What do you get when you take GTA4 and send it back into time? It ends up sleeping with the first GTA.  Then, somehow, they have a freak baby, that baby is named Chinatown Wars. Chinatown wars is the latest Rockstar game out for the DS and is rated M.

I have always found the GTA titles to be alot of fun. However, when you use the touch screen and put little mini games all throughout the game, you get to a whole other level of fun.  You can hot wire some cars by unscrewing a panel and twisting some wires together. Driving your car off into the water sets off another game; tap the screen to break out the windshield of the car to escape.  Out of all those games, my favorite is putting the sniper rifle together.  It’s just so fun to screw the barrel on and put the clip in.

Other than the touch screen, Chinatown Wars has one more feature that really stands out.  It’s the new drug dealing aspect, where you buy and sell drugs by finding good deals. Different gangs deal different drugs for different prices. When you befriend these drug dealers, you also get emails telling you about their good deals.  I have to give props to Rockstar for putting my favorite cellphone game into Chinatown Wars.  You know, Drug Wars.  Dealing is really where you get most of your money.  It is really fun, I found myself on numerous occasions just hustlin’ drugs around the city to make a quick fortune.

The map of the city should be familiar to anyone who played GTA4.  Why? Because it’s 75% of the same map.  Even the places are the same, like the 69 diner.  On a side note, most of those places have a hidden camera or a rampage.  The city is full of things to find, like dealers, the aforementioned rampages, and many side missions.  I’m still in the process of trying to find everything, and get gold medals on all the races.

Lets talk about the story. I don’t want to give anything away.  As for what I will say, the story is not the greatest. It’s like any other GTA, full of bad humor and plenty of backstabbing. Its worth joining the social club so you can upload your stats and you can unlock a secret mission.  The story was good enough though, and the characters were really memorable.  Like the cross-dressing aspiring mob boss.  Chinatown Wars has yet another new feature; you can replay all the story missions to do a time trial thing.

There is one thing in the game that I didn’t like that happens to be the fucking cops.  I say fuck the police. Fuck, fuck, fuck the police. Fuck ‘em.  It seems like they’re all over me all the time, trying to catch me ridin’ dirty.  No, but on the serious note, I get so mad when they chase me after they t-bone me.  I could be minding my own business then out of nowhere.  BAM! I get hit and the cops are on my ass.  There were more cops in this GTA than any of the others.

If based on sales, it may seem like Chinatown wars is not a good game.  Chinatown Wars is the latest M rated DS game, but it also the best reviewed of the bunch.  Still, compared to many other DS games, its not doing the best, and because of this, people have said the DS does not have the market for M rated games.  Silly Rabbit, DS is for kids. I don’t agree with this at all. I think the real reason for the low sales numbers is bad marketing.

They just didn’t put enough ads for Chinatown Wars.  The only reason I heard about it was because of this blog, the podcast, and how much I read gaming news.  I never saw an ad in the store, or a TV spot.  I showed this game to many people, and they all really like it. Even the few that never liked GTA couldn’t stop playing.  A few of them even said they plan on getting the game for themselves.  So I say they just needed more promotion for it.

Grand Theft Auto has always been a fantasy game to me. It’s like another world where you can do things I would never do in real life.  Chinatown Wars does a great job of doing that. I give it up to Rockstar for taking the change and putting this game out.  I think Chinatown Wars is the best DS game out right now.  I really want to see more developers take more risks for the DS and Wii.  This game is worth the $35 price tag.  It gets a big thumbs up from me.

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