Release Date: March 17, 2009
It's been a long time in the making, but the Grand Theft Auto series is finally coming into its own on handheld consoles. Before Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories rocked the PlayStation Portable with solid PlayStation 2-level graphics and Wi-Fi multiplayer, there were three GTA games on the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance that kicked it old school from a top-down perspective and straight forward race-and-chase gameplay.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is best described as a perfect blend of the two eras, old and new GTA handheld games. The camera, for instance, remains positioned in the sky looking down on the action from an isometric view, just like the old days, except that the world is fully rendered using 3D polygons. The graphics are nowhere near as good as those featured in Vice City Stories or Liberty City Stories, but the hard-lined cardboard cutout look has a gritty pulpy charm all its own. More importantly, Chinatown Wars is set in GTAIV's teeming vision of Liberty City, and even on the tiny DS screen we spotted crowds of pedestrians, blinking turn signals, and flashing traffic lights.[YT="GTA: Chinatown Wars Official Trailer"]f8DkCjSNB1c[/YT]
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