Back in December I lamented that GTA IV, while very good, didn’t significantly improve the game mechanics of GTA. As a long time GTA fan the formula began to run thin. I desperately wanted Rockstar North to make progressive design decisions, to reinvent the mechanics of GTA. I wanted GTA to be fun again, but all I got was more of the same. However it seems the old adage, good things come in small packages, is still alive and well. GTA: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS delivered exactly what I wanted.

Chinatown Wars addresses core issues with the GTA formula, and does so ingeniously.

We start with the core mechanic of GTA: losing the cops. Previously this involved running away, hiding, or zooming to the nearest Pay ‘n’ Spray. Evading the cops meant giving up the all carnage and destruction which makes GTA so much fun. Chinatown Wars replaces this with a perfectly thought out arcade-style mechanism. Instead of running away, you lose cop cars by smashing them off the road! The more cops you lose this way, the less cop cars are left to chase you. Play your cards right (which does, I admit, involve a bit of hiding out) and the cops are off your tail. Violence just lead to more cops in GTA IV, but here violence is the solution.

The controversial drug dealing mini-game is surprisingly good. I worried it would end up being gimmicky “added shock-value” feature, but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. It’s a modern-day take on Elite. It follows a simplistic “buy low, sell high” formula with the added twist of time-limited deals and the occasional drug bust. What should be a simple “drive from A to B” exercise always ends up being exciting due to the inherently unpredictable nature of GTA.

Speaking of which, sandboxes are wonderful things, but only if you get fun toys to play with. Rockstar have consistently created cities that feel alive, but also empty when there isn’t much to do. Chinatown Wars introduces armoured vans dotted around the city which you can hijack for weapons or drugs. Taxis, police cars, ambulances and fire trucks have done similar in the past. But these are minigames which need to be explicitly activated, and play out as (dare I say it) gimmicky side-missions. Hijacking an armoured van is completely seamless. There is no explicit activation here, you simply ram into the vans and/or using some good old fashioned weapon-based violence. Moreover, the vans are filled with valuable drugs or weapons, giving you far more incentive to have a go than the other minigames.

Finally, there are a few small but very welcome changes. Restartable missions were introduced in GTA IV, but here we have the ability to not only restart a mission, but also to skip the drive-to-this-location foreplay that missions often begin with. You can also replay previously successful missions.

I’m really pleased with what Rockstar have done here and, judging by the rave reviews, the critics agree. I can say without a doubt that Chinatown Wars is the most fun I’ve had playing GTA in years. By making daring design changes in the smaller, cheaper to produce GTA game, Rockstar has been able to innovate without risking their flagship title (GTA IV). I’ll be very surprised if we don’t see some (if not all) these excellent mechanics in the next release of GTA on consoles.