Sega’s beloved arcade racer makes a bold, high-stakes comeback

Sega’s upcoming Crazy Taxi: World Tour manages a difficult balancing act: it feels like an authentic love letter to the golden age of arcades while simultaneously embracing a fresh, modern identity. Unveiled at the Xbox Games Showcase, the title remains fundamentally true to its chaotic roots. As the iconic cabbie Axel, players will once again weave through heavy traffic and indulge in reckless driving to deliver passengers to their destinations in record time—with little regard for the wreckage left in their wake. After all, as long as the customer is satisfied, the job is done.

However, Sega and franchise creator Kenji Kanno are clearly aiming for an experience far more expansive than a simple remaster. Axel has inherited a wider repertoire of “Crazy” maneuvers, while passengers now provide a diverse array of unconventional requests. The days of simply racing to Tower Records or Pizza Hut are gone; now, players might find themselves assisting with deep-sea fishing expeditions or managing high-speed pizza deliveries. These varied objectives, dubbed “Crazy Missions,” promise to significantly flesh out the gameplay loop.

During a hands-off demonstration at Summer Game Fest, Kanno and his team showcased how the franchise has matured over the past 27 years. Beyond the staple Crazy Drift and Crazy Jump, Axel has learned the “Crazy Backdash,” a high-octane move that lets him pivot 180 degrees in an instant. Watching the developers tear through a reimagined, faithful recreation of the original San Francisco-inspired West Coast map, it was clear that the game’s physics and destructibility have been dialed up. The familiar, high-energy soundtrack—featuring classics like The Offspring’s “All I Want” and Bad Religion’s “Ten in 2010″—perfectly captures that enduring nostalgic energy.

Beyond the retro-inspired thrills, Crazy Taxi: World Tour introduces a global story mode where Axel tracks down mysterious, masked antagonists who have pilfered his signature cab. The game will also feature robust online multiplayer and deep cosmetic customization options for vehicles. While Sega is keeping much of the game’s scope under wraps, the developer’s commitment to “AAA ambitions” is evident, with Kanno promising a wealth of content and freedom for players to choose their own driving style.

One notable innovation is the dynamic “Nighttime Missions” system. Kanno highlighted a day-night cycle consisting of four distinct periods, each offering unique challenges. In a tense Time Attack demonstration, Axel squared off against a rival driver, Bull, navigating a complex course while juggling side-tasks like landing 20 Crazy Dashes and a jump—all while maintaining a strict limit on how many collisions he could endure.

Perhaps the most charming segment involved an aspiring fisherman passenger. After dropping the customer at a pier, the gameplay transitioned into a quirky minigame where Axel used the momentum of his car to help the passenger haul giant fish—and even the occasional piece of ship debris—out of the bay. It’s exactly the kind of zany, creative expansion the series needed.

Kanno noted that while the original game was a snapshot of 1999, the modern world of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft has reshaped urban transport. The team has found clever ways to weave these modern realities into the gameplay, though specific details remain a mystery for now.

There is clearly much more to uncover about Crazy Taxi: World Tour. We look forward to learning more ahead of the game’s 2027 release on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

Source: Polygon