Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

So Grand Theft Auto has gone back to its roots, and those genuises have produced a top-down perspective game for Nintendo's handheld. I first thought this to be a strange idea, but it works perfectly on the DS. The camera is perfectly intuitive while driving, and there are compensatory mechanics to make up for not being able to see very far ahead.

As for gameplay, it's your standard GTA run and gun antics, with plenty of wacky weapons like a chainsaw and flamethrower. There's also a taser (called the teaser) that doesn't hurt the enemies very much, but it is pretty funny! For the driving, you can get rid of your wanted levels by making the cops crash, which I found to be much more entertaining than just hiding.

There's also a new drug dealing aspect to the game, which I found thoroughly satisfying. Not that I'm into drugs, but I can't help being proud when the game tells me that I just made a huge profit on a sale!

There are also several minigames and controls that make use of the touch screen. This is where Rockstar has taken it to the next level. Most games on the DS only put in a few cursory touch screen elements, but in GTA Chinatown the integration is seamless and a lot of fun. There are several minigames for jacking cars, drawing tattoos, and my favorite was assembling a sniper rifle before using it.

Unfortunately, the game is not without mistakes. The shooting relies on auto-aim, and it doesn't always work perfectly. This is made up for by the enemies being as dumb as bricks. Most of the missions were easy enough that I didn't have to try them more than once. Also, you will often get a wanted star after jacking a car because there was a cop offscreen that you didn't see.

The dialogue is campy, but it was meant to be, as a joke.

This game was close to perfect, and even with its flaws, it is a must try for all (adult) DS owners.