Space Taxi

Title           Space Taxi
Category        Miscellaneous
Author          Andreas Spreen
Players         1 to 4
HD Installable  Yes
Compatibillity  All
Aminet Path     game/misc/spacetaxi3.lha
Submission      Joachim Froholt Profiled Reviewer

Review
I love this game!

In case that exclamation wasn't enough to make you download the game from
the Aminet (It's available for free!!!), here's a review of it:

In Space Taxi, you are a taxi driver. In space. The game is all about
flying around in various single screen 2D landscapes, picking up people
and flying them to wherever they want to go. Think of it as a cross
between Lunar Lander, Gravity Force and, well, taxi driving.

Each level consists of a single screen and contain a number of platforms
which you can land on. When you start playing, some small people will
appear on the platforms, waving at you. If you land near them, they will
board the taxi and tell you which platform they want you to fly them to.
Once you start flying again, a bonus counter will start counting down from
1000. If you reach your destination before it reaches 0, you'll get extra
points.

The levels are also filled with various traps, switches, doors and other
things which will either hinder or help your progress. The authors have
obviously thought long and hard to come up with innovative features. For
instance, some levels contains deadly balls which chase you until you
manage to land. Other levels contains zones where you can't control your
taxi properly, while others contains magnetic fields and wind.

In addition to all this, you've got to watch your fuel reserves. Each
level has a refuelling platform, but fuel costs. For every unit of fuel
you get, you'll pay with a point from your score. If your score is at 0,
you can't get any more fuel. If you want high scores, you will have to
consider fuel economy all the time.

Several players can take part at the same time (maximum 4). They can
either cooperate or compete. Competing is, as always, the most fun, but if
your intention is to complete as many levels as possible, cooperation will
be the best route to take.

Skill is important in this game. The levels will start off very easy, but
once you begin to get used to the controls, you will be presented with
much harder challenges. After a couple of hours of practising, there's
nothing you can't do with your taxi. Of course, that's when you get cocky
and end up smashed into the ground...

The graphics are rather good, far above average for a PD game. Everything
is crisp and clear, and each level has it's own distinct graphical style.
The sound effects are very cool. The little people shout "Hey Taxi!", and
tell you where they want you to fly them. Everyone has their own voice,
and if you're tired of hearing them speak in english, you can make them
speak german. You can also include your own sample sets. The game also
includes several small music modules, most of which seems to be
conversions from famous Commodore 64 tunes.

Although this description of the Space Taxi might make it sound a bit
boring (flying passengers from platform to platform.. how fun can it be?),
I can promise you that this game is everything but boring. It is
incredibly enjoyable, both as a one player game and a multiplayer game. If
you haven't done so already, download it now. If you don't like it, all
you have to do is delete it from your HD (somehow, I can't see that
happening....). What else is there to say?


History Lesson No. 64
Space Taxi originally appeared on the C64, in 1984. It was created by Muse
Software, and has spawned several clones on the Amiga, and probably some
on other platforms as well. One of these clones is Air Taxi, which you can
find a review of at this very site.

Alphabetical list.