Well, this time Mario Kart fans have set up shop inside Grand Theft Auto Online, so checkmate? The fan community seems to have effectively law-blocked Nintendo by playing a rudimentary Mario Kart recreation inside GTA Online, using no outside mods - just the stuff given to them by the game, thanks to the latest update, Los Santos Tuners. Now, calling this a Mario Kart recreation is a pretty immense stretch. However, considering that it was all achieved with only the items available in GTA Online by default, it’s impressive.
In Los Santos Tuners, players gain access to an underground test track far from the prying eyes of law enforcement and Hydra griefers. When all the participants of a race around this track decide to show up with GTA Online’s versions of go-karts or bikes, some even sporting passable Mario cosplay, it’ll definitely start looking like a race out of the iconic Nintendo title.
While some of the flair is missing, like power ups, a bit of coordination and organisation is all that would be needed to take this to the next level - gather enough willing participants, and you could have a mock-Mario Kart race on one of the crazy Stunt Race tracks in GTA Online. It’s no Rainbow Road, but the closest we’ll ever get without mods and the risk of a cease and desist letter. Half-baked Mario Kart recreations may not have been one of Los Santos Tuners’ main selling points, but it’s nice that players could achieve this - and the DLC is hitting major numbers even without this in its marketing. Rockstar Games has reported that this update drew the largest numbers of new players to GTA Online to date.
