After he was announced as Kamala Harris’ running mate in the U.S. Presidential race, it was revealed that Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz was once such an avid gamer that his wife made him give up his Sega Dreamcast. Now that Walz is out on the virtual campaign trail, he finally got a chance to revisit his favorite Dreamcast game, Crazy Taxi.
Walz made his return to the game while appearing alongside Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has previously made gaming part of her social media appearances. At the end of his joint Twitch stream with AOC, Walz briefly played Crazy Taxi, although he was admittedly rusty after so many years away from the game. Regardless, he still showed off some of his skills in the game.
As alluded to by Walz in the clip above, another video game enthusiast previously released a modified Crazy Taxi that included the Vice Presidential candidate as a playable character. The Crazy Taxi: Tim Walz Edition debuted in September courtesy of video game developer Edward La Barbera. The mod features Walz’s likeness and some of his quotes from the campaign trail. Additionally, Harris–the current Vice President–was included as another optional character.
Walz’s Crazy Taxi fandom first came to light after IGN tracked down his former Dreamcast, and one of the previous owners indicated that a copy of Crazy Taxi was found inside of it. As the Governor of Minnesota, Walz doesn’t get to play many video games any more. But he clearly enjoyed this blast from his gaming past.