What’s this?  Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS?  I had heard nothing about this game so I was surprised to see the big Rockstar setup at Comic Con for Chinatown Wars.  They had a crazy van on the convention floor, banners and a bunch of DS’s set up to run the game.  I was kind of taken aback by the concept of GTA on the DS because I’m so used to “cutesy” games for that platform.  But I figured I would give it a try.

I have to say I was pretty impressed by my limited play of the game.  The graphics are not going to blow you away if you’re used to GTA IV but they really work for the DS and I liked them.  It’s a somewhat cel-shaded, colorful look and the game runs very smoothly.  At first it looks kind of like a top-down view, but you can actually move the camera around and see that everything is really 3-D.  It’s pretty detailed too.  All the usual GTA touches, like pedestrians interacting with the environment and each other are actually present.  As we’ve come to expect, the city feels alive.  What’s more, the city seems huge…I drove around a lot and the Liberty City of the DS is very big.  

I was also really dubious about the controls, but let me tell you…they work.  You basically use the D-Pad and the buttons to do what you have to do and it is really easy to pick up.  I was jacking cars and gunning people down in seconds (the targeting system seems fine to me).  There are some issues with the camera and things blocking your view, but, honestly, I’ve struggled with the camera in all the recent GTA games.  That might just be me, but I found this actually easier.  Thankfully, the stylus is relegated only to mini-games and for those it works fine.  The only one I ran across was scratching off an instant lottery ticket, but I heard there were plenty more and I saw someone assembling a rifle or something with the stylus.  I think these will be a fun little break to add some variety to the game and I’m looking forward to discovering more of them.

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