The year is 2026, The Offspring is blasting, and Axel is plowing through patio furniture on the streets of Bay City. Classic Crazy Taxi energy. But then the fare gets delivered, the music fades, and instead of an arcade ranking screen, the game just... keeps going. Axel cruises around on his own time. And that is where things get genuinely unexpected.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is not a remake. It is something considerably weirder, and if the hands-off preview is anything to go by, it might actually work.
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Bay City is back, but the arcade formula is not the whole story
The original Crazy Taxi from 1999 was pure arcade simplicity: pick up a fare, get them there fast, collect your cash, repeat. Crazy Taxi: World Tour keeps that core loop intact, complete with the pop-punk soundtrack and the series' signature chaotic physics. Bay City returns and looks like a faithful recreation of the original map.
Here's the thing, though. Kenji Kanno, creative director of the Crazy Taxi series at Sega, has bigger ambitions this time. He wants the world to feel alive. That means giving each driver an actual backstory, explaining how and why they ended up behind the wheel of a cab. It means adding new characters to interact with across the city. It means, yes, lore.
For a franchise that previously communicated its entire narrative through a timer and a big green arrow, that is a meaningful shift.
Side hustles, fishing, and a character called Cheeseburger
Beyond the main taxi runs, World Tour introduces side hustles that pull you into the lives of the city's residents. Help a pizza delivery guy hit his drop-offs on time. Go fishing. These are not throwaway minigames either; Kanno-san framed them as ongoing relationships. The people you help have names (the pizza guy is literally called Cheeseburger), personalities, and stories that develop over time.
The fishing thing is the detail that keeps landing. Crazy Taxi, a franchise defined by speed and urgency, now has a fishing mechanic. That contrast is either going to feel brilliantly off-beat or completely jarring depending on your tolerance for tonal whiplash. Based on what has been described, Sega seems to be leaning into the absurdity on purpose.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour's Steam page includes a disclosure noting the use of generative AI support tools during development. Sega has not specified how or where AI was used, except to confirm it was not applied to the game's voice performers.
Yes, there is fishing now
A world map with something for every continent
The name World Tour is not just branding. Kanno-san hinted that the game will feature maps representing each continent, with drivers taking their cabs to iconic cities well beyond Bay City. Sega is keeping the specific locations under wraps for now, but the scope sounds considerably larger than anything the series has attempted before.
For fans of racing games who have been watching the genre evolve, this kind of globe-trotting structure puts World Tour in interesting company. Games like Tokyo Xtreme Racer have shown there is real appetite for arcade-adjacent driving experiences that go deeper than a single track or city, and Sega appears to be betting on that same instinct.
The key here is whether the moment-to-moment taxi gameplay stays sharp across all those different settings. Bay City worked in 1999 because it was designed around the mechanics. New cities will need the same level of care, especially if Sega wants the lore and side content to land rather than feel like filler between fares.
What to expect when the cab finally rolls out
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is targeting a 2027 release across Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2. No specific launch window within 2027 has been confirmed yet.
The preview only covered Bay City, so the full shape of the game, its world map, the depth of its driver storylines, and how the side hustles integrate with the main progression, remains to be seen. But the direction is clear: Sega is not just reselling nostalgia. They are building something that treats the original as a foundation rather than a ceiling.
For players who want to stay sharp on arcade-style driving games in the meantime, the Tokyo Xtreme Racer guides are worth checking out while the wait for World Tour continues.
