Any Grand Theft Auto game on the DS is going to be defined by the hardware, as Nintendo's portable is the least-powerful system on the market. It also sells amazingly well, moving 3 million units last December. That's a customer base that's impossible to ignore, so Rockstar has decided to shoehorn its most popular series into the little money-making machine. What's surprising is just how good the result is and how much care went into the game's design. The motivation may have come from profits, but the execution is pure class.

Title Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Developer Rockstar Leeds in Association with Rockstar North Publisher Rockstar Games Price $34.99 Platform Nintendo DS

The game starts in the expected way: you're a low-level thug who finds himself in way over his head dealing with the criminal underworld, so it's time to carve out a place and get some respect. In this case, you're Huang Lee, and you were tasked with delivering your dead father's sword to your uncle in Liberty City. The game begins when things go violently wrong with that mission.

The biggest loss from Grand Theft Auto 4 has to be the animated cut-scenes and the incredible voice acting from that game; in Chinatown Wars the story is moved forward via comic book cut-scenes, and sadly the written humor often falls flat without much context for people's emotions. Lee is somewhat loose with his mouth, and while that may have worked if handled a certain way in video, here it seems like his bosses are simply dense as they fail to react to sarcastic insults hurled their way. This is the only spot where there is a dramatic drop in quality, however; the rest of the game uses the hardware very well.

The game uses a top-down view of a 3D city, and you can do all the expected things such as steal cars, get into random fights, check your e-mail... the sandbox aspect of the game is kept intact. The gameplay does seem slightly sped up in a concession to the portable nature of the system, though. You can run almost as fast as many cars can drive, and you can warp back to the beginning of a mission if you mess up in order to have another go at it.

The touchscreen is likewise used for a number of impressive minigames: cars will often have to be hotwired, you'll have to deal with security systems in others, and buying scratch-off lottery tickets becomes an oddly compulsive activity. In a neat touch, you also use the touchscreen to aim and control the force of your throw when lobbing molotov cocktails. The touchscreen is used in many other ways I won't ruin here, but I'll say this: all the different uses make sense, and don't feel like they're there for the sake of taking advantage of the technology; they add to the immersion.

The missions are standard for Grand Theft Auto: you'll be racing cars, you'll be recruiting for the gang, and you'll be killing people for money. The story is appropriately twisty, and the police are always a threat, especially with the city's security cameras keeping close watch for the drug deals that make up the game's drug-running minigame. You can take out the cameras while you speed around town trying to find the best price to both buy and sell a variety of narcotics, and this is an easy way to make some money if you want to put some time into it. Getting rid of the cops has also been changed up; now you can disable the cop cars by causing them to slam into buildings or simply ramming them in ways that feel like Burnout's "Takedowns," and this adds an aggressive and mean-spirited feel to the police chases. It's pretty great, and gives you a reason to fight back instead of just running. In fact, if you have two stars or more, you have to disable the cruisers to escape.

The amount of content on the DS cart is stunning. There are a ton of different cars, and they all handle differently and are good for certain jobs. There are local WiFi multiplayer modes that allow you to race against others or simply play deathmatch games. All of the different modes add a ton of replayability to the game, although there is no actual online play and you'll need multiple copies of the game. You can jump online to chat with friends after exchanging friend codes, or trade cash and weapons. If you get bored with all of this, you can hijack certain cars for another set of missions, or simply grab a motorcycle or your favorite sports car and try to find all the stunt jumps hidden around the city.

You can tear apart the individual mechanics forever—including how well the PDA system is integrated into the game play—but the fact of the matter is Rockstar brought the feeling and quality of a console Grand Theft Auto title and made it work on the DS. This isn't a cash-grab, and it's certainly not a gimmick; this is a portable version of a big-name title and it's pretty incredible. From the opening scenes, to cruising around the city, to ordering guns to be delivered to your door... you know what game you're playing. The missions are all over relatively quickly, and the frequent auto-saves make this game a portable feast.