I picked up GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS last week based on the high praise of just about everyone in the entire world. I have not been disappointed.
I've played about twenty hours, and I've done maybe twenty missions in that time, along with quite a bit of pharmaceutical merchandising. Dealing in the game is a great way to make money, and unlike throughout much of GTAIV, money is actually worth something in Chinatown Wars. There are a dozen or so safehouses you can buy, you need money to make money in drug deals, and there's always weapons and ammunition to buy from the Ammunation website.
The missions themselves have been fun, but tricky. I've been frustrated by a couple, only to realize I was kind of doing them wrong. You can miss the "right" way to do a mission, but that's been true in any GTA game. But the missions are good, from tossing stolen goods into a moving truck to a violent shootout in the street, complete with burning cars serving as roadblocks. The most unusual so far was sabotaging a rival's car by stealing it and using the touch screen to cut wires under the hood, bash the engine block, and puncture the radiator with a screwdriver.
The touch screen mini-games have been fun, too. Jacking cars is great, there are three different ones there to disable the car alarms to ensure a clean getaway with no police intervention. Making Molotov cocktails is great as you take care not to spill too much of the expensive gas on the ground. Plus all the map, e-mail, and weapon switching takes place on the touch screen, making those really quick to use.
The controls are a little to get used to, and the camera can fail you from time to time. A few times I've been stuck next to a building behind a car, taking me a second to get free. It can be frustrating when you're getting followed by the cops, but it's usually not a problem.
Add to all this the music, sounds, and written text. There's a great style here, a tongue-in-cheek absurdity from your protagonist and a hand-drawn manga style different from previousgames in the franchise that really make Chinatown Wars unique.
The game has been a lot of fun, and is really something different considering the typical feel-good nature of the mobile Nintendo platform. If you enjoy action games and you aren't a child, you should definitely pick it up.
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