GTA Advance vs GTA Chinatown Wars: Which is the better handheld game?

Over the years, the GTA Series has released many games, with main titles like San Andreas and Vice City garnering millions of fans. However, the series also has many spin-off titles, which explore the lore even further.

Games like GTA Vice and Liberty City Stories are great examples of the expanded story of the franchise. Most of these games were launched as exclusives for specific platforms like GameBoy Advance, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

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GTA Advance vs Chinatown Wars: Which title has the upper hand?

GTA Advance is developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Rockstar Games. It was initially designed exclusively for GameBoy Advance and was released in 2004. The game resembles other 2D universe titles in the series.

GTA Chinatown Wars was developed by Rockstar Leeds and published by Rockstar in 2009. It was originally designed for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Although the game uses a top-down perspective, it is part of the HD Universe, thanks to its graphics.

Grand Theft Auto Advance takes place in 2000 and is set in Liberty City. Made to be a prequel to GTA Three, the game looks and feels very familiar to players who have experienced Claude's story. However, the map also includes Portland Islands, which was not in the main game.

Gamers get to play as Mike and also come across a few familiar faces like 8-ball (bomb-shop owner) and Asuka Kasen (Yakuza co-leader). That said, the game does not feature any of the mafia families.

GTA Chinatown Wars is also set in Liberty City, but after the events that take place in Grand Theft Auto 4 (2009).

Huang Lee, the spoiled son of a now-dead Triad Boss, arrives in Liberty City to investigate the mysterious death of his father and recover a stolen family sword. Over time, he gets caught up in a war for power with multiple people and heads further down the rabbit hole.

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Comparing the two titles

Gamers looking to go deep into the lore and experience the full story should play all the games in the series at least once. Both the games are quite close to each other when it comes to release dates. Still, the age of Advance is clearly more visible than that of Chinatown Wars (CTW).

Both titles offer a top-down perspective, but GTA CTW takes things a step further and offers a fully rotateable aerial camera. This allows gamers to play the game from any angle they choose.

When talking about gameplay elements, Advance felt much more arcade-y than CTW, as the latter offered an in-depth experience and really felt like a fleshed out action-adventure RPG. Things like mission design, visual quality, and gameplay are critically acclaimed when it comes to CTW.

Chinatown Wars also featured a controversial mini-game which enabled players to role-play as drug dealers. Ironically, that still remains to be one of the most beloved features of the title.

The story in Advance is definitely not at par when compared to CTW. On the other hand, the writing in Chinatown Wars is clearly superior and players also get a laugh every now and then, making it really feel like a GTA game.

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With everything said and done, Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is leaps and bounds ahead of Advance.

Advance, being launched as a GameBoy exclusive, was held down due to the hardware limitations of the platform. That said, it does not make any attempts to redeem itself via the story or gameplay elements.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.