The Grand Theft Auto series has been a classic series for all gamers. From the top-down excitement of GTA and GTA2 to the mind blowing 3dness (and the infamous hot coffee mod). Chinatown Wars takes the top down of the originals and the 3D (and hookers) of the later games mixes them together.
The Good
This game is fun, VERY stylized, and adult. Why do people love GTA games? Because they are open-ended sand box games that allow you go drive around hitting people with cars and causing mayhem.
The top down style fits very well with the limited 3d capabilities of the DS. Also the stylization makes you really forget that you are on a portable unit.
The Bad
The story is pretty lame, which isn’t that big of a problem. As I said above, the story in these games are worthless, but they are challenges so you end up doing them anyways after an hour or two of driving around for no reason.
The aiming can get a little wonky at times. While someone right in front of me is blasting me away with a shotgun, the game decides the woman pedestrian at the edge of the screen is a bigger threat.
The Ugly
The corny ass dialogue and goofy cut scene art is enough to make a person stab their eyes The characters in the cut scenes look like a 5 year old did them, and the conversations are just juvenile.
Although I did laugh the first couple times I heard a hooker say “You wanna piece of my pie?”, hearing it 300 times again while walking around the city gets old fast.
The Skinny
This game is fun. It has some problems, but I’m really enjoying the new crop of mature games coming out for the Nintendo console. I loved GTA and GTA2 so this game fit very well with me.
