GTA : Chinatown Wars Review by Mr. Generic

GTA : Chinatown Wars [21/03/09]


Welcome to Liberty City, here's your free shotgun and a 6 pack of weed. Enjoy your stay!

Rockstar Games has released their latest edition to the amazing library of Grand Theft Auto, this time on the Nintendo DS. You're probably wondering how the GTA series can hold on the DS, it could never imitate San Andreas or any other of the 3D GTA games! But wait, this game is in the traditional top-down style of previous GTA games. This could seem displeasing to you just thinking about the success Grand Theft Auto 4 has had with its amazing graphics and awesome physics.



In GTA : Chinatown Wars you play as Huang, a young Asian man who has just had his father killed and is looking for revenge. Soon after nearly being assassinated, you go to your uncle Kenny who gives you an apartment and needs your help to get to the top of the gang wars.

GTA : Chinatown Wars stays true to the series with all the game mechanics such as car stealing, beating up people and new ones like selling drugs and using the touch screen controls to hot-wire cars.

Speaking of touch screen controls, Nintendo tends to slap on some half-assed touch screen controls and personally I dont like them. Although in this game it actually feels really nice!
When you hijack a parked car, it will come up with a mini-game where you can either turn on the ignition with a screwdriver, hotwire the car or use your PDA. When you drive into the water, you'll come up with a minigame where you need to break the window to get out, its quite cool and intuitive.

Now it's time to introduce you to your handy pal, PDA! It hangs around the touch screen and has a nice map, email symbols and radio. You can tap the map and look around at Liberty City, locate your safehouse, drug dealers and points of interest. While not being completely revolutionary, it does a great job of helping you get around Liberty City.

Drugs are a new part in GTA : Chinatown Wars it works as you would expect it to, you buy drugs and then sell them. Dealers will e-mail you saying if they have a hot deal on downers or if they might be buying cocaine at a high price. This is an easy way to earn cash, speaking of cash there's alot more ways to earn it in Liberty City!
The one I enjoy the most is doing taxi fares, it's nice because if you get to the place without damaging the cab you get a nice tip. Some others are scratch cards, killing people for money, running an ambulance and killing criminals.



Controls in GTA : Chinatown Wars work quite well, the D-PAD is used for movement, the B button to run, the A button is for attacking/shooting, the X button is to get in/out of vehicles and the Y button is to jump/roll. Additional buttons are : The L button is used to center the camera behind you and Select is to interact.

GTA : Chinatown Wars is filled with action, fun and good controls. Although there are a few annoying perks like how if you just scrape a police car they chase you and if a single pixel of your car touches a gas pump is explodes it still is great to pick up and play. The game is a great addition to the GTA library and is a must buy for any DS owner.


Mr. Generic's score for GTA : Chinatown Wars is ...

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