The Crazy Taxi series has been in hibernation for quite a long time. The last mainline entry was released in 2002, and ever since, it has been relegated to mobile spin-offs and appearances in the Sonic racing games. Now, though, the franchise is back with Crazy Taxi: World Tour. It appears to be a major upgrade for the series, adding in open-world elements and five explorable cities, as well as a massive amount of multiplayer features. How do these new additions to the Crazy Taxi formula hold up? After playing it for myself during Gamescom 2026, I’d say that World Tour has the potential to be an incredible addition to the series.
Ironically enough, the segment I played through took place in Germany, one of the five cities that will be present in the full release. The region is remarkably well-constructed and features a wide variety of buildings that those familiar with the region may recognize. As someone who is not too familiar with Germany, I was still in awe of the Gothic castles, pumpkin patches, and wide open roads. These were not just pretty to look at, though: they also served as the perfect playground for protagonist Axel and his taxi.
Gameplay in World Tour is an absolute blast. The controls and crazy actions, like a boost and drift, feel really natural to use. Within seconds, despite my relative inexperience with the franchise, I found myself pulling off complicated turns and completing small side missions in quick succession. Speaking of side missions, that was the brunt of my activities during the demo.
Throughout the world, I found civilians standing around waiting for a taxi ride. When picking them up, it led into a short mini-segment, where you have to pick up as many civilians as possible, then quickly deliver them to their destinations in a specific amount of time. These were the perfect appetizer to introduce me to the gameplay loop of this new Crazy Taxi, as it not only further acclimated me to the controls, but it also gave me a better look at the world I would be exploring for the next half-hour.
These missions also highlighted the charm of this game. For instance, the soundtrack brings back a lot of the tracks from the original Crazy Taxi. These include “All I Want” by The Offspring and “Ten in 2010” by Bad Religion, among others. These perfectly immersed me in the game’s tone, which has more in common with the likes of the old Tony Hawk games rather than the average driving simulator. This even applies to the gameplay, with the wide variety of quirky characters that will employ you for “Odd Jobs.”
These Odd Jobs function a little bit more elaborately than the average “deliver citizen from point A to B.” They traditionally highlight a specific NPC and feature strange objectives, with a variety of different challenges that you can complete to gain more stars on your ranking for said mission. For instance, there was one where I was forced to race against someone in a fast supercar, and my challenges were to not use the boost more than 3 times, avoid hitting 10 cars, and gain a consistent combo of 60 points. These were fun to complete, and made replaying these Odd Jobs all the more enticing. I am quite curious to see what I can use the earned currency and stars for when the full game releases.
Overall, despite my limited time with the game, I had an absolute blast with Crazy Taxi: World Tour. The world is fun to explore, and the gameplay is consistently thrilling, thanks to both the Odd Jobs and other side missions. Control-wise, it is easy to pick up and play regardless of whether you are a long-time fan of the series or a relative newcomer. In addition, the tone is exactly what you expect, and maintains that quirky style of the classic game to a T.
I cannot wait to see what else Crazy Taxi: World Tour has in store as more details are revealed, and when the closed network tour goes live in early September. As for the full release, the game will launch in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam.
