BuBa Games has released Cartoon Crime in Steam Early Access, a cartoon-styled crime sandbox with online co-op, multiple cities and a camera that switches between third-person and top-down. It costs $2.99 on Steam at the time of writing, runs on Windows only, and the studio expects six to twelve months more development.
Cartoon Crime describes itself as “an open-world crime sandbox where missions are optional and chaos is always one bad decision away.” This is a small studio’s take on the open-city crime game, played for laughs rather than grit, and priced at less than a coffee.
The game launched in Early Access on Steam on 26 August 2026, developed and published by BuBa Games, a two-person studio in Istanbul according to coverage the studio links from its own site. Nobody at Gamer Headlines has played it yet, so this is an assessment of what the store page promises and what the price buys, not a review.
What the Store Page Promises
The feature list is long for a $2.99 game. Steam lists story missions alongside free roam across multiple cities, districts and islands, with hidden locations to find. Vehicles cover cars, bicycles, boats and aircraft. Buildings can be entered, including gun stores, gyms, restaurants, cinemas and shops.
The side activities read like a checklist for the genre. There is bowling, billiards and arcade machines. Kickboxing challenges pay out cash. Combat mixes firearms, melee weapons, fists and kicks, and the police respond with chases and escalating wanted levels. Rival gangs and hostile NPCs fill out the city, civilians react to the chaos, and bodyguards can be recruited to fight alongside you.
Two features stand out. The camera can be switched instantly between third-person and top-down, a nod to the overhead crime games of the late 1990s that few modern takes on the formula offer. And the game supports online co-op as well as single-player, which at this price makes it an easy thing to buy for a friend.
There are also multiple playable characters, several difficulty settings and character skills that improve through play.
The map has already grown. Update 8 added a Wild West desert continent in the northeast, with Redstone Canyon, a nuclear power plant, volcanic islands offshore, a second airfield called Dustwing Airfield, drivable desert tanks and Mission 22, Beneath the Sand. Update 9, posted on 20 October, added steam trains you can board, two hidden underground labs with alien experiments, and zombies around the nuclear plant that can infect the player. Police tanks now join chases at five stars.
How Much of It Is There Yet
That list is the developer’s description, and an Early Access game’s store page describes where a game is headed as much as where it is. BuBa Games says it expects Cartoon Crime to stay in Early Access for six to twelve months. It plans to keep the price low during that time and may raise it as content grows, so early buyers are paying for a work in progress at its cheapest.
The early signs are positive but thin. At the time of writing the game has 10 user reviews on Steam, all positive, and four curator reviews. That is too small a sample to say much about how complete or stable it is. Anyone weighing it up should read the most recent reviews and the update history rather than the feature list alone.
What Buyers Should Know
It is Windows only. The minimum spec asks for a GeForce GTX 1660 Super (the store page calls it an “RTX 1660 Super”, a card that does not exist) and 8 GB of memory. The recommended spec is an RTX 2060 with 16 GB. The install is small at 3 GB. No Steam Deck, Mac or Linux support is listed.
Steam lists 23 languages, from English and Turkish to Vietnamese and Czech. All 23 cover the interface and subtitles. None has full audio.
The store page carries an AI disclosure. BuBa Games says generative AI was used for some pre-generated 2D artwork, text editing, localisation and development support, that all of it was reviewed and approved, and that the game generates no AI content while it is being played. Readers who avoid games made with generative AI will want to know that before buying.
No mature content descriptors are listed on the page. Given the guns, gangs and police chases, parents should not take that absence as a sign the game is aimed at children, cartoon art style or not.
Worth a Look at the Price
The comparison everyone will reach for is the big-budget open-world crime series, and Cartoon Crime invites it with its wanted levels, gun stores and stolen vehicles. It is fairer to judge it against its price. At $2.99 the bar is low, and a co-op crime sandbox with a top-down camera option has a reasonable chance of clearing it as an evening’s chaos with a friend.
The open question is depth. A feature list this long from a small team in Early Access can mean breadth over polish, and the handful of reviews so far cannot settle that either way. For now it looks like a cheap, cheerful bet with a clear idea of what it wants to be.
The Facts
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Developer | BuBa Games (two-person, Istanbul, per linked coverage), also publisher |
| Released | 26 August 2026, Steam Early Access |
| Early Access | Estimated 6 to 12 months; price may rise as content grows |
| Price | $2.99 / €2.89, no sale running (28 October 2026) |
| Platforms | Windows 10 and newer only |
| Length | Not stated |
| Modes | Single-player, online co-op |
| Languages | 23, interface and subtitles only; no full audio in any |
| Requirements | Min: GTX 1660 Super, 8 GB RAM, 3 GB. Rec: RTX 2060, 16 GB RAM, 3 GB |
| Generative AI | Used for some 2D art, text editing, localisation and dev support (developer disclosure); none generated in play |
| Steam reviews | 10, all positive; 4 curators (27 October 2026) |
