Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS)

This game is absolutely incredible. The world is large and expansive, and the storyline is masterful. It truly lives up to my expectations as a Grand Theft Auto veteran. One thing I would like to comment on is that this game may not be appropriate for younger children (under 13), it is acceptable for teenagers. Though drugs are dealt, the use is minimal, as well as the player only gets vague images of them. Also, the DS graphics do not give the player a good view of the violence. Finally, there is very little sexual content, and the language is nothing more than what might hear in the local high school. Anyway, this is a great game, and My personal favorite DS game.

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I've never played any grand theft auto game before but now I know why so many people love it. I'm addicted to this game after 5 minutes of play. The graphic's cool. There are so many things you can do besides the missions as you walk through the game. You can always rob a car in the street whenever you want, so never worry about transportation. You can always kill someone and take their money, easy to get money, isn't it? You can deal drugs to make money. You can fight cops. If you're old enough and you wanna know what it feels like to do literally whatever you want, dig yourself into this game.

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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a throwback to what used to be fun about video games for me. The game is well-designed and the entire world layed out within the game pulls you in. There are plenty of funny double-entendres and the characters are interesting enough to keep you guessing. This is definitely a game I would recommend to those who may be feeling some over-load from all the kid-centric games for the Nintendo DS.

As a grown man with a regular job, my gaming time is limited. It has really been limited to two categories: puzzle and trivia games that I enjoy, or multiplayer / party games that I can play with my family, particularly my younger nieces and nephews. As such, it has been rare for me to devote much time to an RPG or mission based game because they require such a time commitment. That's time I just don't have. For GTA Chinatown Wars, I find myself wanting to make the time.

First of all, I have only played this game on the DS. For some reason, the reviews for the PSP version are combined with the DS version here. I have no experience with the PSP version of this game so all my comments are directed towards those considering this game for the DS Lite or some other version of the DS.

Secondly, I also have limited experience with the GTA franchise. Like everybody else in the world, I have played GTA4 on the PS3 and Xbox360. While there are some gaming franchises I have played extensively, GTA is simply not one of them. However, the limited time I spent playing GTA4 was enough for me to realize how different it is than this game. While the basic structure is the same, the character and story are different. Perhaps more importantly, the gameplay is significantly different due to the smaller screens and controls on the DS. Having said that, I think this game was well-ported to the DS platform. I also think my limited experience proves that this game can be picked up by anybody, even relative newbies like myself.

Originally I thought I might just mess around with this game long enough to see if it was suitable for one of my teenage nephews. I ended up enjoying it so much that I kept it for myself. That being said, I must insert my final disclaimer: I have not finished this game. I know there are some people who can play any game through over a day or two and finish every mission with no problem. I am not one of those people. Having said that, I found that even replaying missions that I wasn't able to complete was tolerable.

This game is best enjoyed if you can devote at least an hour at a time, so you can have enough time to finish a mission or two and save your status before quitting. You can certainly finish missions in less time than that, but if you don't get them the first time you will have to decide between playing through the same thing again or starting over later.

The video interludes giving you the plot and your next mission are actually pretty enjoyable. Controlling the character definitely has been the toughest adjustment for me. One of the tough aspects actually comes from the rich design layers built into the game. Driving is particulary tough with these tiny controls, but there are such a variety of weapons and moves that there's a learning curve for those not used to playing these games. It's definitely worth the time invested though.

CONCLUSION

This is the one of the best games I have played for the NDS, and definitely has more of a traditional video game feel than most DS games. I recommend it to any adult gamer, though as a gift I only think it's suitable for mature kids in their late teens.

Enjoy.

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