THE TAXIS – CRAZY TAXI
Before Uber, the fastest way to get anywhere was by Crazy Taxi. SEGA’s 1999
arcade classic is still playable on Xbox One, while Crazy Taxi 3 was a must-have
title back on the OG console. The premise is simple: pick up passengers and get
them to their destinations within a time limit for maximum points. If you don’t
make it in time, customers literally jump out of your taxi, even while you’re moving.
The black-and-yellow taxis looked really cool, like Gena’s 1965 Mustang or Axel’s
1960 El Dorado. This is a game series that encourages madness, and to this day
while driving for real if we see a car transporter with its ramp down, it makes us
want to blast punk rock on the stereo and go for the jump.
PORSCHE 911 GT2 RS - FORZA MOTORSPORT 7
Now look, before you petrolheads start sending us hate mail, or sending Jeremy
Clarkson round to punch the waiter at our favourite restaurant, we know that
everyone has their own car of preference when it comes to Forza. But here
we’ve gone for the Porsche 911 GT2 RS as our favourite S-series car. While it’s an
obvious choice in many ways, especially given it’s the star of the box art, this is
genuinely a joy to drive. With a 6.1 braking rating and rapid acceleration, you can
take corners comfortably, picking up speed quickly once you’ve finished braking.
It’s also one of the more affordable cars in the game, at 315,000 credits. And just
look at it. We mean, just look at it. It’s beautiful, no?
GENKI MANAPULT– SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD
In a game crammed with ridiculousness, Professor
Genki’s Manapult is the most ridiculous of all its
ridiculous vehicles. It’s a converted Betsy, which is
like an old-fashioned pick-up truck, but with one
crucial difference. It has a huge vacuum on the top
with which you can hoover up pedestrians and then
fire them out like human cannonballs. You can see
it coming, because it’s got Genki’s grinning cat face
on the front, and if you do see it coming, you should
probably get out of the road. And off the sidewalk.
And hide. We almost plumped for the Emu here, not
for the joy of driving the game’s Smart car equivalent,
but more for its in-built destructibility which makes it
your eternal target. If you see one, ram it off the road.RED FERRARI – OUTRUN
As if Magnum PI hadn’t made the red Ferraris cool
enough (that and big, bushy moustaches twinned
with Hawaiian shirts), then driving along coast roads,
with a lady companion in the passenger seat, in that
other iconic ’80s classic, OutRun, most certainly did.
While Magnum drove a Ferrari Berlinetta, OutRun’s
original car is actually a Testarossa Spider, but in
OutRun 2, which appeared on Xbox in 2004, you could
drive up to seven more Ferraris, including the 328 GTS
and F355 Spider as Xbox exclusives. The job of porting
the game to Xbox fell to UK developer Sumo Digital,
which has a number of vehicular games under its belt
including TOCA, F1 and Sonic The Hedgehog racing
titles, and most recently it brought us Crackdown 3.110 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
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