Sega has confirmed that it is working on the next installment in the Crazy taxi series, and details about the reboot are slowly starting to emerge. The new game will once again put you behind the wheel of a taxi, but it will feature an open world that is described as “massive” and a multiplayer mode.
The idea isn’t to remaster one of the original games, like the arcade version that launched in 1999 or the Dreamcast version that came out a year later. Instead, Sega is channeling the spirit of the original into a new title that’s designed for the 2020s. It’s not just cars that have evolved in the past 20 years; video games have changed significantly, and what worked in the early 1990s and early 2000s probably wouldn’t sell today.
In a Japanese language video spotted by our colleagues at The rideSega described the game as something along the lines of Mario Kart‘s Battle Mode. You’re racing against the clock, which is how it’s always been, but you’re also competing against other players. It sounds a bit like the original Crazy taxi meets Grand Theft Auto with slightly less violence, which is somewhat ironic, since Grand Theft Auto III stable Crazy taxi‘s thunderclap upon its release in 2001 by making players do taxi missions as side quests. We’re back to square one.
Film material released in 2023 gives us a taste of what’s next Crazy taxi. It’s just as fast-paced as the game you played on the demo Dreamcast at your local Target while your parents were grocery shopping in the early 2000s, but there are several new features. As in Grand Theft Autoyou can build a sort of ‘wanted’ level and catch the cops (who seem to drive around in convertibles and McLaren-style SUVs) supercars) on your tail. Drifting apparently gives you an acceleration boost, complete with flames in the wheel wells, and you could play as a police officer.
The setting should feel familiar: it looks like the following Crazy taxi will once again be set in a city modeled after San Francisco. That means you’ll have plenty of steep hills to use as ramps when jumping over traffic, beaches to drift across, and possibly bridges to push rivals over.
We don’t know yet when Sega will release the next Crazy Taxi. More details should come out in the coming months.