The Dreamcast had many progressive and authentic video games, and Crazy Taxi stands out as the very best of the lot, to the extent that I can nonetheless fortunately boot the sport up for a fast drive by way of its excellent blue skies recreation of San Francisco. In reality, I even fired it up simply forward of getting a primary hands-on of the long-overdue sequence reboot, Crazy Taxi: World Tour at Gamescom 2026. Perhaps that was a mistake, because it solely helped drive house all the pieces in regards to the new recreation that felt fallacious to me.
After the unique announcement regarded like a case of deja vu by being set as soon as once more on the West Coast, World Tour’s Gamescom demo no less than delivers on the subtitle’s premise by taking you to a different a part of the world. Rather apt for Gamescom, I get to drive round a map based mostly on Germany, full with a gothic cathedral, vibrant market sq., and wind generators. And despite the fact that this reboot is meant to be an open world, it stays true to the unique recreation’s structure, formed like a circuit.
But the issue comes when you begin driving. In the unique Crazy Taxi, your cab would not management like different automobiles in racing video games; it makes use of a easy gear shift the place D is for driving, and R is for reversing. Those D and R gears are nonetheless current within the recreation’s UI on the underside proper of the display, however they could as properly not be since you do not change them anymore, with the cab simply going into reverse after you’ve got held down the brake and are available to a cease, just like how driving controls are carried out in different video games with driving parts.
Instead, tips like Crazy Boosts and Crazy Drifts are simplified to urgent a devoted button. To enhance or cease rapidly, press B together with the set off for accelerating or braking, respectively.
The new Nitro Boost, a staple of different arcade racers, would not trouble me a lot, because it requires charging up a gauge that fills sooner once you carry out skilful manoeuvres like passing automobiles very intently or drifting. In any case, you will discover that you would be able to’t use it that frequently, and in some challenges there is a restrict to what number of Nitro Boosts you should utilize with a purpose to get the very best ‘Crazy’ score, so Crazy Boosts stay an essential ability to make use of as a substitute if you wish to preserve going quick.
Obviously, the story marketing campaign additionally means a distinct pacing, as you are not continuously beneath the clock like the unique arcade recreation, however can drive round freely and cease at NPCs for quite a lot of missions.
There’s a little bit of goofy allure to it on a surreal stage to the Yakuza games, though in Crazy Taxi’s context I can’t help but think back to the passenger characters you just understood from looking at them for a second – the pregnant lady who needs to get to the hospital, the reverend who needs to get to the church, the guy with flowers trying to get to his date at the lighthouse – without needing to listen to their life story.
Outside of the story missions, you can also pick up any other passenger, which then has you entering a kind of mini arcade mode where you do have a timer to get as many fares as you can. It’s a cheap imitation, though, since there’s no bonus that extends the timer, and you’re even allowed to drop off your last passengers when the timer runs out.
Another vital element is the soundtrack, and those iconic songs from The Offspring and Bad Religion return, something that had been blighted in later ports that replaced the music with completely different bands. An important detail is that these tracks are the shortened edits that the original game had, which ensures you’ll get to hear a few of them even if your shift is very brief – something post-Dreamcast ports overlooked, while later ports replaced the soundtrack altogether.
But these songs only kick in when a mission starts. I think I understand the intent, but surely the soundtrack should still feel kick-ass crazy rather than bland filler?
Maybe these are just very nitpicky ‘old man yells at cloud’ details to get bummed out about, and perhaps the new multiplayer mode, which is getting a closed network test very soon, might be able to redeem things. But having clocked countless hours on the Dreamcast game, Crazy Taxi: World Tour simply doesn’t have the fundamental feel of Crazy Taxi for me. It’s like driving a car with a stick, then being given an automatic and being expected to have the same experience. It just isn’t.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour releases for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027.