BODY: There is a very specific kind of joy in blasting the wrong way down a Shibuya side street with a punk riff blaring and a stranger screaming in your back seat. That's what Sega handed out at Tokyo Game Show 2026, where Crazy Taxi: World Tour appeared in playable form with a Japan-themed map โ and GAME Watch's hands-on report suggests the series' anarchic DNA has survived the 25-year gap intact.
Announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC with a 2027 release window, World Tour is a fully new entry rather than a remaster. The core loop is unchanged: pick up passengers, read the green arrow, and get them to their destination before the timer runs out, with tips scaling to how recklessly efficient you are.
The TGS build's big draw was the Japan stage. Shibuya and Asakusa are both rendered as playable districts, which means the Scramble Crossing and the approach to Sensล-ji become jump ramps and shortcuts rather than sightseeing stops. GAME Watch's writer singled out the soundtrack as the thing that clicked hardest โ The Offspring are back, and hearing that guitar tone over Japanese streetscapes is the exact nostalgia hit Sega was aiming for.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is one of the pillars of Sega's classic-IP revival push, sitting alongside newly resurrected versions of Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Shinobi and Streets of Rage. Of that group, Crazy Taxi has always been the one with the clearest modern hook โ open streets, short sessions, high skill ceiling.
The insider take
The joke lands differently in Japan. Real Tokyo taxis are the opposite of crazy: white-gloved drivers, doilies on the headrests, automatic rear doors, and a near-religious commitment to not startling the passenger. Turning that culture inside out โ launching a fare over the Kaminarimon approach at 120km/h โ is the kind of gag Japanese players appreciate precisely because it's so wrong. Shibuya is also becoming videogame shorthand for Tokyo, having anchored everything from Ghostwire: Tokyo to Persona 5; Asakusa is the less-used, more interesting pick here.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).