I remember being at the Nintendo E3 2008 press conference when they announced the arrival of the GTA franchise to the Nintendo DS…it had to happen one day knowing how popular the lovely handheld from Nintendo had become among grown-ups. I’ll admit I was sitting there at the Nintendo conference and asked myself if it was going to be “that” great. Then…Grand Theft Auto Advance popped in my head. Back in 2004, it was a good game. Actually, I spent more time playing on my GBA than on consoles because San Andreas (which was released simultaneously) wasn’t the game I expected. Since then, Rockstar released two great GTA games on the PSP and then followed with GTA IV. A few weeks back, GTA Chinatown Wars arrived at the office for review and I recalled seeing myself sitting in front of Ms. Dunaway and nodding my head in disbelief. Did Rockstar really pull it off and bring an excellent GTA game to the Nintendo DS?

In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, you play as Huang Lee who returns to Liberty City after a few years of absence to deliver the Yu Jian, an antique sword previously owned by his recently assassinated father, to his uncle Kenny. Soon after his arrival, Huang gets attacked and left for dead, losing the sword at the hands of his assailants. With the help of his uncle, Huang now needs to retrieve the sword. From that point, Chinatown Wars becomes what players have been accustomed to see in a GTA game: creating havoc and chaos, getting rid of your enemies and complete missions while getting revenge in the process. Being a DS game, the gameplay and the storyline for Chinatown Wars will differ from a GTA console version, simply because the need to set a cinematic tone alongside a complex character development is irrelevant. So, the developers managed to deliver a fast and accessible set-up that will let the player immerse himself into the essence of the gameplay right after the few seconds of play.

The implementation of the touch screens aren’t used for a plain, boring and stupid gimmicked gameplay. They’re actually in perfect symbiosis with the way the gameplay mechanics are laid out. Starting up old cars by simulating the movement of a screwdriver, hotwiring other cars through a little color matching mini-game or keeping citizens alive by tapping the screen with the stylus while driving the ambulance are just a few samplesof things that you will be required to do in Chinatown Wars through the touch-screen. There’s also a cool mini-game but I will tell you about it later. The game does not rely solely on the touch screens as it also uses both the directional pad and the face buttons for the driving, shooting and of course running around the city. Offering a hybrid control-scheme is great and fun but a small group of players may have some difficulties quickly switching between the two controls during certain phases of the game and will even be turned off by the shooting mechanics’ lack of precision. Luckily, the game never becomes unplayable or hard to manage because of this and it will even give you the upper hand at certain times. Remember, Chinatown Wars may be the smartest and most complete DS game on the market right now but it still a DS game, it has to remain simplistic and fun on all aspects. Speaking of fun, Rockstar Leeds made a small change on how to bring down your "Wanted" level. This no longer requires escaping and hiding…now you can just crash into them and wreck their cars. This new system is surely welcomed and even makes me think of the possibility to see this novelty arrive on future console versions of GTA.

Aside from that, Chinatown Wars plays just like any other GTA game by giving the player a lot of things to do. A good array of side missions, an incredible list of hidden collectibles scattered around Liberty City, cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes through DS multi-card play (sadly) and you can even do all sorts of cool stuff like trading items with friends or unlocking new missions thanks to the Rockstar Social Club. These are just some of the things available in the game to you. The game also brings about the return of the Rampage Mode in which you’re granted with limited ammo and health and you go on a killing spree in order to obtain the highest score. Did I tell you Chinatown Wars is an M rated game?

Graphics & Sounds

A DS game will never compete equally with a PSP game in the graphics department but the development team over at Rockstar Leeds made sure that Chinatown Wars would look incredibly awesome and pretty enough to get your attention upon the first minutes of play. If you read some of my past reviews, I always said that the graphics aren’t the only thing in a game; it’s the gameplay that matters the most. True but GTA Chinatown Wars does not have only great gameplay, it also has one of the best graphics ever seen on a DS game. Liberty City, as presented in GTA IV, was scaled down here but is very representative of the console version. While cruising around the city, you will find yourself in familiar places visited in GTA IV. Yes, the game is that detailed. The same over-the-top view seen on past 2D GTA games is making a return but the developers decided to make a slight change and angled it, giving the game a bigger sense of realism. Matched with a great rotational and adjustable camera system that lets you follow the action as much as you can and combining it with an incredible 2D/3D cell-shaded graphic engine that totally pushes the technical capabilities of the DS, Chinatown Wars’ visuals are simply gorgeous and incredibly impressive.

Sound wise; the game does what it can with the limitations given by the console. While there are no character voice-overs (except for the civilians), the game offers a great array of quality sound effects coming from the cars smashing, explosions, weapon firings and even an in-game radio system that offers five instrumental stations that go from hip hop to rock. Sadly, the game can’t offer high quality audio tracks simply because the console is not capable of such a thing. The sound build has always been a subject of discussion no matter what DS game you play. Nonetheless, Chinatown Wars offers an interesting and very distinctive sound build.

As I mentioned earlier, the game has everything the player can expect from a GTA game with its side missions, mini-games and unlockables. Furthermore, Chinatown Wars does offer two additional and interesting aspects that will dramatically increase the replay value of the game. First, a mission replay system that lets you choose which mission you would like to replay is great. If you’re looking to improve your stats on a certain mission or just replay your favourite, now you can. But where you will spend most of your time will be with the drug dealing simulation mini-game which reminded me a lot of Drug Wars, a cool DOS game that I used to play on my calculator back in high school. Basically, the game revolves around buying drugs for cheap and selling them in certain zones in Liberty City where the demand for that specific drug is high. Plus, if you find the security cameras scattered around the city you can disable them and increase your trade power by affecting drastically the drug economy in the game and become filthy rich! That’s if you manage to successfully escape from the 5-0 at all times.

Add the length of main storyline (that could vary from 15 to 20 hours) to all this and you will get a great bang to your buck.

The drug selling mini-game is extremely addictive

I for one was a non-believer on how this GTA game for the Nintendo DS would turn out to be. I even went public by saying that it would not be that great. I was wrong and I have to admit that Rockstar made me look like a fool this time. It’s obvious that the developers did not want to release just another GTA version for the handhelds and go for the quick cash but wanted to offer a high quality product for a handheld that desperately needs something else than just Brain simulators, Pokémon games and cross-dressing games. GTA Chinatown Wars is one hell of a game that deserves a place in your DS collection, especially if you’re a fan of the GTA franchise. It’s really nice to see that the videogame industry can still surprise you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some smack and weed that need to be sold…virtually of course. I did mention something about the game being M-rated, right?