对于《疯狂出租车》的忠实粉丝来说，有个好消息：世嘉札幌工作室总裁瀬川隆在接受《日本时报》采访时透露，该系列即将推出的全新游戏将是一款“3A级别”的大作。
《疯狂出租车》主机版最初在2000年登陆世嘉Dreamcast平台并迅速走红，后来还移植到了PlayStation 2、任天堂Gamecube以及PC等多个平台。尽管此后推出了续作和衍生产品，但除去2010年代发布的几款移动端游戏外，该系列在过去的几十年间大部分时间都处在休眠状态。系列的最后一部主要作品《疯狂出租车3：拉斯维加斯》是在2002年问世的。
早在2022年就传出此款重启之作的消息，直至2023年12月才正式公布，不过当时仅透露了游戏正在制作中，以及一段包含《疯狂出租车》在内的2023年游戏大奖预告片中的几秒实际游玩片段，同段视频中还有《Jet Set Radio》、《忍者龙剑传》、《战斧》和《怒之铁拳》等游戏的身影。
早前有报道称这部新作为一款“高额预算”的重启项目，现在看来这一说法已得到证实：瀬川表示，世嘉札幌工作室正在参与研发多款三A级大作，其中便包括《疯狂出租车》。
Crazy Taxi fans, get your hopes high: In an interview with The Japan Times (via Eurogamer), Sapporo Studio president Takaya Segawa said the upcoming new game in the series will be “a triple-A game.”
The console version of Crazy Taxi debuted in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast, and it was a hit, eventually being ported to other platforms including the PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, and yes, even PC. Sequels and spinoffs followed, but aside from a couple of mobile games in the 20-teens, the series has been largely dormant for decades: The last mainline game in the series, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, came out in 2002.
The reboot was first reported in 2022 and finally made official in December 2023, although with no details beyond the fact that it’s happening and a few seconds of gameplay from a 2023 Game Awards hype clip that also included Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage.
We haven’t really heard anything about it since, but the initial report of a new Crazy Taxi game indicated it would be a “big-budget” reboot, and that seems to be holding: Tagawa said Sega’s Sapporo Studio is “participating in the development of triple-A titles, including Crazy Taxi.”
In all honesty, that doesn’t tell us a whole lot. The traditional meaning of “triple-A” revolves around big budgets, big production values, big everything, but amidst the proliferation of indie hits and big-name flops, it’s largely become a buzzword rolled out when an executive wants to attract attention to their game. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot recently described Skull and Bones as a “quadruple-A” game, for instance, and that really reinforced for me the fact that we’re not dealing with hard-and-fast concepts here.
But in the big picture, what it hopefully means is that Sega has big ambitions for the new Crazy Taxi, and is putting in the resources needed to make it happen. It’ll presumably be a while yet before we get to see how that actually comes together: A release target wasn’t shared in the 2023 announcement, and Tagawa made no mention of it in the interview. For now, if you want to see what all the excitement is about, the original Crazy Taxi remains available on Steam.