It wasn’t until I picked up Chinatown Wars for my DS in 2009 that I realised how much I missed the top-down perspective of the original GTAs. You wouldn’t, for instance, want to hand over a big bag of pills underneath a CCTV camera. This also meant that the cops weren’t just trying to bust you for drive-bys and murders-you had to avoid getting caught selling drugs as well. Ultimately you were just trying to buy low and sell high, but compared to most GTA criminal enterprises it felt significantly more engaging. And you couldn’t just throw drugs at the hungry masses-Liberty City’s gangs had different preferences, so some would sell you acid at a decent price and want to buy ecstasy. You could fill your sack of treats with all sorts of illicit substances, and then drive around the city trying to make the big bucks. See, the touchscreen stuff was really just an extension of Chinatown War’s more hands-on approach to crime, encapsulated best by its drug-dealing system. Some of that magic would be lost on PC, obviously, since you’re not smearing your fingers across the screen, but the systems could absolutely still persist-and remain engaging-even without poking and prodding with a stylus.
![gta chinatown wars switch gta chinatown wars switch](https://image.jeuxvideo.com/medias-sm/155480/1554802529-1464-artwork.jpg)
In particular, I was a big fan of how it made you hotwire parked cars with a quick touch-based minigame instead of immediately being able to jack them. The DS’s second screen and touchscreen interface made it distinct from the previous games. Selling drugs and running over pedestrians seemed utterly incongruous to Nintendo’s family-friendly handheld, and that was part of its charm-the surprise of having something like this sitting next to Mario and Link’s latest exploits.
GTA CHINATOWN WARS SWITCH PSP
Though it eventually launched on PSP and mobile, the open world crime fantasy was originally a Nintendo DS exclusive.
![gta chinatown wars switch gta chinatown wars switch](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/16715/large.jpg)
A much tastier treat would have been a remaster of Chinatown Wars, a great but oft-forgotten return to GTA’s old top-down capers.Ĭhinatown Wars definitely couldn’t be accused of lacking novelties-even the choice of primary platform was out there. All of these games are readily available on PC, however, and plenty of other platforms.
![gta chinatown wars switch gta chinatown wars switch](https://media.pocketgamer.com/artwork/na-ouk/psp_chinatown_wars_art.jpg)
In the meantime, we’re getting remasters of a trio of classics in the form of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, letting us relive our criminal misadventures in GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas. It’s probably going to be ages before we get a properly new GTA.