Crazy Taxi: World Tour is starting to look less like a simple arcade revival and more like a very strange, very Sega road trip. During a Summer Game Fest demo attended by Game File, original Crazy Taxi designer Kenji Kanno showed story mode, multiplayer, a familiar West Coast-style map, a new reverse move and even a fishing activity played from inside the cab.
The demo adds more texture to the game after Sega formally revealed Crazy Taxi: World Tour for 2027. Steam describes the game as a global adventure starring Axel, whose taxi has been stolen by masked villains, with five cities, missions, side jobs, vehicle customization, Arcade Mode and cross-platform online multiplayer.
Game File's report says the presentation opened on what Kanno called a faithful recreation of the original Crazy Taxi's West Coast map. The demo moved through familiar reckless driving, then showed newer ideas, including a super-reverse gear option called "crazy back dash," a pizza delivery passenger carrying a stack of more than 25 boxes, a nighttime speed challenge and a race against a computer-controlled driver.
Story, multiplayer and a fishing detour
Kanno confirmed during the Q&A that Crazy Taxi: World Tour has a story mode and multiplayer. He would not fully explain the World Tour subtitle, but teased the game's scale by saying, "All I can say is that we have five continents on Earth, so maybe there’s five locations we can go to."
One of the odder moments was a fishing mode shown after the main demo. The driver parks at the end of a pier, casts a line while staying in the car, waits for a bite and then uses boost-reversing to yank the fish from the water. It sounds ridiculous in exactly the way a modern Crazy Taxi side activity probably should.
The team also seems aware that taxi culture has changed since the original arcade game. Asked whether Uber, Lyft and ridesharing affected development, Kanno said younger players may not have as clear an idea of taxis as older players do. He said the team found a way to work ridesharing into the gameplay, while keeping the series' identity intact: "The title is Crazy Taxi, not Crazy Rideshare, so we found that balance."
Kanno also said Sega is trying to bring back music from The Offspring and Bad Religion, two bands strongly associated with the original game's soundtrack. He did not confirm the final lineup, saying only that players should keep their expectations high and that some additions may surprise them.
Sega clarifies where AI was used
The demo report also gives a more specific answer to the game's generative AI disclosure on Steam. Sega told Game File that generative AI is available as an optional support tool for developers and said it was used during Crazy Taxi: World Tour's development for background assets.
"At SEGA Corporation, generative AI is available as an optional support tool for developers, enabling our teams to focus more on creative tasks and ultimately focus on what matters most: delivering better games to our consumers. Generative AI was used to support our teams during the development of background assets for Crazy Taxi: World Tour. Assets generated were still subject to review by the development team. No AI was used in reference to the performers in the game."
The statement narrows the Steam disclosure without removing the debate around it. Crazy Taxi: World Tour is part of Sega's broader push to revive classic names from its back catalogue, a plan that has continued even after Sega cancelled its wider Super Game project. For this revival, the pitch is now clearer: arcade taxi chaos, expanded into a story-led world tour with online play, odd jobs and some very deliberate weirdness.