XMAS Taxi is a Christmas themed sequel of Astro Taxi game released on Indie Games in September 2009, read our review here as this review will not go into as much detail as Astro Taxi. Does this version bring some Christmas cheer or is it an unwanted present like a pair of socks?* Read on to find out.
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XMAS Taxi has 24 brand new levels with Christmas themed scenery such as snow, Christmas trees and snowmen. As with the original, the level designs are good and progressively increase in difficulty. I felt the level objectives were occasionally a little tough to meet in the original and I think they have been relaxed a bit in XMAS Taxi. This makes for a less frustrating game thus more enjoyable to play.
The controls have been tweaked to be more responsive which does make the game slightly easier but this is a good thing. In the original game, the Taxi sometimes got a little out of control usually resulting in a crashed Taxi. The controls were fine but they now feel much more natural which adds to the fun of the game, it should be noted that the original Astro Taxi will be updated for the new controls.
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Everything else remains much the same as the original, I wont go over it all again as you can read it in the Astro Taxi review here. The Christmas themed graphics adds a little extra to the visuals, a little jingle bell sound here or there would have been funny to go with the theme but unfortunately it is just the visuals that got the Christmas changes.
Understandably some people may have some thoughts on Christmas themed variants of existing releases. They can be seen as cash cows, a quick change of the code to add a bit of snow and shove it out on Marketplace as a Christmas themed game. If done properly with some new levels and general improvements it can work well, XMAS Taxi falls into this category.
Sure, the developers could have added the new levels to the original, but one of my thoughts in Astro Taxi was that the price of 240 :MSPoints: was possibly too high to bring in new players to the genre. Maybe the developers thought the same because XMAS Taxi is priced at 80 :MSPoints:, for this you are getting 24 levels compared to 30 on Astro Taxi which costs three times as much, a bargain!
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So is XMAS Taxi worth purchasing? It is a resounding Yes! If you enjoyed Astro Taxi you will have likely purchased XMAS Taxi already before reading the review, it is more of the same addictive gameplay with 24 new levels to play on. If you were not too sure of the original, possibly because the controls were at first tricky or the price was too high, then you should definitely try this version. The price of 80 :MSPoints: is spot on, either as extra levels for existing Astro Taxi fans or as a new game.
You can find more information as well as the trial and full version of XMAS Taxi on the Marketplace.
* I like socks for Christmas presents, I get a nice stockpile at Christmas and I do not need to buy any more for another year, by which time Christmas has returned and I get a new stockpile. Some gadgets would be cool instead of socks though, please give gadgets this year, I have a sowing needle and thread!
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