GTA: Chinatown Wars - On this day

The GTA series had two approaches in this century. On the one hand, there were high-budget games like GTA 3-5, Vice City, and San Andreas, and on the other, we could see Liberty City / Vice City Stories, mobile ports of bigger games, and a specific game that came out on this day 13 years ago. It was Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, special in that it briefly took its series back to the old days with a bird’s eye view camera.

Chinatown Wars was a game developed specifically for Nintendo’s popular DS platform. As this was the first GTA title with touchscreen controls, we could also find unique mechanics in the game, such as unlocking cars. The integration of the microphone into the game was also nice, so we could call the taxis by whistling.

The game was set in Liberty City during GTA 4, and we played it in the role of Huang Lee, the son of the murdered triad gang leader. It was the first GTA title focused on the Asian mafia, as well as the first in which we could smuggle different types of opiates. The multiplayer game could be played against three players.

Half a year after the release of the version for the Nintendo DS console, the game was transferred to the PlayStation Portable with slightly better graphics, new mini-games, additional missions, and radio stations. In 2010, Chinatown Wars also appeared on iOS devices, and it was also the first time that GTA could be played on an iPhone. We had to wait for the Android port until the end of 2014.