Games on the web

Open Play in the web app’s top bar. There are two games, each a few minutes long, for when you’re nowhere near a car.

Gearbox

A sliding puzzle. Two matching engines merge into the next one up the ladder, from a 50cc moped to a W16 and beyond; every rung has its own colour so you can read the board at a glance. Arrow keys, WASD or a swipe moves every tile at once.

Each run also carries three power-ups: Undo steps back a move (three per run), Swap exchanges two engines (two per run) and Drop removes one (two per run). Press Z, X or C, or tap the buttons under the board, then tap the tiles. When the board is stuck, a power-up you still have can get you going again; the run is over only when nothing is left to rescue it. Starting a new game banks the one you’re on.

Karts

A 3D racer on real circuits, scaled so a lap takes about a minute and a half whatever you drive. Pick a Kart, a GT or a Formula car: each is faster and grippier than the last and races a bigger version of the circuit, with its own boards. Arrows or WASD drive; hold Shift or Space through a corner to drift and let go for a turbo, the longer the drift the bigger the boost. While you slide, steering into the corner tightens the line and steering against it opens it out. Coins raise your top speed, boost pads fire you down the straights, and a ramp or two will put you in the air. On a phone the pedals, drift and item buttons appear below the track, and a standard gamepad works too. Esc or the gamepad’s Start opens the menu, where the controls, the circuits, the garage and the settings live. Beside the real circuits there is a new one every day, the same for everyone and with its own board, and a random one to play about on that keeps no times. Roads turns real roads into courses: the road of the week, roads near you and the Road Book, each cut into stages of up to six kilometres with their real climbs, driven from start to finish and scored on the stage’s own board. Free roam streams the real map around you instead, every street, bridge and hill, from wherever you pick or from where you are; nothing there is scored, and R puts you back on the nearest road.

• Time Trial is five flying laps against the ghost of your quickest attempt, which drives exactly what you drove. Sector splits show how far ahead or behind you are, and your best lap goes to the circuit’s board.
• Race is three laps against five rivals in your chosen class (Club, Sport or Pro sets everyone’s speed). Item boxes hand out mushrooms, green and red shells and bananas; E or Enter uses one. A hit costs you speed and three coins. Your finishing time goes to the board for that circuit and class.

Every kart result is checked by replaying your inputs on the server, so the time on the board is the time you actually drove. A race you don’t finish isn’t saved.

Who sees your games

Every finished game is saved to your account, so your bests follow you to any browser. Nobody else sees them. Games never appear on your profile or in the feed.

Each game has a board. A result reaches it only when you tap Post to the board, and you can switch on Post anonymously first. An anonymous entry shows as a numbered player with no name, photo or link to your profile. Posting needs a confirmed email address.