Nintendo Power: GTA Chinatown Wars is cel-shaded, isometric, M-rated crime drama

by James Ransom-Wiley { Sep 19th 2008 at 10:25AM }

... With "tasteful" minigames. Indeed, Nintendo Power has published the first comprehensive preview of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, according to details provided by NeoGAF poster botticus. The relayed information (in handy bullet-point format), describes Chinatown Wars as a "true GTA game," which is to say, a Mature-themed sandbox game concerned with all things criminal (just like the survey said). The DS technology limits gameplay to an isometric camera angle with cel-shaded visuals, though the load times, draw distance and frame rate are reportedly sound; and weather effects, along with a day and night cycle are in tact. The preview claims there are plenty of on-screen pedestrians and cars -- speaking of: there are multiple radio stations, mostly juiced with instrumental tunes. All in all, "800,000 lines of hand-optimized source code" are packed into the tiny cart.

What else? Chinatown Wars is said to return players to a sizeable portion of Liberty City (wild guess: Chinatown?), though the map has been altered from the console version. Missions will also be shortened and can be easily restarted upon failure. The D-pad is used for aiming, while the R-button activates auto-targeting; and there's "subtle" auto-steering built into the driving controls. The touch pad will be used for the aforementioned minigames, in addition to navigating the PDA-like UI, which includes email, contacts, the map, a music player, GPS, and stat-tracking (stats can be Wi-Fied to the Social Club). Now, how about some, uh ... scans? (Or better: screens! C'mon Rockstar, with this game scheduled to release in mere months, throw us a friggin' bone or two!)

Update: Gamekyo's got some scans right here. [Thanks Fernando!]

[Via GoNintendo; thanks, Frank]

Tags: breakingnews, chinatown-wars, grand-theft-auto, grand-theft-auto-chinatown-wars, gta, gta-chinatown-wars, rockstar

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

diego @ Sep 19th 2008 10:34AM

lame

Wiinterfang @ Sep 19th 2008 10:49AM

Wow that's stupid.

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 19th 2008 10:49AM

Nice... I guess the cell shaded graphics will be something like the engine that Level 5 use for Dragon Quest IX or Jeanne D'Arc.

And the isometric camera, I hope is something like the one used in Phantom Hourglass.

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 19th 2008 1:58PM

First screens!

http://www.gamekyo.com/news29038_grand-theft-auto-chinatown-wars-first-screens.html

B @ Sep 19th 2008 2:26PM

Those screenshots are kind of underwhelming. It's still a GTA game though, so it's a guarenteed like for me.

zlickrick @ Sep 19th 2008 3:13PM

Those screenshots look like garbage - its like im looking at something through a cardboard filter.

Nintendo is so desperate to get anything "GTA" on their system that they are willing to make a version that looks worse that the 10+ year only orginal GTA just to say - GTA on NINTENDO!!!

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 19th 2008 3:24PM

zlickrick

They look like that because those are zoomed screens scanned from a magazine.

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 19th 2008 3:51PM

More screens, with more quality.

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=3857

Superstar90 @ Sep 19th 2008 4:34PM

The second set of screens look REALLY good, infinitely better than the first link.

I hope it's got some sort of competitive, or co-operative wi-fi.

KeenCommander @ Sep 19th 2008 6:06PM

That second batch of screens looks absolutely bloody amazing. I can't wait for this one.

Shmil (Mr ESC Liberation Front) @ Sep 19th 2008 10:51AM

Visions of Assassin's Creed DS are running through my head.

Mr Khan @ Sep 19th 2008 11:07AM

How many people with pro-ESC names are there now?

Jakka(Free Mr.ESC!) @ Sep 19th 2008 11:25AM

Three?

StrangeBum @ Sep 19th 2008 11:41AM

Can I join the Mr ESC Lib Front too?

Haggard (Free Mr.ESC!) @ Sep 19th 2008 1:56PM

No. Three's the magic number.

Dirty @ Sep 19th 2008 4:00PM

Isnt he posting under a different name yet?

FOXHOUND @ Sep 19th 2008 10:58AM

This is really going to be weird to play... not physically, mind you - but having the realization of a GTA on DS seeping into reality. It's just so surreal.

Especially after that crudely made GBA version.

WRE @ Sep 19th 2008 11:07AM

I think that it will also be physically weird to play.

Extinction @ Sep 20th 2008 10:08PM

I loved the GBA one. I was very impressed how close to the PS1 one it was

Mr Khan @ Sep 19th 2008 11:00AM

Doubtless more will materialize at the Nintendo Press Summit October 2nd-3rd

Oshi @ Sep 19th 2008 11:00AM

Y'know, I was secretly hoping this would be another top-down view GTA.

Then I might actually play it.

Kyle @ Sep 19th 2008 11:16AM

I agree, I was actually hoping for the top-down view I thought it would be a fun retro feel.

Titanium_Orchid @ Sep 19th 2008 12:14PM

I actually think its very likely that this will use the original GTA top-down view

Readme @ Sep 19th 2008 12:57PM

If only everyone on the planet could be pleased at once. Some would love top-down, others would loathe it.

