Bite-sized Review:
Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom

By Chris Picone, 13 April 2024

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is a really fun new platformer that'll have you racing around collecting coins and trying to find secrets.  There's some obvious inspiration coming from early Mario games and it does parody those in its way.  As you can probably tell, the game doesn't take itself too seriously.  It's got a great sense of humour and it's all about zipping around having fun.

Aesthetics

Those blocky retro graphics scream Nintendo 64 and Yellow Taxi wears its Mario inspiration on its sleeve.  Honestly this aesthetic is a perfect fit for this game, it's definitely part of its charm.  There's a surprisingly decent range of landscapes, buildings, and objects throughout the game and much of it can be interacted with - usually this means it can be destroyed or bounced on.

Gameplay

Although it may look a lot like a Mario Kart or racing game, it definitely isn't.  It's a platformer.  The whole game is all about trying to find secret doors, bash holes in walls, or launch yourself into the sky as you try to work out how to get to hard to reach places find secret areas.  And there are absolutely tons to find.  Each level is usually much larger than it appears at first glance, and there are tons of levels. This is a surprisingly big game.  The coins are actually your secondary objective, in a way; they can be used to unlock cosmetics (usually silly hats) that you can find hidden in the levels.  What you're really looking for is cogs, which can be used to unlock portals to new levels.  Unlike most platformers you can't jump but you do have the ability to do a bizarre "dash" move. It will launch you very quickly and in the direction you're facing, which is often somewhat vertical, allowing you to propel yourself to great heights.  You can also control the car mid-air, including accelerating and braking, to try to spring yourself from one platform to the next.  It's silly and a lot of fun.

Verdict

If you're looking for a fun, silly game that encourages you to just get crazy and see what you can get away with, this is it.  And honestly the game just keeps getting cooler the further in you get.  Find those secrets, get those coins!

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2011780/Yellow_Taxi_Goes_Vroom/