31 Games like Crazy Taxi on Xbox that you should try

The first outing for the grapple-and-parachute traversal the series became known for, though far cruder here — the hook is limited and stunt-jumping between vehicles is the main trick. The island is large and mostly empty, missions repeat a handful of templates, and the driving physics are loose enough that chases become guesswork.

A physics sandbox first and a shooter a distant second. The grapple and parachute let you chain traversal indefinitely, and most of the fun comes from improvising with them rather than from any mission. Expect repetition: the island is enormous but the objectives recycle a handful of templates, and the story is barely present.

The one that established the template: a 3D open city with radio stations, missions on call and free roaming between them. Historically it matters enormously. It has aged the hardest of the era — no mission checkpoints, no map markers for much of it, a silent protagonist, and shooting that amounts to auto-aim and hoping.

Tighter and more focused than the open worlds that followed it, with a compact city you learn by heart rather than by map marker. Driving carries most of the game. The shooting has aged badly — no proper cover, stiff aiming — and missions restart from the beginning, which turns a late failure into a long redo.

New Bordeaux and its period soundtrack are exceptional, and the story handles race and its era with more seriousness than the genre usually manages. Driving feels heavy and right. The structure undercuts all of it — the same racket-clearing loop repeats across every district, and the mission variety runs out long before the map does.

A tightly linear crime story set in a 1940s and 50s American city, more interested in Vito's decade than in filling a map with icons — the world is a backdrop for the narrative, not a checklist. The writing and period detail are why people still recommend it. This original SKU is the problem: it is a 32-bit build that crashes and stutters badly on current Windows, and the Definitive Edition exists.

Welcome to the Ultimate Expedition! Journey over grueling mountains, hazardous swamps, and bone-dry deserts on a distant world far from civilization - it is just you, your fellow adventurers and the amazing, jet-powered hover-buggy you built yourself.

Set in Bullworth Academy, a fictional British private school, this game tells about school bullying and the troublesome period of growing to adolescence. You assume the role of Jimmy Hopkins, a 15-year-old boy and a “problem child”, who was already kicked out of many schools for his misbehavior.

Driving is where the series always delivered, and the handling here is heavy and satisfying in a way most open-world games skip. The 1978-to-2006 time jump changes the whole city halfway through, which is a strong structural idea. On-foot sections and shooting are stiff and unwelcome, and the difficulty spikes without warning.

Its destruction system is the reason to play it — buildings collapse structurally rather than in scripted pieces, and the sledgehammer makes demolition a genuine tactic. Mars is drab and repetitive as a setting, missions recycle a small set of objectives, and the story is barely there. The physics carry almost the entire game.

Bang-On Balls: Chronicles rolls onto the stage! A 3D platformer inspired by some of the best games of the genre including some Italian plumbers, a blue hedgehog, or a bear with a bird on his backpack!

A reboot that keeps the open-world crime structure and the customisation depth — the character creator is the strongest part — but pulls the tone toward earnest. Combat is serviceable, driving is fine. The mission design leans on repeated activity types, and the shift away from the earlier games' absurdity leaves it without a clear identity.