into the world of iPad gaming with its latest title, a direct port of its DS game, GTA: Chinatown Wars. The title was granted a PSP release, then an iPhone release in January 2010, but the company’s just rolled out an iPad edition, promising “HD” graphics and a few other tweaks.

Originally released in March 2009, Chinatown Wars tells the story of the son of a murdered Triad boss who visits Liberty City to deliver a family heirloom to his uncle but gets caught up in the city’s criminal underworld. It’s full of the usual organized-crime shenanigans and rags-to-riches storyline that characterizes the entire GTA series.

It differs, however, from recent releases in the series by the fact that it’s not true 3-D, returning instead to the game’s top-down roots. This has the unfortunate effect of making it difficult to see where you’re going, particularly when driving at speed. Other than that, however, the cel-shaded art style lends a comic-book feel to the game, which is enhanced by static cut-scenes with subtitles.

Liberty City in Chinatown Wars isn’t quite the living world that you might know from Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s populated by dronelike pedestrians and cars, and the occasional scripted sequence when you’re on a mission. One thing you will come across a lot are touchscreen mini-games — unscrewing a panel to hot-wire a car, filling Molotov cocktails or drawing tattoos. I’m torn on whether these are a tedious detraction from the game world, or a fun addition. Some aren’t too bad at first, but get tedious after a while, and the Molotov-filling game in particular is a pain from the very beginning.

But more broadly, Chinatown Wars is a lot of fun. It ticks all the traditional GTA boxes — dealing drugs, accidentally murdering innocent passers-by and evading the police (which isn’t too much of a challenge). In tone, too, it’s much closer to the more arcadey GTA and GTA 2, rather than the grittier, story-heavy San Andreas or GTA IV.

Perhaps this is Rockstar trying to offer something to long-term fans of the series who’ve been turned off by the trend toward stark, urban realism, or perhaps it’s just to appeal to a younger, more casual audience that doesn’t want to have to deal with a complex story. Either way, it’s always good to have options.

The iPad version is pretty much identical to the iPhone edition in everything except graphics. Texture depth and lighting have been improved, but frame rate appears to have suffered. There were a number of times during play that the screen became visibly choppy, particularly at night when the game’s pretty lighting effects are out. Away from presentation, the iOS versions both gain extra music functionality over the DS and PSP editions.

The biggest issue with GTA Chinatown Wars HD on the iPad, however, is the controls. The flat glass touchscreen means that you’ve got no idea where a button ends and another begins, and you’ll frequently find yourself trying desperately to steal a car in a tense situation and failing a mission, losing several minutes of play, because you don’t know where the on-screen hotspots are without looking down at what your fingers are doing. It gets a little better over time, as you get used to the positioning, but never remotely approaches the tactility offered by physical buttons.

Another iPad-specific pain point is that when you’re playing using headphones, the headphone jack is located underneath where one of your palms is. No problem, you say — you can rotate the screen 180 degrees. However, if you do that, then your other hand is over the lock button, and accidentally locking the iPad in the middle of a police chase is a tad jarring.

Finally, I should make clear that the iPad edition of Chinatown Wars is different from the iPhone/iPod Touch edition. It’s exactly the same game, but exists as a different app, meaning that if you want the game on both your iPod Touch and your iPad, you’re going to have to pay twice. Not cool. Why couldn’t it have been a universal app?

Now that the DS edition has been knocked down in price so much, there’s very little to choose between the two. If you want the best control experience, get the DS edition. If you want a bigger screen and slightly fancier graphics, then opt for the iPad one. Either way, Chinatown Wars is great fun, and it’s one of the best iPad titles that money can buy.

WIRED Full of the usual GTA magic, complete with a graphic revamp for the larger screen.

TIRED Touchscreen controls are imprecise and rage-inducing.

Rating:

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See Also:

• iPad Games: The Good, the Bad and the Fixable
• Racing Game for iPad Uses iPhones as Controllers
• 15 iPad Apps You Should Download Today

Authors: Duncan Geere, Wired U.K.

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