Crazy Taxi was an addictive coin-swallowing thrill ride, the game’s eccentric cabbies continually yelling “Ready to have some fun?” and “Time to make some crazy money!” in the faces of perturbed-looking normies who simply wish to be chauffeured over to Pizza Hut.
Kenji Kanno, director of Sega’s legendary driving game Crazy Taxi, remembers the exact moment he knew the game had made a seismic impression.
Kanno, though, was much more interested in the less sinister taxi drivers present in Luc Besson’s 1998 action-comedy film Taxi, as well as the challenge of turning the guy behind the steering wheel into someone more lovable.
Subsequent ports on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox 360 drove sales of Crazy Taxi into the millions, creating a hit for Sega at a time where things weren’t easy, as the formerly dominant Japanese console manufacturer was on the edge of exiting that business.
The way Hollywood had historically framed cabbies made the concept of Crazy Taxi a tough sell for Sega’s executives.
