#21
'Crazy Taxi'
for the SEGA Dreamcast released in 2000.
'Crazy Taxi' is one of the best open-world games available. Not because you can do everything imaginable, but because it's fun, gives great freedom and does the one thing it's made for perfectly. The game has one true objective, pick up customers with your cab and get them to their destination. Sounds simple enough, but it's not as boring as it would be in real life.
The game is about getting those customers as fast as possible to those destinations. This implies that the player must race through the town taking shortcuts and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The faster a customer gets to their destination, the more money the player will earn. Extra money is also earned by showing your customers a wild ride. Apparently, the inhabitants of this town appreciate a thrill.
First released in the arcades and later ported to the Dreamcast, 'Crazy Taxi' on consoles still follows arcade rules. Basically, it's about high-score, or, the most money in this case. The game features no 'story' or 'career' modes, but does feature challenge modes. Also, more cabs can be unlocked in the course of the game. At the time it was an original game-concept that was also able to stand the test of time, but sadly to me, the franchise and the open-world games as a whole died a little for me when nothing came along that was better than 'Crazy Taxi'.
#20 Hint:
We've entered the Hall of Fame of video gaming now. Without any one of these games, I'd have lost interest in gaming a long time ago. So here's the hint for #20: One version of this game had a different color in the region where it originally was released.
