If you grew up in the 2000s, then there’s a very high chance you’ve played Crazy Taxi. Originally appearing in arcades, this was one of the best-selling games on the Sega Dreamcast and achieved massive success on platforms such as the PlayStation 2, Windows, and even the Game Boy Advance.
The premise was simple: Pick up passengers, race them to their destination, and cause as much chaos as possible along the way. Somehow, this simplicity struck gold, making Crazy Taxi one of the most memorable names in gaming history and one of the best racing games of all time.
From where I see it, there’s a lot you can learn by understanding what this game represents when you compare it against the current state of the gaming industry.
5. Crazy Taxi Proves That Gameplay Is King
Whenever you’re making a game, gameplay is the most important thing that you have to get right. You probably think that’s a moronic and obvious statement, but surprisingly, many people beg to differ. I’ve heard the argument before, story/graphics over gameplay, but it doesn’t stand up once you really think about it.
Look at games like DOOM, Vampire Survivors, and if you’re looking for a truly extreme example: Tetris. A lot of great, successful games from the past either don’t have a story or feature gameplay so refined that you don’t even care for the narrative. With Crazy Taxi getting its start as an arcade game, it fits this description perfectly.
Yet, most big-budget studios somehow keep forgetting this. They’ll create games with large, expansive worlds, hundreds of quests, and a narrative that spans dozens of hours. You get all that, but with a core gameplay loop that is uninspired and shallow. Crazy Taxi purely focuses on the moment-to-moment gameplay experience and pure unadulterated fun.
Sometimes, a simple, perfectly executed idea is more compelling than a multimillion-dollar production that takes 7 years to make.
2. It’s A Game That Took Risks
Apart from AAA gaming rising in development costs, it’s also getting stale. Just look at the number of hero shooters, soulslikes, and open-world RPGs that have been flooding the market for close to a decade. New ideas are rare, but when done right, they manage to become a major hit. Expedition 33 is a brilliant example of this.
Crazy Taxi was a high-profile, big-budget arcade title developed by a team from Sega. It was a fighting game, a racing sim, or a light gun shooter — genres that ruled the arcade scene. The concept was a wacky, over-the-top gamble. I’m not saying such risks always have a chance of paying off, but they’re sometimes worth taking.
The sad reality is that a lot of major studios can’t take such risks these days. Megacorporations own big-name studios that have to answer to investors and shareholders, and they want predictable returns. They want to see games that people want to play, not unproven ideas.
3. The Opposite Of Modern Racing Games
Modern racing games have hyper-realistic physics engines, tracks with photorealistic detail, and meticulously recreated cars. These games demand your patience, precision, and a somewhat deep understanding of racing lines, break points, and vehicle dynamics. Even the modern Need for Speed games control similarly to Forza than to Most Wanted. In a word, they feel serious.
With a game that has the word crazy in the title, Crazy Taxi is the exact polar opposite. It’s not just an arcade racer; you can call it anti-simulation. There’s no care for reality; enjoyability is the more important thing here. Now, I’m not saying realistic sim racers are bad, because Gran Turismo 7 is a great game, mechanically.
However, GT7 is bogged down by terrible monetization that ruins the economy of the game. Crazy Taxi never had that problem, because that problem didn’t exist back in the day.
4. The IP Still Has Legs To Stand On
Crazy Taxi is a name that still resonates with people, because I wouldn’t be writing this post if it didn’t. Sega acknowledges this, and they are working on a new, big-budget Crazy Taxi game that has an estimated release in 2027. Not much more is known about that title yet, other than the fact that it has ambitions to be a AAA title with MMO elements. If that means there are going to be dozens of players competing against each other in the world of Crazy Taxi, the chaos could be very interesting.
Again, this concept comes with quite a risk. The idea of a persistent world with long-term progression and maybe even a live service model is contradictory to Crazy Taxi’s initial success. If they do it right, though, the online element can add a lot to the experience rather than take away from it. It’s important to remember that we wouldn’t even be discussing this if the core gameplay and idea weren’t successful.
1. An Unforgettable Identity
So far, I’ve been using Crazy Taxi as a yardstick to compare it to modern games, but let’s not forget about the package as a whole. If you’re bored with all the new big games releasing in 2025, you can still go back and play Crazy Taxi and have a lot of fun with it. You might be surprised by how enjoyable it still is, even two full decades after release.
It is a full sensory experience, from the guitar riffs of The Offspring and Bad Religion to the unbelievably satisfying downhill sections. Top it all off with a cartoonish aesthetic of the sun-soaked city, a setting that is as unserious as it gets, and wacky gameplay. It offers an experience that modern games struggle to replicate, and there are plenty of rip-offs still trying to imitate it.
