'Some of you may doubt that I'm actually working on this game.' In the room for an energetic Crazy Taxi demo...

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Sega’s Kenji Kanno at Summer Game Fest. Photo: Game File

“Do you know Crazy Taxi?” Kenji Kanno asked me and about a dozen other people last Saturday. We were sitting in a compact room in the basement level of a small building at the Los Angeles Summer Game Fest. Sega had booked it to show some of its upcoming games.

Kanno is the designer of the original 1999 Crazy Taxi, an iconic arcade game about swiftly and recklessly driving a yellow cab from one passenger drop-off spot to the next.

That was the last question he asked in English before switching to his native Japanese. Most of the rest of his comments would be translated by a man sitting to his right.

In attendance were other reporters on the gaming beat, along with creators or influencers, as they’re called.

“Oh yeah!” someone shouted in response to Kanno. It was a high-energy answer to a high-energy guy.

Kanno, I’d learn over the next half hour, was quite good at being “on.” I was in store for a dynamic demo of a new Crazy Taxi, one tinged with some implicit insights about status and ego in the worlds of game development and game promotion. I was going to learn plenty about the game. But I think I learned a bit about Kenji Kanno by the end, too.