Despite a release on the GBA a couple of years ago, the Grand Theft Auto franchise never really took off on Nintendo’s handhelds, despite the games having been reasonable attempts to bring the series over to them. To rectify this Rockstar decided to release a new version designed specifically for the Nintendo DS and it’s large fan base.
The game features a brand new viewpoint, with a fully rotatable aerial camera angled down at the action. Although I was skeptical at the start the new camera angle works well, although you may find a few times that you can’t see yourself or the vehicle you’re in if you go down into a tight alley or corner. But this doesn’t affect the gameplay.
The graphics are cel-shaded and fit well with the grimey dark underworld themes which are entrenched into the game. There are no movies. This works quite well as it keeps the game moving rather than becoming dragged out with unnecessary cut scenes.
The story folllows Huang Lee, the son of a murdered Triad boss, arrives in Liberty City with a sword that Huang’s father used as an heirloom, to deliver it to the new patriarch of the family, Huang’s uncle Wu “Kenny” Lee. Shortly after landing, Huang is ambushed and is shot and kidnapped. The assailants steal the sword and, thinking Huang is dead, dump his body in the water. This is where the game begins.
Gameplay wise the game is your average GTA affair. Your missions vary from following characters, killing informants, collecting information. As well as the many many side missions included like buying and selling drugs, raiding warehouses and of course running a taxi. The missions are quite varied and there wasn’t one of them that I didn’t enjoy or was overly difficult.
The new police star system is also unique and a whole lot of fun as instead of escaping the police zone, you have to disable as many police cars as possible. For example at the six star level, you have to take out six cop cars to get down to a five star wanted level. This means crashing into them or baiting them into driving into water or into a wall. Navigating the city is very easy with the extremely useful PDA device which acts as a GPS and you can locate your next mission, find dealers or side mission locations and even order weapons from AmmuNation to be delivered at your closest safe house.
Control wise Rockstar have included a number of touch screen controls which do work well. For example, you have to put together a sniper rifle piece by piece, or hotwire a car by unscrewing the bolts, then putting the wires together. None of the touch controls feel over done or pointless. However my one criticism of them is that it is kind of awkward to keep your stylus handy as you’ll be using it quite often.
There are multi-player modes available in the game if everyone has a copy of the game and there is also an online aspect however it only involves sharing your in-game statistics online. It would’ve been cool to have an online GTA on the DS but I understand the limitations on the hardware itself and realise it would be extremely difficult to achieve. As another incentive to keep playing there are 100 CCTV cameras in the city and these act as the old secret packages and you must destroy them.
Overall this is my favourite game on the Nintendo DS, there is just so much attention to detail in the game that it is impossible not to appreciate what a feat it is to have such a big detailed game on limited hardware. More importantly though what makes the game superb is the fact that it is just a whole lot of fun to play, you’ll just get hours of enjoyment out of the game even after you complete the main story mode which is something you can’t say about a lot of games these days!
Summary: One of the best if not the best game on the DS!
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