As with all (well nearly all) retro games, you have to look past the visual aspects of the game to really be absorbed into the fun and sheer addictiveness of the title. With Space Taxi nothing is more true. On first appearances this is a low budget game with nothing you haven’t seen before. However, once you jump in your space taxi and engage your thrusters for the first time and head towards your first paying customer you can almost imagine yourself in a future time where this is the means by which we all travel.
As with all (well nearly all) retro games, you have to look past the visual aspects of the game to really be absorbed into the fun and sheer addictiveness of the title. With Space Taxi nothing is more true. On first appearances this is a low budget game with nothing you haven’t seen before. However, once you jump in your space taxi and engage your thrusters for the first time and head towards your first paying customer you can almost imagine yourself in a future time where this is the means by which we all travel.
This is where the sheer simplicity of the title really pays off. Nothing distracts you from your goal - take off, collect your punter, take him safely to his chosen destination and of course
all importantly collect your fare. Although by today’s standards this might sound a little lacking, with no story, no character progression and no opportunity to spend all your hard earned cash on pointless taxi upgrades, but none of this matters. A (semi) realistic gravity effect combined with a very tricky terrain to negotiate all adds to the challenge, so that when you collect your first customer land him safely and the money is in the bank, a real sense of satisfaction is achieved and this spurs you on and on and on, etc.
An excellent addition to this title (and one which will have you going back even more often) is the two player option. Here you and your `friend` compete for fares although this is a simple idea it is perfectly executed. As you both blast off from your home ranks and race towards a high paying customer you don’t think twice about hovering so closely to your opponent in an attempt to force him to collide with the scenery leaving the fare open to you.
The style of this game is very similar to that of the countless `Lunar Lander` titles but with basic game play tweaked to such an extent that it offers a more potent challenge and as a result of this increases the longevity of the title.
This game truly has all the ingredients to be considered a classic. So if you weren’t fortunate enough (or even if you were) to play this title when if first appeared, I strongly recommend that this is a game you must try now and in no time at all you will be waiting anxiously for the next "Taxi".
