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I’m sure any gaming fan born in the 90s will recall Crazy Taxi. It was SEGA’s arcade hit of the day, giving players the role of careless taxi drivers capable of any speed, route, or destructive actions to reach their destination. It made its way to the Dreamcast in 2000 and has since reached a largely cult status among other SEGA classics such as Jet Set Radio.
With SEGA’s revival of old franchises finally coming into play with Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Crazy Taxi: World tour will be the second attempt at revitalising some of their classics. Whilst it will have a story mode, I was lucky enough to trial out the online multiplayer during a closed network weekend.
Kicking things off, the fantastic soundtrack and visuals of Crazy Taxi: World Tour maintain previous standards. Of course the art-style of the series has always been rather cartoony, but a vibrant blend of colours and stylised settings leave this new entry’s visuals faithfully and gorgeously executed. Whilst not as great as the original’s, the soundtrack on show here still gets the adrenaline pumping, with the raw punk-rock energy reminiscent of The Offspring’s iconic ‘All I Want’ which was so present in the original game.
Before launching into the core gameplay, heading to the customise tab was a huge aid in taking advantage of my distinct playstyle, something which can be fine tuned over time alongside your developing approach to driving. It seems SEGA have taken inspiration from the Sonic Racing: Crossworlds‘ upgrade system, with tunings offering three slots for upgrades affecting each aspect of driving, all with three distinct tiers.
Maxing out speed or blending the various driving elements are great customisation options, and the inclusion of technical and nitro side upgrades also make room for potential, yet Crazy Taxi: World Tour’s customisation options are currently too barebones and face value to hold any weight. It’s also worth noting that I took every car for a spin and could never feel a consistent change between them despite what the stats read, with the tunings holding far, far more weight than any base numbers.
This leaves the entire customisation system feeling redundant; why implement it if players could’ve simply chosen say a speed class, then add their technical and nitro upgrades on the side. Where Sonic Racing: Crossworlds upgrade system thrived due to the mix-and-match nature opening up hundreds of distinct possibilities which played uniquely, Crazy Taxi: World Tour’s efforts feel as if slapped on last minute for the sake of box ticking.
After selecting one of the four returning drivers from the original (Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena, and Gus) two game-modes are offered: Pickup Race and Cops ‘n’ Cabbies. Beginning with Pickup Race, it’s Crazy Taxi as you imagine; arcade inspired mayhem consisting of breakneck customer service and drop offs amidst the many obstacles you ransack on the journey… so essentially an Uber driver.
The controls and movement of said vehicles certainly mirror this sentiment, feeling loose, rugged, and overly fluid. As the most integral part of a racing title, the car handling will differ in meeting each player’s standards; I prefer tighter cars driving with semi-realistic movements, yet given the arcade nature of Crazy Taxi: World Tour, I can remain ambivalent towards the handling but see it being divisive.
Where Crazy Taxi: World Tour does shine is in the minute intricacies the player must master. Sticking with Pickup Races, the idea is of course to get to your destination as fast as possible once you have a customer, yet actually picking them up is just as crucial. The further you stop away from them, the longer they take to jump in the taxi, often exclaiming something along the lines of “Are you trying to kill me!”. However, the closer you manage to park without hitting them, well let’s say you’ll be zooming off to the drop-off point in no time.
This design philosophy is made blatant with how each map is laid out too, with newly discovered shortcuts using drifts or boosts still cropping up during your hundredth race. It’s what makes the core gameplay loop so gripping in theory. In fact, the idea of mastering tracks and maps by slowly shaving off milliseconds of time is what draws so many people to arcade racers to begin with. It’s safe to say these players won’t be disappointed.
For a demonstration of this, in the Germany map there are two diverging paths. They both get you back to the main route in about the same time, contain the same boost metre refills, and have a similar level of difficulty… so what is so great about their design? Simply put, they emphasise the rapid, on-the-go decision-making moments so integral to making Crazy Taxi: World Tour’s gameplay so dynamic, hectic, and engaging. Scenarios like these test players’ abilities at adapting to distinct situations differing in each match, and overall, a player’s driving ability.
For all the praise I can give to Crazy Taxi: World Tour for Pickup Race’s successful design, you can throw it out the window for Cops ‘n’ Cabbies. My main issue stems from the fact, at least in my many matches of experience, that the mode simply favours one side over the other. Being a cabbie is fantastic; drive the reckless routes hammered into you, drop off customers, and overall cause a commotion, yet the same can’t be said for the cops.
Working on a 4:2 basis in the cabbies favour, the cops are simply outnumbered with a more difficult task in catching these criminal drivers. The method to do so involves crashing into the cabbies to reduce what is essentially their HP bar until they’re arrested.
Simple so far, and sounds like great fun on paper, yet the 4:2 ratio makes keeping cabbies arrested practically impossible, with teammates always coming to free them. Throw in what feels like an overwhelming quota of drop-offs you must stop, and heavily-weighted scales towards cabbies left this game-mode not one I plan on returning to anytime soon. Of course, this is just a Closed Network Test and so there is easily room for SEGA to adjust things.
Loading screen hints suggest more game-modes will be added during launch, with something about a drop-off stop race testing a player’s braking ability being mentioned. I’m sure SEGA has more planned for the multiplayer side of things, and more game-modes would be vital to retaining players.
No matter which mode I opted for however, Crazy Taxi: World Tour always performed like a dream. On Xbox Series X, I had it running at 4K and 120Hz which never seemed to dip. Visuals remained smooth, aside from loading into matches there was zero pop-in, and my experience remained entirely bug-free.
From the Closed Network Test, Crazy Taxi: World Tour fulfils every expectation I approached with: reckless driving extravaganza, stylised characters and environments, and arcade-like joy and design covering the limited amount of content. A few speed bumps are flown over along the way, namely the flawed Cops ‘n’ Cabbies mode, yet with the extra time, hard work, and dedication leading up to release, I’m confident Crazy Taxi: World Tour will eventually bring at least a few hours of entertainment to the masses.
Huge thanks go out to SEGA for providing us access to the CNT for Crazy Taxi: World Tour. We’ll follow with a full review come launch. Crazy Taxi: World Tour is set to launch on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC in 2027. There’s an Xbox Store page up if you want to take a look.
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