Emergency Call Ambulance

Take the addictive gameplay of Crazy Taxy, replace the cab with an ambulance, and you've got a sure-fire hit with Sega's Emergency Call Ambulance! Read J.T.Kauffman's Emergency Call Ambulance FAQ

According to Colin Williamson of IGNDC, "The game begins with a quick cut-scene, where you get to watch a horrific accident take place (in chapter one, a station wagon overturns on a slippery road; in chapter two, gangsters blast pursuing police officers with a bazooka). You drive in with lights a-flashin’, ready to deliver your mangled prey to the safety they so desperately need. And time is of the essence. Your goal is to get from the accident site to the hospital as quickly as possible. The world of Emergency Call Ambulance is a real, working city, similar to the one in Crazy Taxi or Midtown Madness. Commuter vehicles frequently block your path, while chaos erupts from all angles tankers flip over and explode, other ambulances fly into lakes, and cop cars sail overhead a la Steve McQueen’s Bulitt. Your navigator points out which way to go, and flashing arrows and other visual prompts will keep you headed in the right direction."

"You’ll have to make it quick, though. There’s no real timer in the game but instead of the seconds ticking down, it’s the stability of your patient! And for the love of Mike, don’t take a pit stop at the local 7-11 for a Slurpee; if the health level drops to zero before you get to the hospital, your precious cargo will join the choir invisible. This is handled tastefully as the screen fades to red (hey, at least they don’t kick the corpse out the back and move on to the next job). And you wouldn’t expect someone with internal hemorrhaging to sit contentedly while your ambulance smashes through a light post, would you? Oh, no. If you plow into other vehicles, it jolts your patient (whose face is presented in a small viewing window), and knocks down their health a few notches. While you could ram other cars for giggles in Crazy Taxi without reprimand, in this game, it becomes fatal."

"Obviously, a hospital ambulance is not a Ferrari, and handles more like a brick on wheels. Nevertheless, skilled drivers raised on Sega Rally 2 will be able to powerslide through intersections and zip through narrow shortcuts with ease. And once you can drift with ease through four-lane intersections, you can pop the game into Manual transmission for a hellish challenge. Emergency Call Ambulance is rumored to be the last of the Model 3 games, and oy, does it look good. The environments are packed with detail and luscious color usage, polygon models are wonderfully detailed, and there are more effects than you can shake a syringe at. Naturally, the whole shebang moves at a liquid-smooth 60fps, with no sign of slowdown. It looks good, it plays great, and it’s just a little bit twisted. Pester your local arcade operators to pick up Emergency Call Ambulance -- and we’ll take one Dreamcast version to go, please."

Return to True Life Occupations Series