One of the greatest game series in history comes to the NDS

Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular games franchises in the history of video games. From it's humble beginnings, to the revolutionary GTA III (still seen by many as the gratest GTA game to date) to the most realistic title in the series (GTA IV) and everything in between, the franchise has grown and grown.

But this isn't the first time that GTA and Nintendo have partnered together. Both GTA and GTA 2 were released on the Game Boy Color, as well as GTA Advance, which was released exclusively on the Game Boy Advance. While the latter game received mixed reviews all around, I believe that it will be a different story in the case of the most recent installment.

Before you even play the game, you get that special sense of GTA. The instruction manual is formed like a tourist booklet, and of course you get the now-iconic folding map. Looking at the map before playing the game, you immediately get a sense that despite the size of the game cartridge, you will have an epic gaming experience. If you take away the final island from GTA IV, and reduce the size of the others a bit, you get the size of the islands in this game. All that land, on such a small cartridge.

Once you get into the game itself, it also feels ust like GTA. It has the usual slow start, with driving missions, but once you get guns, it really statrs going. And being GTA, it always has sudden plot changes, and unexpected twists (don't worry, I won't spoil them you you). The controls are basic, yet thorough. They are very similar to that of it's PS brothers. Button to shoot and steal cars are all in the same place, so if you've played a GTA game before, you can adapt to the controls in virtually no time at all.



Of course, the main attraction of the DS is it's touch screen, so it would be pointless to release a game on it without using this feature. You use it to help steal cars with screwdrivers, search for guns in skips, but most uesfully, you use the touch screen to access your various weapons, so adapting to this new feature is vital for survival in Liberty City.

And, also in the same vein of GTA, driving cars and motorbikes (yes, it has motorbikes) is essential for travel threw the city. The whole game is filmed on the same level as the first two games, from above. Driving cars is surprisingly accurate, as you can manoevure in between impossible spaces with relative ease. The game also has the option that the car automatically aligns to the road, although I can't see why any true GTA fan would use this option.

Of course, being hosted on a console with such a small screen and resolution, it isn't going to be completely flawless. The action seems almost animated, as if you were playing a cartoon, although giving the limits of the console, this is a forgiveable flaw. The one true flaw I would find in the game is that the camera angle can be confusing at times, especially when walking in a circle, or reversing in a car.



This aside, however, it is a fun installment to the GTA franchise. It has essentially taken the best bits from the prevoius games (e.g. food is used to heal you), and added in other special ones specially designed for the NDS (buy scratchcards to try to win health or money).

Incredibly, there is even the option od a two-player mode, which drastically increases the longevity of this game. There are two different race modes, a game where one tries to hunt down the other (imagine the GTAIV multiplayer on a smaller scale) and a 'Guard The Flag--type game, where you and your partner defend your place against waves of attackers.

Even one of the most expensive game retailers in the country is seling it for 40 quid, so if you have a Nintendo DS, this is an essential game.