Arcade Whale
Smash Karts is the kart game that half of every school computer lab seems to have open. Tall Team released it in 2020: little 3D karts in an arena, loot boxes that hand out weapons, and three-minute rounds where you score by knocking other karts out. It loads in a browser, a round starts in seconds, and there is always someone online to play against.
When people look for games like Smash Karts, they usually want one of three things: another kart game, another quick online fight, or something to play with friends in the same room. This page has our own games for each. None of them is the official Smash Karts, and all of them open in a browser tab with nothing to install.
First, the thing every kart game with item boxes gets right, and most players never notice.
Try it: open an item box
Pick your place in the race and open a box. The odds are the real ones from Turbo Karts, the first game below. Then switch to equal odds and see what changes.
What does the box give you?
Pick a place, then open a box.
The weighted odds are the ones Turbo Karts uses. First place: mine 55%, boost 30%, rocket 15%. Second: boost 40%, mine 30%, rocket 30%. Third: rocket 45%, boost 35%, mine 20%. Fourth or lower: rocket 50%, boost 40%, mine 10%. Equal odds gives each item one chance in three. The counts reset when you change a setting.
With the same odds for everyone, the kart in front draws a rocket every third box, hits the kart behind and pulls away. The race is decided before the second lap. Weighted boxes give the leader mines to defend with and the karts at the back rockets to attack with, so the pack stays together and a bad start is not the end of your race. Smash Karts has no finish line, so it solves the same problem another way: a round lasts three minutes and everyone respawns, so nobody gets knocked out for good.
1. Turbo Karts: the kart part, as a real race
Turbo Karts is a 3D kart racer for up to four real drivers on the same grid. Press the online button and you are on a grid within seconds, and any slot still empty when the lights go out is filled by a computer kart, so you never wait for a full lobby. You can also race alone against the computer.
The big difference from Smash Karts is the goal. There is no arena and no kill count. You race three or four laps around a circuit and the first kart over the line wins. The items are the part you will recognise. Boxes sit in fixed rows across the track and hold three things. A boost is worth several kart lengths on a straight and almost nothing in a corner, where the extra speed only pushes you wide. A rocket follows the racing line and spins out the first kart it reaches. A mine drops behind you and waits. A hit costs you about a second and all of your speed, which in a pack this size is usually a place.
You hold the throttle yourself, and the corners are where races are won. Every circuit has corners you cannot take flat out, because the kart turns a tighter circle when it is slower. Lift off or brake and the corner is easy; arrive too fast and you run wide onto the grass, where your top speed drops by more than half. There are seven circuits, and each one changes something. Frost Loop is ice with a quarter of the usual grip, Neon Night is a longer lap in fog under floodlights, and Dune Pass and Harbour Mile put eight karts on the grid.
Every kart is the same and there is nothing to unlock. If you liked Smash Karts for collecting hats and karts, that part is missing here. If you liked passing someone and dropping a mine in front of them, this is the game.
2. Last Gun: the smash part, on foot
The other half of Smash Karts is the fight: a short round, everyone against everyone, and a scoreboard that changes every few seconds. Last Gun is that, as a first-person arena shooter. Pick a table of 1v1, 1v3, eight or sixteen players, press Find a match, and a short lobby counts you in. There is no code to type and no invite to send.
In this 35-second clip a team deathmatch in a sunny old town goes from a double kill to a MEGA KILL. First squad to 75 wins.
It uses the gun game format. Twelve guns hang on a rack, everybody starts with the first one, and every kill hands you the next. The first fighter to get a kill with the last gun, the .50 Cal, wins the match. You never pick a weapon, so each gun is a new problem: the Shotgun wants you close, the Sniper wants you far back and still, and the LMG’s 80-round belt takes three seconds to reload. A bar over every fighter’s head shows how far up the rack they are, so you always know who is one kill from winning.
It plays on a phone too, with a stick to walk, a drag to look and a separate fire pad. Chips from each kill buy gun colours, which change the look and nothing else. If the shooting is the part you like, our guide to games like Shell Shockers has more first-person shooters, with a demo of how many shots each gun needs.
3. Block Hole: a quick .io round with a leaderboard
Smash Karts is an .io game at heart: drop in, play a short round, check the leaderboard, play again. Block Hole has the same rhythm with a stranger hero. You are a hole in a blocky 3D city, and everything you swallow makes you wider: cones and bins first, then cars, buses, houses and finally the towers.
The Classic round is two minutes with eight holes, and a bigger hole can swallow a smaller one and take 30% of its score. Battle is closer to a Smash Karts fight: sixteen holes, a hole that gets swallowed is out, and a red ring closes in until one is left. Tap Online before a round and you share the city with other players.
4. Splash Rush: a race with sixteen riders
If what you liked about Smash Karts was the crowd, Splash Rush puts sixteen riders on a 3D water slide. You start in the back row, drag left and right to steer through the pack, ride the walls and bump rivals over the edge, and only the first ten into the pool go through. Each cup has three rounds: sixteen start, ten go through, and six race the final for the top three. From the second cup on, a cup can start online with real players on the same slide.
In this 30-second clip the riders go up the outer wall, fly off the bend and land further down. Sixteen start, and only the first ten into the pool go through.
5. Bowfall: a one-on-one duel
For one rival at a time, Bowfall is a ragdoll archery duel. Two archers face each other, each on a stand held up by a pale rope or lashing, and the arrow is not really the weapon: cut the rope and your rival falls. You drag back from your archer and let go, like a slingshot, and you can see your rival draw too, so there is a moment to duck. There is a campaign against five rivals and an online duel where both players start with the same health and the same quiver.
In this 17-second clip the rival shoots first and I fall off my own tower, then against the Poacher one arrow cuts the rope and the stone drops on him.
How they compare
| Game | What you play | Players online | Round length | Closest to Smash Karts because |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo Karts | 3D kart race with items | Up to 4 real drivers, grids of 4 to 8 | 3 or 4 laps | Karts, item boxes, rockets and mines |
| Last Gun | First-person gun game | 1v1, 1v3, 8 or 16 | Until someone wins with the last gun | Free-for-all fights and a live scoreboard |
| Block Hole | 3D .io game | Shared online table | 2 minutes, or last hole standing | Short rounds and a leaderboard |
| Splash Rush | Water slide race | Real players from the second cup | Three rounds per cup | A big crowd in one race |
| Bowfall | Archery duel | 1v1 | A few minutes | Head-to-head with one rival |
Playing with friends
All five games put you in a game with real players in a few seconds, with no account and no sign-up. There are no invite codes or private rooms, so there is no way to lock a game to just your friends. The simplest way to play together is for everyone to press the online button at the same moment.
Tips for kart races with items
- Save the boost for a straight. A boost in a corner only pushes you wide. Fire it on the exit of a corner, once the kart is pointing straight.
- Hold the mine when you lead. A mine is the only item that defends. Drop it on the racing line just before a corner, where the kart behind has the least room to steer around it.
- Fire rockets on long straights. A rocket follows the track, but on a twisty section it can hit a wall or a kart you did not aim at.
- Brake before the corner, not in it. Slow down in a straight line, turn in, then go back to full throttle. Grass costs you far more time than the brake does.
- Do not give up from last place. At the back of a Turbo Karts grid half of your boxes are rockets. One clean hit on the last lap is often a place.
More online games are on the Multiplayer page, and the Racing page has every racing game we make. If you play at school, our list of games for a Chromebook has picks that run well on a school laptop.
