BODY: AUTOMATON's headline calls Crazy Taxi: World Tour the first new Crazy Taxi in 25 years, and the first hands-on footage suggests the series hasn't matured even slightly.
Japanese outlet AUTOMATON has published preview gameplay from Crazy Taxi: World Tour, and the highlight reel is exactly as unhinged as the name promises. Among the clips: delivering a tray of soba noodles, drifting through traffic alongside sumo wrestlers, and sending a passenger flying roughly 300 meters down the road. AUTOMATON characterizes the result as jiyū honpō driving action — free-wheeling, uninhibited, answerable to nobody.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour is planned for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC in 2027. AUTOMATON has also published developer interviews about what makes the series feel like Crazy Taxi and how a new entry became possible after the long gap.
The insider take
From Tokyo, the funniest thing about that soba run is the direction of travel. The 1999 original was a Japanese arcade game with American hills, punk rock and a fare meter in dollars — Japan's cartoon of America. World Tour hands the joke back the other way, turning Japan itself into one of the postcards. The original's licensed punk songs are a big part of how many people remember it; nothing has been announced about the new game's soundtrack.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).