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Developer Rockstar uses kind of a gritty, cartoon style to make the small-screen Grand Theft Auto easy to see and display on the handheld Nintendo DS, while still maintaining a bit of the adult aura of GTA4. Then, to make sure you’re in the right mindset, Rockstar drops the f-bomb within the first 30 seconds. (Via text, not voice overs)

It’s a full GTA experience crammed onto the Nintendo DS.

So the controls are pretty straight forward using the buttons, but you’ll find yourself scrambling for the stylus a lot in order to work the in-game PDA on the touch-screen. This lets you check email from characters, plan routes on your GPS and a couple other tricks.

Other than that, it looks like the same old setup with more and more characters providing more and more missions of the typical variety. Go here, kill that, pick that up, then go there with it… When the cops are on your tail, you can outrun them, or you can disable them by smashing their little cel-shaded police cars into overpasses and the like.

The biggest downfall is as it is with every new Grand Theft Auto. It’s so engrossing that if you’ve burnt out on GTA recently, you might not be ready to start doing it all over again.

Welcome back to Liberty City.

If you are, you’ll be taking control of a Chinese character whose crime boss daddy was recently killed. You’re bringing Daddy’s prized heirloom to the new boss to make sure you keep on everyone’s good side and lock in your inheritance. Of course, you quickly get sucked into the crime game yourself - like, before the opening sequence ends.

For those of you who picked up a Nintendo DS and have since forgotten about it, this Mature-rated game may be just the thing to stand out from the rest of the DS library and get you back into it. Just get ready for a long ride. Although you can play in short bursts, this isn’t GTA-lite. You’re signing up for another big, sprawling adventure.

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