and home video game aficionados, many of them teenagers who could only dream of reenacting the Crazy Taxi stunts once they got their own driving license.