Ever since Crazy Taxi burst onto the scene in 1999, it has been associated with American rock band, The Offspring, in particular, the band’s fast-paced 1997 track, “All I Want.” The music became such a key part of the package that when the original entry in the series was brought to PS3, Xbox 360, and PC without the synonymous tracks from bands like The Offspring and punk-rock outfit Bad Religion, it was a major point of criticism from fans. We spoke with series creator Kenji Kanno not long after the reveal of Crazy Taxi: World Tour on the importance of those songs and how they ended up in the series in the first place.
According to Kanno, when he began developing a new Crazy Taxi game, as originally reported in 2022, the conversation often circled back to the soundtrack. “Music is very important for Crazy Taxi,” Kanno says. “Every time I talk to stakeholders about the game, they ask the same thing: ‘Will you have The Offspring? Will you have Bad Religion?'”
And the emphasis and importance placed on music in Crazy Taxi have been significant, dating back to the very first game. According to Kanno, it was integral to the development of the original title, and finding the soundtrack has been a crucial part of development in many of the projects he oversees.
“When I design a game or when I create a game, the first thing I decide on is actually the theme song,” Kanno says. “I decide on the song, and then I tell [the development team], ‘Hey, we’re going to make a game based on this song,’ and I make them listen to it on repeat. Like, they can be a designer, they can be a programmer; they have to listen to the song on repeat, and then they can work on the game with [mimicking “All I Want” while pantomiming typing] ‘Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!’ playing in the background. [laughs]”
The exterior of Tower Records in Shibuya
As for how The Offspring landed in Crazy Taxi, it all stemmed from doing what many music fans who grew up in the ’90s were accustomed to doing: going to a nearby record shop and sampling new music, hoping to find something that resonated. For Kanno, that journey took place in one of the most iconic record shops: Tower Records, which is still open to this day.
“I went to Tower Records in Japan,” he recalls. “I listened to a bunch of songs, like, all day. A bunch of songs all day, and when I came out, what I narrowed down to was The Offspring and Bad Religion.”
The upbeat tempos and punk rock vibes of those songs are felt throughout Crazy Taxi’s design, so it makes sense that these songs were the starting point for the original game’s creation. That moment was so important that a Tower Records location became one of the destinations in the original Crazy Taxi. Songs like “All I Want” and “Change The World” by The Offspring, as well as “Ten in 2010” by Bad Religion, became mainstays for Dreamcast owners and arcade-goers, so much so that all three of those songs were present in the demo of Crazy Taxi: World Tour that I had a chance to see.
From everything we saw, Crazy Taxi: World Tour looks like an appropriately chaotic modernization of the original premise. However, the game has attracted some controversy upon the reveal that generative AI was used during its development. We also asked Kanno about the team’s use of that technology in development. You can read what he has to say on that topic here.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC in 2027.
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