Sega is updating its fleet of classic Crazy Taxi series with a new mobile game: Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire, which is out now for iOS and Android.
Prompted by the success of the original Crazy Taxi, Sega has released several sequels, including Crazy Taxi: City Rush in 2014 for iOS and Android. Randy Nelson, head of mobile insights at market researcher Sensor Tower, estimates that City Rush has been downloaded more than 27 million times over the Apple App Store and the Google Play since its launch. Last week, Crazy Taxi also got a mobile port, perhaps as part of Sega’s overall plan to inject new life into its old roster of IPs. It’s available now.
Gazillionaire comes from Demiurge Studios, a subsidiary that’s part of the mobile-focused Sega Networks division. The studio has developed other successful titles such as Marvel Puzzle Quest for mobile in 2013 and Shoot Many Robots for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC. Marvel Puzzle Quest received glowing reviews, with IGN citing its innovative blend of match-3 and strategic gameplay. With Demiurge driving this cab, Gazillionaire is also taking a different route than usual; unlike previous incarnations of Crazy Taxi where players drive around to pick up fares, it takes its cue from idle clicker games like Tap Titans and Clicker Heroes.
Instead of driving the cab and picking up passengers, Gazillionaire players instead tap around the map to queue up passengers, activate stunt jumps, and collect the occasional loot drop from blimps flying by. There’s not much of a plot, but what it does have is a cheeky modern twist: You play the little guy, trying to make an honest living while a “Prestige Megacorporation” run by Edelbert Von Güber flaunts his wealth and fancy ride-sharing company in your face. It’s a nice head-nod to the current state of the taxi industry, though it of course doesn’t dive too deeply into real-world economics. Now all we need is to be able to Airbnb out that spare room in The Sims Mobile.
“For some comparison on the idle clicker front, prominent titles such as Tap Titans, Tap Titans 2, AdVenture Capitalist, Bit City, and Doomsday Clicker have reached a combined worldwide audience of more than 50 million players in a space that features more than 2,000 titles on U.S. Apple’s App Store alone,” says Sensor Tower co-founder Oliver Yeh. In terms of how Sega will do in the idle clicker space, Nelson is optimistic, noting that brand recognition will likely bolster its numbers.