Crazy Taxi: World Tour has me seriously concerned for SEGA's future retro revivals
After observing a hands-off presentation at Summer Game Fest, I had a couple of issues with Crazy Taxi: World Tour.
The controversial use of AI during the game’s development was obviously a factor, but SEGA has since confirmed that nothing seen in the game was made with AI.
Regardless of whether that’s true or not, after a 30 minute hands-on demo at this year’s Gamescom, the issues I have with the game run far deeper than the tools used to make it.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour’s gimmick is a partially open world, with different maps taking Axel and his taxi to different parts of the world.
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It’s a solid premise, but sadly by the end of my demo, I was glad to put the game down. I found World Tour to be thoroughly underwhelming.
My demo was a mix of traditional Crazy Taxi drop-offs with a collection of side-quests. These varied from races, dropping off pizzas, and helping a man with a wingsuit catapult himself into the air.
Something about it felt oddly cheap though. Character models resembled waxworks and the voice acting wasn’t good either. The missions themselves were a mixed bag, with some like the pizza drop-off being quite enjoyable, whereas others either ended too soon or outstayed their welcome.
What disappointed me the most, though, was how much downtime there was. New mechanics allow your taxi to quickly set-off, stop and boost when your meter is full, yet once I got going, my top speed didn’t feel very speedy.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour didn't actually feel crazy enough
Completing a mission then driving to the next one was boring, and you can’t do some drop-offs along the way to spice it up as they could take you to completely different parts of the map. Crazy Taxi: World Tour lacks its namesake in my opinion. It didn’t feel crazy enough.
The original games engineered us to always seek momentum, or a thrill. To stop for anything other than another passenger felt like death for the run, and while Crazy Taxi: World Tour does a good job of helping you recover ground quickly, that feeling of urgency has been lost somewhere along the way.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh. The full game might yield a different experience, but for now, I can only judge it based on what I played, and what I played didn’t blow me away. At least the music was good though.
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Truthfully, it has me a little worried about the future of SEGA’s callbacks. Crazy Taxi isn’t the only member of SEGA’s hall of fame coming back with a new release. Jet Set Radio, Virtual Fighter, Golden Axe and more are all getting new entries in the foreseeable future. I’m excited, but a little worried they’ll feel just as soulless as my Crazy Taxi: World Tour hands-on time.
Those who are still keen to try out Crazy Taxi: World Tour can do so through the upcoming playtest, though you should have registered by August 31.
It’ll run from September 11 to September 13, and the full game launches sometime in 2027 for Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
I’ll certainly be giving it another go when it’s out. For now though, I’ll stick with the OG game on my Xbox.