10 reasons why Chinatown Wars is the best GTA ever

The reviews are flooding in and the general consensus is GTA Chinatown Wars is the best ever DS game. But how does it compare to other GTA games?

Let's take a look...

Given Chinatown Wars's compact nature, its driving engine is superbly honed and balanced. And it needed to be because this is the heart of the experience with players spending approximately 80 per cent of the game inside vehicles.

As in previous GTAs, any kind of law breaking instantly gets the police on your tail and sees your Wanted status going up. But what's particularly pleasing about the chase sequences in Chinatown Wars is that while the police are vigilant and determined, with skill they can be evaded.

Unlike in other GTAs, simply outrunning the black and whites and hiding down an alley won't be enough - you have to skilfully take them out by ramming them or indirectly causing them to hit oncoming traffic. It's like the Blues Brothers meets Burnout 3: Takedown and it's done superbly.

When news emerged that drug dealing would play a part in Chinatown Wars, we expected some kind of special mission or a take it or leave it mini-game. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The drug running mechanic is woven into the fabric of the game and acts as a kind of meta-game on a par with training and battling your monsters in Pokémon.

Dealers are dotted throughout Liberty City, and going randomly from one to the other will make you tidy profits. However, email tip-offs occasionally alert you to more lucrative deals and vast amounts of money can be made for the entrepreneurial minded.

Strangely, the risk also makes this line of business more attractive - getting busted means you lose your stash and cash. Evading police while carrying a large shipment of coke is genuinely thrilling.

Has the touchscreen ever been put to better use than Chinatown Wars's PDA? Arguably not. It's so dinky, useful and plain ingenious we can't believe no one thought of it before.

It's an integrated system that not only shows the usual things like health, selected weapon and your cash but informs you of incoming emails, the location of mission objectives and the fastest legal routes to locations.

The GPS satnav is so clever we now want someone to start making maps of local cities so we can use it for real. The fact that shortcuts can be customised on your PDA is icing on the cake.

Chinatown Wars is funny. Really funny. The scripting is razor sharp and there are one-liners that would put Jimmy Carr to shame.

The humour is mainly drawn from the characters that play up to their stereotypes - the spoiled brat nephew, the seedy uncle, the vain hoodlum, the corrupt cop. A hundred movie influences have been distilled into this one neat package and you'll spot pastiches of anything from Goodfellas to Miami Vice.

You might argue that it occasionally wallows in self-parody, but at least this is one gangster game that's not afraid to laugh at itself. And you'll be laughing along with it every step of the way.

At first glance you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a top-down 2D affair much like the original PC GTA games but there's more under the bonnet than meets the eye. The game engine is fully 3D, allowing the camera to pan around buildings and structures so you're always at the heart of the action.

The clever perspective and beautifully cel-shaded visuals also add depth and texture to the city. Glass structures shatter if you hit them, trains rumble overhead as you pass beneath an underpass, street lamps and headlights cast dynamic shadows across surfaces.

It's absolutely sumptuous to look at and an extraordinary technical achievement. Chinatown Wars may not be the best looking GTA on the market, but it trumps the others in terms of extracting the most from its host hardware.

The PDA is only one brilliant use of the DS's touchscreen technology: mid-mission you're often asked to perform a relevant task that requires a few deft flicks of the stylus. These elements could so easily have felt tagged-on but in our view they definitely add variety and enjoyment to the experience.

There are so many that another top ten list could be made of our favourites: extracting sunken booty from the ocean bed, tracing tattoos onto immigrants to initiate them as Triads, solving password combinations to open gates, and assembling a sniper rifle to get a head shot on a key target.

Try doing any of that on an Xbox 360.

Chinatown Wars is chock full of deft and clever touches that make city exploration a joy. Whistle into the microphone and taxis pull over, shooting out surveillance cameras makes your drug running easier and changes the street price of the booty, while when you approach a toll booth, you can flick change into the pay slot with your stylus.

You can be playing the game for five hours straight then suddenly notice something that will put a massive smile on your face. Like the time we spent half an hour just rubbing the surface of scratch cards to win a lousy prize.

There are 24 weapons in the game. Read that again - 24 weapons. And they all have their peculiar quirks, advantages and disadvantages.

While we can't suggest the combat in Chinatown Wars is the best in any GTA it is surprisingly workable. So even though the lock-on can be a bit hit-and-miss if you're in a big firefight, the goons drop enough weapons that you always have a fighting chance.

But it's when you start picking up the likes of the flamethrower and minigun that things become hilarious. These weapons are so oversized and powerful seeing the dinky environment ripped apart is pleasure in itself.

As you might expect this is a cut-down version of Liberty City but it's none the less attractive and interesting for it. We don't want to give the impression that it's tiny either because it will take you a good few hours to explore every major district, and more time still to search every nook and cranny.

It's arguable that the size and scope of San Andreas caused Rockstar to lose focus on some of the fundamentals in that GTA and spending hours going from one location to another only to fail a mission was irksome.

Not so here: the map is the perfect size for gaming on the go and while it isn't the biggest GTA geographically it more than makes up for this with wonderful detail.

It's still early days for the wi-fi multiplayer games but they're already proving very enjoyable. There are three main modes: Race, Stash Dash and Defend the Base and there's even a Season Race mode for those who prefer a tournament-style set up.

But the wi-fi options don't just end at multiplayer games. It's also possible to connect with friends and swap messages and vital GPS information, such as the location of surveillance cameras or dramatic stunt jumps opportunities. And if you're feeling particularly criminal why not sell an acid tab or two?