As strange as it sounds, this was one of the first arcade games I was really into... I cannot remember exactly why I got it (might have been brainwashed by Official Dreamcast Magazine!), but dammit was it worth it! I played it all of the time, everyone I knew liked it, even the girliest of girly girls were completely in love with the game and would play hours with everyone. Crazy Taxi is a damn classic, and it is one everyone likes, at least a little bit.
The more I think about it, the more worried I am. SEGA better not fuck this one up. It is so easy to get it right, but knowing how sketchy they have been with downloadable releases... I am not sure what to think. The game needs to run perfectly at all times, it needs all of the Dreamcast extras and more, even just slightly more would not hurt. Most of all though, it needs a very good set of leaderboards that compares you to everyone who played, a separate one that compares you with your friends local and online and a bunch of leaderboards for each Crazy Box event. All of this put into a 800 point bundle with at the very least, decent achievements would be irresistible IMHO.
I think the blanket explanation for why people would buy any re-released game again is of course that not everybody kept the original version and the original system. Granted, emulations may not be absolutely perfect, but many people find them preferable to trying to store and maintain a stable of aging consoles... the oldest ones of which sometimes require physical modification of video and audio outputs. In the past, I was much more into keeping a physical collection of games and music, but as time has gone on and I've seen other members of my family succumb to the burden of being packrats, I have gained more and more appreciation for non-physical music and games.
And, as already mentioned, online leaderboards are pretty addictive when several of your friends have the same game.
I think a great way to say this release is worth buying the game again would be online features and achievements.
Though, as time goes on I notice myself playing my Dreamcast less and less because almost all of it's best games are on other platforms, and sometimes they are even way better! It is sad to think that while I will continue playing my Genesis years and years from now I will just have very few reasons for plugging in my Dreamcast every other week, which has turned into every other month, which might be every other year soon... :cry: :cry: :cry:
Can't wait for the day Shadi gets his own personality and stops being the 'me too' of any guy he's got a crush on.
Do not be too hard on him. My money is on Fluffy telling him to back him up, notice how it was one of the only posts Shadi ever had on the SEGA section, for instance!