This interview has been edited for clarity.
It wasn’t long ago that the signature, eye-catching yellow hues of taxis dotted highways and local neighbourhoods, but the widespread adoption of ride-hailing services has dwindled their numbers over the past decade. The sight of a passenger flagging down a ride by the roadside is less common now, replaced by the more convenient act of booking a driver through an app.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour, the franchise’s first new entry in over 20 years, will hark back to those times while sprucing up the arcade-racing formula. Decked out in a fresh coat of paint, it brings multiplayer, international maps, and a story-driven campaign to the world for the first time, with new tricks joining returning protagonist Axel’s existing repertoire. This time, the green-haired speedster hits the streets to chase down mysterious masked villains who stole his beloved taxi, tackling extreme missions and picking up passengers along the way.
Through it all, joy is still what drives the experience. Much like the series itself, the real world has changed in more ways than one during its absence, and the current landscape isn’t the ideal some may have in mind, oftentimes riddled with pessimism, uncertainty, or the like. In an effort to steer toward levity, Sega’s latest outing is built on the philosophy of bringing a smile to faces and having fun, which is the purpose of playing games in the first place.
“There’s a lot of bad news that makes the world a little gloomy, so I wanted to create new content that makes people happy and a little bit better for the world, and that’s what I wanted to do with the new Crazy Taxi,” shares creative producer Kenji Kanno in an interview with Southeast Asian media during Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2026. “I wanted to make something that makes people smile.”
This motivation to forge its own path echoes the rebellious, free-spirited energy that has defined the franchise, and is rooted in a second core element: craziness (it’s in the name, after all). Don’t be fooled by its seemingly simple controls – the skill ceiling is higher than one’d expect, with much of the appeal coming from successful stunt execution and breaking traffic rules, whether it’s driving through a densely populated area or pulling off illegal turns.
In Crazy Taxi: World Tour, the unhinged shenanigans extend beyond driving. The bright, lively world teems with an eclectic mix of personalities, from overly enthusiastic passengers and a rider who wants to dance on a rampaging car, as seen in a preview of the game, to even an alien previously introduced to the Gamescom 2026 crowd, and the directive is clear: the quirker, the better.
“[Since] our game is called Crazy Taxi, this game must be crazy, so we can’t create normal, boring characters. Some seemed a little too crazy even for me, but the team was sure that would make the game more fun. They are [included] because our team members are crazy,” laughs Kanno.
Referring to the extraterrestrial being, director You Momotani adds, “In the development process, our team members wanted to make the game crazier and crazier, and as time went on, some of the characters that wouldn’t have been approved at the beginning are now approved.”
The cars weren’t spared from the over-the-top flair, either. While details about the types and total number of vehicles, as well as other specifics, remain under wraps, each will have a unique personality and perk, such as higher base speed and the ability to ferry multiple passengers at a time – similar to the original arcade version, where the choice of four drivers (Axel, B.D. Joe, Gena, and Gus) is attached to their own cabs with slightly different attributes.
On the note of speed, the series has always been about the fast-lane life, and it almost took a different form here. As with all legacy titles, it’s important to strike a balance between novelty and staying true to one’s roots, but Kanno, who created Crazy Taxi and was involved in the development of every instalment since, had no qualms about drastic changes, so much so that the team briefly headed in the reverse direction.
“From the beginning, he told me that we could change anything we wanted in Crazy Taxi to go along with the [current] times,” recalls Momotani. “We started with developing a slower pace for the game, but it didn’t turn out that well.”
After more back-and-forth and discussions, Crazy Taxi: World Tour was born. Next on the list of considerations was locking down the locations to fulfil the latter part of its name, with three announced thus far: San Francisco Bay Area, Germany, and most recently, Japan. The first is hardly surprising, since the classic “Original” map was inspired by the city’s steep hills, coastal views, and tram lines, and has appeared several times across the franchise.
What’s unexpected is the addition of the Japan stage – not for players, who are likely more excited than anything, but for Kanno himself. Despite the team being based in the country, the industry veteran revealed how he was against making it, even in the final stages of development, and eventually changed his mind:
“When we were thinking about the five different cities across the globe, I was hesitant to choose Japan, and until the very end, I was [still] very hesitant, but Momotani and the team persuaded me that Japan has a distinct Japanese experience, and there’s definitely value in making it.”
To make his case more compelling, Momotani cited the Japanese-only experience of driving on narrow or elevated highways with “lots of cars running,” as well as various traditional cultural elements as crowd-appeal factors. Mount Fuji, Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Tower, and iconic buildings such as ramen chain Ichiran and crab-speciality restaurant Kani Doraku will be among the sights on the map.
Germany, meanwhile, was chosen for its relevance to the automobile tradition as a country with a lot of car manufacturers, but no matter the map, players can choose the time of day to hit the streets in Crazy Taxi: World Tour and accept odd jobs that vary in nature, from dropping off a certain number of passengers in a fixed window of time and hitting the highest possible score to reaching the finish line without colliding with regular cars. There’s also a free-roaming mode for driving around the cities at one’s own pace, which is the best time to appreciate the subtle details that distinguish them from one another, including different-sounding pronunciations or regional dialects of English and the score.
“We wanted to create different soundtracks that fit these different cities, so if you go to the West Coast in the United States and Germany, they will be a little different,” reveals Kanno. “It’s more of a nuanced difference than a completely different experience.”
As old-timers would know, music was, and will remain, an integral part of the Crazy Taxi experience. The original repertoire features punk and hard-rock tracks by The Offspring and Bad Religion, with the former’s “All I Want” and “Way Down the Line” on repeat while players blitzed to the finish line. Following their absence in subsequent digital re-releases due to licensing issues, World Tour will welcome the American band back to the track, as highlighted by the return of “All I Want” in the announcement trailer.
It’s familiar business for the series creator, who’s been open about the role of music in his creative process, involving thinking about the groove of the game he wants to make, coming up with a few songs that seem like a good match, and putting them together. For The Offspring in particular, Kanno shared an anecdote about another factor that went into their homecoming:
“When I meet up with other people [and] stakeholders, they ask me, ‘Are you going to include The Offspring this time?’ When I answer that half-heartedly, they would kind of glare at me with a scary face, so I think I have to include them, or else they would kill me.”
A beat of silence, before he adds with a chuckle, “I’m glad I’m alive.”
With Crazy Taxi: World Tour revisiting arcade-racing chaos after so many years, the sentiment is bound to resonate with longtime players. It’s as Kanno says, “I just want people to be happy playing this game. If anyone plays it and just has a great time and smiles all the time, that will be a success for me.”
Crazy Taxi: World Tour drifts to Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S sometime in 2027.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
