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GTA: Chinatown Wars
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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Released 2009 · Nintendo DS · PSP · iOS · Android
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the 2009 Nintendo DS game, and the best reviewed handheld entry in the series. It returns to a top-down camera but renders Liberty City in cel-shaded 3D, and follows Huang Lee, a Triad heir who arrives in the city to deliver a sword and is robbed and left for dead within minutes.
Official Trailer
A Top-Down Game That Feels Modern
The camera looks down, but the city underneath is fully 3D and the art style is closer to a comic book than to the 1997 original. It solved the problem every handheld GTA had before it: how to keep the scale of the series on a small screen without the game feeling like a cut-down port.
The Drug Market
Six substances, prices that move by district and over time, and dealers who text you tips. Buy low in one part of the city, sell high in another, and dodge the police while carrying stock. It is a genuine trading minigame layered under the story, and nothing else in the series has replicated it since.
Stylus Mini-Games
Hot-wiring cars, assembling weapons, scratching lottery tickets and throwing Molotovs were all built around the DS touchscreen. The later PSP and mobile versions rework these for buttons and touch, which changes the feel but keeps the mechanics.
Where to Play It
Chinatown Wars launched on Nintendo DS, then came to PSP later in 2009 and to iOS and Android after that. The mobile versions are the easiest way in today, though availability on app stores has been inconsistent over the years.
Frequently Asked Questions about GTA: Chinatown Wars
Why is Chinatown Wars top-down?
It was a deliberate design choice for the Nintendo DS. The world is fully 3D underneath, but the overhead camera and cel-shaded art let Rockstar keep a full Liberty City running on the hardware.
Does Chinatown Wars have a drug dealing system?
Yes, and it is the only GTA that does. Six substances trade at prices that vary by district and over time, so you buy in one area and sell in another for profit.
Is Chinatown Wars connected to GTA IV?
It uses the same Liberty City as GTA IV and is set shortly after it, but it tells an unrelated Triad story with its own protagonist, Huang Lee.