Crazy Taxi: World Tour was one of many games that I saw during a hands-off preview event at Summer Game Fest Play Days back in June. Developed and published by SEGA, this upcoming racing action-adventure game is the next franchise revival after Shinobi: Art of Vengeance dropped last year.
Over the weekend, I participated in the multiplayer closed network test and had an absolute blast. Here are more details on the game, the modes I played, and my overall impressions so far.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is the next installment in the series helmed by creator Kenji Kanno. With both a single-player story campaign and multiplayer, fans can expect to travel worldwide, completing missions and challenges while Axel searches for his stolen Taxi. The Multiplayer Closed Network Test was announced during Gamescom Opening Night Live and took place from September 11th to September 13th.
The test featured two multiplayer modes: Pickup Race and Cops “N” Cabbies. Pickup Race lets 6 players compete to drop off as many passengers as possible within a set time limit. This felt like your fun, standard Crazy Taxi experience with a more competitive angle involving other players. Cops “N” Cabbies splits players into two teams as cabbies try to pick up and drop off as many passengers as possible, all while taking damage from the cop team. Once a cabbie receives maximum damage, they are momentarily locked up before being released to resume picking up passengers. This test included two maps, 4 characters, and 6 cars to choose from across ranked and custom matches.
As soon as I started playing and listening to tunes from Bad Religion, I was instantly reminded of the original game and how crazy and satisfying it was. The game is built entirely in Unreal Engine 5 and looks and plays exactly like its predecessor. I played on the Xbox Series X and didn’t experience any performance issues or glitches. This is still an early version of the game, and therefore, certain aspects could change before the final game drops next year.
As for the modes, I enjoyed Pickup Race because it’s a straightforward mode that allows you to have fun trying to beat other players. You’ll see highlighted regions where you can pick up and drop off passengers, with arrows to guide you. The Cops “N” Cabbies mode adds more chaos to this formula, but feels slightly more constrained, with areas blocked off that you can’t access. If you do happen to hit one of these areas, you could be easy prey for a cop team player to ram directly into your car and end your session quickly. The teams also weren’t evenly distributed in my sessions, as the cabbies team of 4 outnumbered the cops team of 2. Updating this option to teams of 3 each in a future build would help to even the playing field and give no team an advantage over the other.
This multiplayer test left me excited and eager to see how the single-player story campaign pans out. It was already hinted that we can expect more surprises, and I look forward to seeing what Kanno has been cooking up for us. Overall, so far, Crazy Taxi: World Tour seems like the perfect trip down memory lane. Stay tuned for more details in the months ahead, and let us know your thoughts if you played the closed network test.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour launches in 2027 for consoles and PC.
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