One thing is certain: humans prefer to b*itch than to praise.

arrakisman @ Sep 19th 2008 11:10AM

"All in all, "800,000 lines of hand-optimized source code" are packed into the tiny cart"

What is the memory/capacity limit of a DS cart? Micro SD card capacity can get pretty high. At least enough to rival a DVD.

Mr Khan @ Sep 19th 2008 11:17AM

Nintendo's official specs list it as 1 Gb maximum size, which is a neat way of saying 128 MB, or 2x the optimum N64 space (which was very, very rarely used, so its more like 4x N64 space)

Fernando Rocker @ Sep 19th 2008 11:44AM

Archaic Sealed Heat and other RPG's with a lot of FMV like the new Tales of Hearts uses a 256 MB card.

bm @ Sep 20th 2008 1:02PM

Mr. khan, where do you get that info? Resident Evil 2 on the N64 was 256 Mbytes.

Phillip @ Sep 19th 2008 11:15AM

So... many... rumors...

Joe H @ Sep 19th 2008 11:19AM

You know, there was a Max Payne for GBA which worked pretty well. It had an isometric 3/4 view. Aiming was slightly difficult, but it sounds like this auto-lock will fix that up.

If they can do GTA on the DS as well as they did Max Payne on the GBA, I'd be very happy.

deaftly @ Sep 19th 2008 11:20AM

Meh.

jpxdude @ Sep 19th 2008 11:33AM

I thought the release of this was pushed back to Feb 2009?

angryemu @ Sep 19th 2008 11:36AM

Why all the Negative Nancies? Regardless of quality, this is a good thing for gaming. If there's one thing the DS lacks it's blockbuster games from third parties. The glut of casual garbage is getting old. I'm tickled pink to see a developer taking a chance on a new formula for an established franchise.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 19th 2008 12:01PM

That's a good point, and everybody KNOWS this is smart on the business side of things, but after the horrendous GBA version people have the right to be hesitant.

Superstar90 @ Sep 19th 2008 4:39PM

"one thing the DS lacks it's blockbuster games from third parties"

correction... from WESTERN third parties. Japanese companies have been supporting it VERY well. Like 3 "Tales of" games, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest 9 and the list is endless.

I'm glad a major western developer sees the DS as more than a mini-game system. Hopefully (if this turns out good) this causes Ubisoft, Activision and others to make quality DS games.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 19th 2008 11:56AM

Based on what I've read here...I'm up for another PSP side-story. LCS and VCS were fantastic on the PSP.

ed @ Sep 19th 2008 12:39PM

HAHAH! No they weren't! The controls were near unplayable and throw in the screen ghosting for increased difficulty playing!

I bought a PSP Slim just for the GTA games and they're a miserable duo. Hoping they're working on SAS and all this time has been spent making it playable this time.

Granted I don't want this DS version either. I'll stick to GTA3 and sons.

Extinction @ Sep 20th 2008 10:10PM

I loved the PSP versions. The controls were fine, and ghosting was a deliberate motion-blur effect and didn't make the game any harder to play at all. They were the first GTAs to get real multiplayer.

Megadanxzero @ Sep 19th 2008 12:19PM

Isometric? Top-Down I could understand (Though it'd probably be crap) but Isometric? I can't see how that'll work

J @ Sep 19th 2008 12:45PM

The psp versions were pretty dang good. I'm having a hard time getting as excited as they want me to get about this version, but maybe it'll work out for anyone who only has a ds.

Readme @ Sep 19th 2008 1:00PM

You'd swear that some people are getting their arm twisted to buy the game.

Bones3D @ Sep 19th 2008 1:26PM

An isometric game doesn't necessarily mean "not 3D". With a locked camera, you can achieve some interesting tricks with only a few polygons and some fancy texturing methods. It'll probably end up looking a lot like a version of SimCity that allows you to get a close enough street view that the individual buildings extend off screen.

Combine this simplistic Carmageddon-style vehicles and sprite-plane pedestrians, and you could have something good enough to pass as a populated city with plenty of onscreen vehicles to grab.

EBH @ Sep 19th 2008 2:40PM

Am I the only one reminded of X-Men Legends?

Superstar90 @ Sep 19th 2008 4:48PM

No, but I'd like to see more of that game :(

Sesur @ Sep 19th 2008 3:48PM

This needs to be played before passing judgment... the potential for failure/success can go either way.

Superstar90 @ Sep 19th 2008 4:47PM

Well, Max Payne on the GBA was pretty fun and it had isometric view. The only thing annoying about it was aiming, which seems to be addressed here by auto-lock on.

TendoMan @ Sep 19th 2008 5:35PM

James, I really (really) suggest using the other scans as an example link for the screenshots. They are 10x better than the ones that got "first" scans.

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=3857

Anyway, on to the comment. I'm actually pretty excited. It looks really good. Cant wait to see it in motion.

Isometric will work great. Hell, I might even have to bust out my old GTA's for a nostalgia fix before this comes out.

Zach S @ Sep 19th 2008 7:03PM

They should call this: GTA: Squint at the screen to try to see what the hell you're doing- lord help us if you're supposed to actually use the TOUCHSCREEN to control that tiny little blob the size of a crumb to go shoot other tiny little blobs and then get in a tiny blob and drive off. Thanks, but no thanks