Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | Nintendo DS

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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on Nintendo DS follows Huang Lee into Liberty City's criminal world after an attack leaves him without the family sword he came to deliver. Recovering the stolen heirloom and uncovering the people behind the violence pull him into a network of underworld jobs and rivalries. You control Huang from an angled overhead view, moving freely through a three-dimensional city on foot or in vehicles. The main story provides missions to pursue, while the streets offer other ways to spend time and make money. The result is a portable crime adventure with a large world and a strong sense of player-directed movement.

A typical mission combines travel with a specific task for one of the city's criminal figures. Driving to a meeting, reaching a target, escaping danger, and fighting can all form part of that work. Between assignments, the city remains available to explore, so you can choose whether to continue the plot or investigate another activity. Safehouses give Huang places to return to and access his communications, while previously completed missions can be replayed through the game's systems. That structure makes the story a continuing thread within a broader routine of navigating streets, acquiring resources, and deciding what to attempt next.

Vehicles are central to that routine. Carjacking provides quick transport, and Liberty City's range includes cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, and other vehicles suited to different situations. Handling the streets means reading traffic, anticipating turns, and recognizing when a vehicle gives you the best way through a task. An overhead camera makes road layout and nearby threats visible together, helping you judge your immediate surroundings. Traveling is an activity in its own right because a quiet journey can change when police or opponents become involved. The city continually asks you to move between a destination and the obstacles on the way there.

Huang's PDA organizes messages, contacts, and information about the world. Its GPS map on the lower screen helps you set a destination and follow a route while the upper screen shows the action. The two views complement each other: one shows where the task is, and the other shows what is happening around the vehicle or character right now. As you discover useful locations, the map becomes more informative. Checking your communications can bring a new job or tip into focus, while setting a course makes it easier to concentrate on driving and responding to the next street-level problem.

The in-game drug-trading economy gives Huang another way to earn money. Dealers have different prices, and PDA information can reveal opportunities to buy goods at one location and sell them more profitably elsewhere. Carrying a valuable load adds a risk to the trip, because police trouble can cost you what you are transporting. Trading therefore connects price information with movement through the city. A promising deal matters only if you can reach the next dealer safely. This economy is part of the game's criminal fiction, giving you a separate financial objective alongside the missions rather than a simple reward delivered after every story event.

Police pursuits have a distinctive arcade system. Disabling pursuing police vehicles can reduce the wanted level, making a chase an active driving contest as well as an escape route. You have to judge space, traffic, and the position of the cruisers around you, while avoiding further actions that intensify the response. Changing a car's appearance at a Pay 'n' Spray provides another tool for managing pursuit. The wanted system makes ordinary travel more volatile: a street becomes a place to seek an opening, use your vehicle's movement, and work toward getting the police response under control.

The Nintendo DS touch screen is woven into numerous interactions. Stylus activities include hotwiring vehicles, searching containers, scratching lottery tickets, and escaping a submerged car. These brief tasks change the way a familiar Grand Theft Auto action is performed, asking for a direct hand movement rather than only a button press. They also give the lower screen practical work alongside its map and PDA. The game uses the microphone for hailing a taxi as well. Working touch and microphone functions are therefore relevant to the DS experience, with the handheld's built-in features shaping several everyday actions in the city.

Side activities and exploration provide variety beyond the main plot and trading. Different vehicles can open jobs such as taxi, emergency-service, or delivery work, while races and other opportunities give you reasons to investigate the map. The city uses a day-and-night cycle and changing weather, adding atmosphere to its overhead streets and angular, illustrated presentation. The North American DS release is rated Mature 17+ with Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Sexual Content, Strong Language, and Violence by the ESRB. Its criminal activities and explicit content are central parts of the experience and should be considered when choosing the game.

The campaign is played solo, while local wireless Multi-Card play supports two players with their own cartridges and compatible handhelds. Historical Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection features included communication, item exchange, and statistics functions, but Nintendo discontinued that service on May 20, 2014; those official online features are unavailable. The cartridge's offline adventure and local wireless activities are the relevant modes today. Chinatown Wars is especially suited to someone who wants missions, free exploration, driving, and an in-game economy to influence the same session. Huang's story gives you a direction, while Liberty City's streets continually offer another decision about what to do next.