SEGA don’t seem to want to make a successor to their Crazy Taxi franchise despite plenty of players begging for a new game. With the permission of SEGA, developer Team6 Game Studios is creating Taxi Chaos, which aims to fill the void on PlayStation 4 next year.
In the true spirit of Crazy Taxi, players take to the streets of a New York-inspired city in a yellow taxi as they take passengers through the streets at breakneck speed. The quicker you deliver your passenger, the bigger the fare. Run out of time and you won’t get a fare at all. The only way to manage that is to find shortcuts, perfect the art of drifting around corners, smash other vehicles out of the way, and break your suspension taking on massive jumps. If you go too quick, though, you won’t be able to take in the sights of familiar locations like midtown, Wall Street, and West Side Highway.
The good news is the passengers are just as crazy as the driving needed to head through the city. There’s the normal human customers like reporters, hipsters, plumbers, and rock stars, but you can always go the extra mile with aliens. Take the wheel as one of two drivers: Vinny, a seasoned cabbie; or Cleo, a “self-proclaimed influencer”.
There’s a range of cars to suit most driving styles too. Each of the seven cars will have its own attributes. Muscle cars specialise in power, supercars aim for super speed, and Japanese tuners go for perfect drifting. As players progress through the game, more cars will be unlocked like American classics from the ’60s.
The team has managed to secure the blessing of SEGA, with the gaming giant even going as far as publishing the game in Japan and Asia. Lion Castle and GS2 Games will be handling publishing duties in other regions. The game will be heading to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on February 23, 2021.