Taxi Chaos 2

Genre: Driving Game / Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Taxi Chaos 2 is an Arcade-style Driving Game released in 2025 on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with a port to PlayStation 5 in 2026. After the first game in the series ended up being a bland poor-man’s version of Crazy Taxi, it seems this sequel decided to take such criticisms to heart and come up with… well, something fairly different. The result is an odd futuristic competition between your human driver and an out-of-control automated competitor, and that’s just the start of the wackiness present here.

The presentation in Taxi Chaos 2 is good, but not great. The game uses colorful, slightly-cartoony 3D visuals with some decent animation, recreating a setting that looks sorta’ like a bizarre take on San Francisco. Unlike the first game, this city has a ton of personality… possibly too much, even, as the various odd freeways in this game twist and curve in bizarre ways that make it difficult to keep track of which way goes where. Unfortunately, the more complex geometry seems to have an affect on the framerates, which are even worse on Nintendo Switch than they were in the prior game, getting pretty choppy when the action gets intense.

One area I don’t think has seen much improvement here is the sound. Once again, this game’s energetic soundtrack is completely forgettable, but even worse the sound mixing in this game is awful, often making it difficult for you to hear characters speaking. However, I really wish those characters would speak even less, because they become repetitive and annoying very quickly, especially your driver – I would be truly delighted if I never again have to hear him declare “I love my job”.

While I have my complaints about the graphics and sound, there is actually some good news here when it comes to the gameplay, and it starts with how this game distances itself further away from Crazy Taxi to become something more distinctive and original. Oh, to be sure, you’ll still be picking up fares and trying to get them to their destination as quickly as possible, but just about everything around that has changed.

Let’s start with the annoying arrow indicator from the first game. It’s gone, and in its place are three new indicators – you have a light pillar emanating from the destination, an on-screen indicator of the direction and distance that destination is, and guidelines on the road showing you the route to take. This is a huge improvement over the first game… but there are still huge problems with this.

The light pillar is only helpful if you can see it – if your view is blocked by buildings like the tall skyscrapers throughout the city, you won’t see it. The on-screen indicator only shows up inconsistently. And the on-road guidelines will get you to your destination, but the route they have you taking is often needlessly circuitous and sometimes doesn’t show up properly. Really, I wish one of these indicators was replaced with a simple FPS-style HUD compass at the top of the screen or something like that.

One of the reasons the route indicators are circuitous is that players now have access to a jump button, which not only opens up shortcuts and gives you a means to dodge hazards, but at times can make it feel like you’re “Skyrim-ing” your way through parts of the city not meant to be traversed, which is good fun. It’s just a shame that the camera angle is often insufficient to show if the place you’re jumping to is a body of water that will force you to respawn where you were before and anger your fare some.

The game has two modes, a campaign mode and an arcade mode, and both are more interesting than they initially appear. The campaign has you gradually building up funds and upgrading vehicles and abilities, with different conditions and goals in each in-game work “day”. You may find fares now attach rocket boosters to your vehicle while riding with you, or the city may be filled with roadblocks, or overflowing with hazardous materials, and all along you’ll increasingly be contending with those automated vehicles that often try to ram you off the road like a Grand Theft Auto-style cop.

Meanwhile, the Arcade mode isn’t just trying to rack up a high score in a time limit, but actually has rounds and Roguelike-style upgrades, which adds some good variety. These elements aren’t quite as in-depth as I would like, but they’re a nice addition all the same.

I should note that this game is also far more forgiving than both Crazy Taxi and the original Taxi Chaos, which may not be the good thing it seems like. The lack of a feeling of dwindling time here does make it more apparent how repetitive what you’re doing is, especially when you get stuck in a loop of carting fares back and forth between the same two areas.

Overall, Taxi Chaos 2 is a huge step forward for this series, and a step that takes it farther away from being a Crazy Taxi clone and into being something unique in its own right. However, it’s still unpolished and filled with some problems, particularly on Nintendo Switch where it has glaring performance issues. However, if you’re looking for something similar to Crazy Taxi that adds some unique twists to the formula, you may be surprised by Taxi Chaos 2.

tl;dr – Taxi Chaos 2 is an Arcade-style Driving game where players take the role of a taxi driver picking up fares and trying to deliver them to their destination as fast as possible. This sequel improves greatly on its predecessor, and does multiple things that take it farther away from being a “Crazy Taxi clone” and make it something unique in its own right. That said, there are still multiple gameplay issues, design issues, and presentation issues here, including some nasty framerate drops on Nintendo Switch. I think fans of Crazy Taxi may find this game worth checking out, but it definitely feels like this series still hasn’t lived up to its full potential.

Grade: C+

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