In 1999, Sega released a fast-paced driving game called Crazy Taxi in arcades and on their Sega Dreamcast console. The combination of driving passengers to their destinations, wild and humorous gameplay, and licensed punk music helped Crazy Taxi find a permanent parking spot in many gamers’ hearts. Two sequels followed, not to mention a successful Android port of the original game.
Sep 24, 2014 Fast, furious, and fun, Crazy Taxi: City Rush for Android is a worthy addition to the long-running series. The game's monetization efforts can get tiresome, though. Sep 24, 2014 Fast, furious, and fun, Crazy Taxi: City Rush for Android is a worthy addition to the long-running series. The game's monetization efforts can get tiresome, though.
Sensing that Crazy Taxi has even more life on mobile, SEGA has just announced a new mobile-exclusive sequel called Crazy Taxi: City Rush. The new game will have everything fans loved about the original, plus a new touch-friendly control scheme and lots of fresh content. We met with SEGA to play an early build of City Rush and came away highly impressed. See our exclusive gameplay footage and interview after the break!
Crazy Taxi has always been a great game to play in short sessions, making it uniquely suited to mobile play. Just like previous games, the goal in City Rush is to pick up wacky passengers and deliver them to their destination before time runs out. To beat the timer you’ll have to drive crazy, soaring over ramps, through the grass, and pulling off stunts like Crazy Drifts, Brakes, and U-turns.
City Rush features four brand new city maps to cruise through, with the promise of new content in the future. Players can now select individual passengers from the map, which breaks the game up better for mobile and provides the opportunity for passengers to have amusing stories. You’ll help a business man ditch the rat race and get back to nature, deliver a skater to the ultimate trick spot, take a cheerleader out to find her team’s missing quarterback, and other silly missions. The best one so far lets players hop into a tank and smash cars out of the way!
Seeing as how most mobile gamers don’t own a physical controller, SEGA has given City Rush a brand new control scheme for touch screens. Players now swipe to the left or right in order to change lands on the road or make turns. This makes it easier to drive in a straight path, but still affords plenty of chances to off-road it and discover the shortest of cuts. That said, it would still be nice of SEGA to offer a more traditional control scheme and controller support for players who crave them.
Social and Free to Play
Crazy Taxi has never been a multiplayer game, but City Rush takes a step in that direction by adding Facebook integration. When browsing the map screens, you’ll see your City Rush-playing friends available as passengers. Taxi them around the city or simply compete for the best leaderboard ratings on the story missions.
City Rush will be free to play, with both a soft and hard currency for players to earn through gameplay or purchase. The money you earn from completing missions and performing stunts can be spent on new taxis, car upgrades, and cosmetic features. The upgrades will improve your car’s engine, body, power, tires, and provide other bonuses. And the cosmetic features let you add all kinds of paint jobs and decals (not to mention physical decorations like bull horns) to your ride. Dare we hope for Sonic decals?
Coming soon
Balancing an established game for free to play can be difficult – just look at the reception to Dungeon Keeper. But from what we’ve seen and played so far, Crazy Taxi City Rush adds a lot of longevity to Crazy Taxi without losing the gameplay and attitude that made the original games so special. It will even feature licensed punk music PLUS the ability to import songs and create your own crazy soundtrack.
Crazy Taxi City Rush has soft launched in a few test regions in order for SEGA to collect feedback and fine-tune the gameplay. It will go live worldwide on both Android and iOS sometime between spring and the beginning of summer. In the meantime, SEGA has just made the original Crazy Taxi free for a limited time. Follow the download link at top to grab it and start practicing your crazy driving!
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
great things come in small packagesSmall hands? No problem for these small Android phones
Not everyone wants to wield a giant smartphone. Here are our top picks for the best small phone you can buy.
Sega Networks is bringing back Crazy Taxi, one of the company’s most iconic franchises, exclusively to mobile devices. From Kenji Kanno, the creator of the original Crazy Taxi arcade smash hit and Hardlight Studios, one of SEGA’s top mobile developers, comes a game reimagined for a new generation of mobile gamers. Crazy Taxi: City Rush captures the spirit of the beloved Crazy Taxi series with one-touch, intuitive controls that make for a fun and frantic ride everyone can enjoy. In the Android game, there’s no mission too insane, no stunt too dangerous and no passenger too outrageous…nothing is safe.
Free to download and play on Android devices, Crazy Taxi: City Rush was designed exclusively for mobile and will release globally later this year.
“I’m very excited to finally be able to share with you the first news of Crazy Taxi: City Rush,” said Executive Producer and creator of the arcade original, Kenji Kanno. “We are delivering a truly fun game that captures everything our fans love about the original and infusing it with several new features to create an even more fantastic and memorable experience.”
Swipe to quickly change lanes, whip around corners, onto sidewalks and ramps to send your cab soaring through the air. Drive crazy through an all-new big city setting.
Crazy Taxi: City Rush will launch with a wide variety of adrenaline-fueled missions, wild challenges – and unique areas to unlock, explore, and master as you progress through the campaign. Customize your cab to increase its power and visual appeal with a wide variety of over-the-top upgrades. Take your friends for a ride and blaze a trail through the city, sidewalks, and alleyways for special rewards.
“Creating a new game for our Crazy Taxi fans is extremely rewarding,” said Chris Olson, Senior Vice President of Sega Networks. “City Rush embodies the spirit of Crazy Taxi with its signature frantic arcade action and crazy stunts and also delivers a new mobile experience with easy one touch controls and social features.”
Crazy Taxi: City Rush has soft launched in limited global regions, with plans for a full global release later this year. More information will be released leading up to the game’s official launch.
As a special ‘thank you’ to longtime fans, Sega has made the original Crazy Taxi free on Google Play for a limited time.