GTA: Chinatown Wars originally came out on the Nintendo DS earlier this year in March, and it was a great experience. The puzzles, the gameplay, and even the graphics were fantastic for the system. So how has the game fared on PSP hardware, and is it still worth purchasing seven months after its debut?

As is always the case in GTA games, you'll take on the role of a gangster-type character. This time, the protagonist is Huang Lee, a rich Chinese kid whose father, leader of the Triad gang, has been murdered. He comes to Liberty City to pass on a family heirloom to a relative, and in the process, discovers an ongoing power struggle between the Triads in lieu of his father’s death. However, when Huang arrives at the airport, he is beaten and robbed of the family heirloom, driving him to seek revenge.

Most GTA games are focused around crime, revenge, and guns—Chinatown Wars is no different. The gameplay is similar to the other GTA games on the PSP, but what sets this title apart from its predecessors is the art style and camera angle. It is painfully obvious that this is a DS port, as the graphics are nowhere near the quality of Liberty City/Vice City Stories. Instead, this game is more similar to the original Grand Theft Auto. The art style, however, is quite nice, boasting a new cell-shaded look.

When compared to the DS version, GTA: Chinatown Wars does look better on the PSP, but the fact that it is a port becomes more and more obvious as you play through the game. For example, to save time (and probably space), the cut-scenes are now a series of still images with subtitles, similar to a comic book. I expected some voice acting to be placed over these, at least for the PSP version, but sadly this is not the case. Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed with this aspect of the game.

The puzzles in the DS version of the game made use of the system’s touch screen, and resultantly needed to be revised for the PSP. I'm happy to say that Rockstar did a good job of porting some of these puzzles onto standard controls, but it is obvious in many on them that they were not made for this system.

The final issue with the PSP version of Chinatown Wars is the radio stations. In previous games you'd have a whole host of licensed music tracks and full songs that could be played over the radio while driving. In this game, all the songs are instrumental, with no actual singing. Again, this is most likely a symptom of the space constraints of the DS cartridge, but it would have been nice if Rockstar had changed this to take advantage of the space available on UMDs.

Despite these issues, GTA: Chinatown Wars is still worthy of the Grand Theft Auto title. I thought that the story was the best one yet in the franchise, even if I had to read through it all. There are also a variety of missions available, from killing a target to driving an ambulance. In addition to missions, Rockstar has added drug runs, which allow you to make some extra cash on the side.