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GTA: Chinatown Wars review roundup

Have the wings of Liberty City lost any feathers?

GTA: Chinatown Wars review roundup
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DS
| GTA: Chinatown Wars

As we’re on the cusp of a significant DS revival, we thought it was worth taking a quick glance around the interwebs to see how GTA: Chinatown Wars is shaping up, and whether or not it’s likely to have the kind of industry impact its big brothers have had on the console market.

We'll be bringing you our own verdict very soon, but we thought you might like to hear what our various industry colleagues had to say about the game.

Even a cursory glance suggests that GTA: Chinatown Wars is packing Rockstar’s usual punch, and although the general feeling seems to be that the game is a triumph of action over plot, the major concerns that a GTA world wouldn’t fit inside a DS cart are gratefully alleviated.

Judging by the immediate opinion of the critical community, Chinatown Wars is destined to become the first game in a whole new GTA series based on the DS. We can only hope this kind of encouraging triumph will also spread GTA to other platforms (GTA iPhone, anyone?)

Let’s see what the world’s got to say about GTA: Chinatown Wars:

Game Informer
Score: 9.25/10.0
"Rockstar has crammed an entire GTA experience onto the DS cart. Gunplay and storytelling come up short, but new gameplay avenues keep you glued to this crime caper."

Eurogamer
Score: 10/10
"Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a triumph, not just in terms of bringing a difficult game to a new platform intact, but because it actually improves it in the process, and demonstrates a mastery of DS form and function."

GamePro
Score: 5/5
"A fantastic addition to Rockstar's legacy, Chinatown Wars stands solidly on its own two feet as not only the series' first foray onto the Nintendo DS, but a damn good game, to boot."

IGN
Score: 9.2/10.0
"It's hard to imagine a better job recreating the GTA experience on the DS. [Rockstar] did an outstanding job. There's so much to do and to discover, just watch out for the occasional bug."

Total Video Games
Score: 9/10
"It's everything we've come to expect from GTA, and quite a bit more as well. The faster pace, variety, and use of the touchscreen makes for a less real, yet more entertaining GTA experience perfectly suited for the popular handheld."

GamesRadar
Score: 10/10
"Shameless developers trotting out shallow minigame anthologies and SNES era RPGs should stand in embarrassment at just how much potential Rockstar Leeds managed to wring from a console this late in its lifespan."

MTVMultiplayer
Score: N/A
"It is more absurd than the serious “GTA IV,” relishing in the cartoon violence of flamethrower rampages and the goofiness of finding sex toys in dumpsters."

1UP
Score: A-
"While not hitting the scope of its console parents, Chinatown Wars is a well-put-together portable instalment with clever touch screen activities."

Gamespy
Score: 4.5/5
"Chinatown Wars proves that much of the stuff that really draws us to these games can be realized without expending millions of dollars and man-hours."
Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.