While everyone is in la-la land after the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Playstation 2, most may not have noticed that yet another GTA game has just hit the market. That’s right, for the first time ever, GTA has hit a Nintendo console, but for this time at least, it’s on the GameBoy Advance. While not as incredibly deep or visually appealing as say, San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto is another entertaining romp through the twisted minds of Rockstar games, and hey, you get to return to Liberty City, what more could you ask for? 

To delve into the mechanics of gameplay in the GTA series would be impossible, unless you want to sit and read for five hours. To put it simply, Grand Theft Auto is an absolute mess of everything. Action, adventure, racing, and taxi cab missions with a whole lot of other crazy stuff to keep you entertained for hours on end. Now don’t think because this latest entry in the series is on the GameBoy Advance, that it will be any less interesting, because that is far from the truth. 

Gameplay is pretty much the same as in any GTA game except that you have been returned to the top down view of the first two games in the series. Grand Theft Auto an GTA2 both features a top down view and a gameplay setup allowing you to get in and out of any car and use various weapons to take on missions. While the jump from GTA 2 to GTA 3 was major, going back and playing this GBA version feels much more like GTA 3 than you would think. Aside from the fact that it (just like GTAIII) takes place in Liberty City, the urban setting provides sensible mission opportunities and since the mob is once again involved, it makes for very familiar territory. 

The story isn’t particularly exciting, at least not after playing the other games, but its not as bad as it could have been. The story seems to have been simplified to spare gamers the horror of being bombarded by a ton of text boxes. Since Vice City and San Andreas are all about the narrative with voices, the GBA had to make due without them, and the overall plot suffers sensibly as a result. You play a mobster who is (so surprising) looking to get out of the mob, but (also surprising) you get stuck in Liberty City and must do missions for various people to set your life straight. How I love the ways people use violence so they can be free of life problems, it’s so ironic. 

The controls are tight and driving isn’t as monotonous as it looks from screenshots. Framerate does become an issue somewhat (yes, framerate). The game uses 3D environments to good effect, but it sometimes comes at the cost of speed. While you can most of the time feel like you are soaring down highways, at times it feels like you are escorting the elderly across the street. 

Missions range from typical fed-ex point A to point B fare, to the more detailed, escorting followed by coordinated shootout types. If you have ever played a GTA game before, this will all feel familiar to you, and if you haven’t prepared to be shocked at the variety it provides. Overall though, it doesn’t present anything terribly new to the series and it can get quite repetitive. 

The music is fairly generic but tries admirably to bring the style of GTA to the small screen and the sound effects, although grainy, help to bring some life to the streets. It’s an overall colorful game and the graphics do shine in many areas. The characters are bit obscure and details are difficult to make out, but there is plenty of blood and mayhem to keep those with a keen eye happy. Aside from previously mentioned framerate issues, it’s actually a pretty good visual treat. 

For a long trip on the road, or when mother nature snatches your power away, GTA for the GBA is an excellent addition to the series. Its not San Andreas, but its also not Driver 3, so take pleasure from that note and pick this one up if you are interested in yet another mafia romp from those crazy guys over at Rockstar games.