After more than two decades away from the spotlight, SEGA is bringing Crazy Taxi back for another round of chaotic cab rides. Crazy Taxi: World Tour takes the familiar arcade formula of picking up passengers and getting them to their destination as quickly as possible, but expands it into a globe-trotting adventure with multiple cities, side missions, races and multiplayer. Based on an early PC build played during Gamescom, the new game already captures much of the immediate fun that made the original so memorable, while also showing that simply recreating that formula comes with a few challenges of its own.
What we know
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is an arcade driving game that builds on the formula established by the original Crazy Taxi in 1999. Players take control of Axel and his taxi, picking up passengers and racing them to their destinations before the clock runs out. Speed is only part of the equation, however, as drifting, boosting, jumping from ramps and other reckless manoeuvres can increase earnings and help build combos. The new game expands this idea across five cities in different parts of the world, with each location offering its own environments, landmarks, passengers and challenges.
The main World Tour campaign gives the arcade premise a more structured framework. Axel’s taxi has been stolen by a mysterious group of international thieves, sending him on a journey around the world in pursuit of his vehicle. Along the way, players encounter different characters and take on a mixture of regular taxi jobs, races and more unusual side activities. These odd jobs are designed to put specific driving abilities to use, ranging from transporting unusual passengers to completing more deliberately absurd challenges. Vehicles can also be unlocked and customised as players earn money.
The traditional experience isn’t being left behind either. Arcade Mode focuses on the classic race against the clock, allowing players to concentrate on picking up passengers, delivering them quickly and trying to maximise their earnings. Multiplayer expands the driving into competitive territory, with several modes supporting online play and cross-platform competition. Crazy Taxi: World Tour is scheduled for release in 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, although SEGA has not yet announced a specific release date.
What we saw
Our preview is based on an early PC build that we played during Gamescom, during a hands-on session with SEGA. The available build took us to Germany, where we could freely drive through a map incorporating urban streets, wider roads and recognisable landmarks, while also taking on standard passenger journeys and a selection of the game’s more unconventional missions. It provided a useful first look at how the familiar Crazy Taxi gameplay is being adapted into the larger World Tour structure.
What we thought
There is something immediately appealing about discovering that Crazy Taxi: World Tour is actually just as much fun to play as the original is remembered. The basic formula remains wonderfully uncomplicated: pick someone up, find the quickest route to their destination and drive as aggressively as possible along the way. Traffic is more of an inconvenience than a genuine obstacle, and hitting other vehicles doesn’t bring the frantic journey to an abrupt end. Instead, the game encourages players to keep moving, weaving between cars, taking shortcuts and squeezing every possible second out of a trip. It is still arcade driving in its purest form, and the simplicity works remarkably well.
The driving itself is where World Tour makes its strongest early impression. Crazy Drift, Crazy Dash and Crazy Stop provide different ways of maintaining momentum and building combos, while ramps and changes in elevation create opportunities to get some air without turning the game into a conventional stunt racer. The controls are responsive enough to make these manoeuvres feel natural rather than demanding, and there is a satisfying rhythm to chaining them together while simultaneously looking for the next passenger. The Germany map also demonstrates why expanding Crazy Taxi beyond its original setting makes sense. Moving between city streets, more open roads and recognisable locations gives the driving some welcome variety, while the additional odd jobs offer reasons to explore rather than simply following the same passenger-delivery loop.
Those missions are also where the World Tour concept starts to show some potential beyond nostalgia. Delivering pizzas, transporting eccentric passengers or completing challenges built around specific driving techniques adds a little structure to what could otherwise have been a collection of disconnected arcade runs. At this stage, though, the narrative framework and side activities don’t seem substantial enough to completely transform the experience. The story about Axel chasing the people who stole his taxi is primarily a reason to keep travelling, while some of the characters and situations lean heavily on the same exaggerated silliness that defined the original. That is certainly appropriate for Crazy Taxi, but the repeated voice lines from characters can become noticeable very quickly. It is faithful to the series’ established personality, yet hearing the same comments over and over makes the world feel less organic and dynamic than a modern take on the concept could be.
Visually, the early build is functional rather than spectacular. The German setting has enough landmarks and environmental variety to make it recognisable, and the sense of speed does a lot of work in making the world entertaining to drive through. At the same time, some of the NPCs and surrounding details still have a fairly rough, generic appearance, which is understandable given the game’s current development stage but leaves room for improvement before launch. The audio is perhaps more immediately successful, particularly because the loud, energetic soundtrack fits the driving so naturally. Hearing The Offspring’s “All I Want” blasting through the taxi immediately establishes the right kind of chaotic atmosphere. World Tour therefore doesn’t appear to be trying to reinvent Crazy Taxi so much as give its familiar arcade formula a bigger playground. That may sound modest after such a long absence, but the hands-on session suggests that the formula itself remains remarkably effective; the question now is whether the additional cities, missions and modes can give that simple idea enough depth to remain compelling beyond the initial nostalgic rush.