Kartjack
Oct 20, 2026 · GTA2 seen from above, but Mario Kart. The whole city is the track, the items are crimes, and the leader gets a wanted level.
Kartjack is a kart race seen from above, the way GTA2 looked at a city. There's no course. Each race is five checkpoints on a fresh route through one toy city, and you get to each one however you like: down the streets, through alleys and parks, across a car park, on the wrong side of the road. The yellow beam marks the next checkpoint and a white ring marks the one after, so you can plan the line between them. Learning the city's shortcuts is the skill.
The item boxes hand out crimes, the Mario Kart way, with the big ones going to the back of the pack. Nitro and an oil slick are the familiar ones. Traffic cones slow whoever hits them, unless they're driving a bus. Roadworks close the street just ahead of the leader for eight seconds. The Wanted Star sets three cop cars on whoever is in first. The Carjack lets you pull up beside a passing sedan, taxi, sports car or bus and take it.
Cars take damage like they did in GTA2. They dent, then smoke, then catch fire, and then they blow up, and the crew hands you a fresh kart a couple of seconds later. A stolen car comes with no damage and takes knocks better than a kart, so jacking one is also how you fix a smoking wreck. The city has traffic lights at every junction. The traffic waits on red and you don't have to, but the cross traffic is the danger.
You can race five bots, or play a City Cup of four races for points and a trophy. Online, you invite friends with a link, up to six cars, and bots fill the empty seats. Up to four people can also race on one screen with game controllers, split two or four ways. Rep from finishing races unlocks five karts, from the Rookie to the Bank Job, and the trophy shelf keeps your cups. After a race, the result card draws the route you actually drove.
The idea is Jeff's. It took four rounds of playtesting to get here. It's built with three.js. The karts and traffic are Meshy models, and the sound effects and the three music tracks were generated with ElevenLabs. The promo above was filmed from real bot races, and the photo finish at the end was decided by three hundredths of a second.