The Best Nintendo Game Every Year 1983 - 2024

And the award for most surprising appearance from a franchise on a Nintendo list…

It’s not like Grand Theft Auto hadn’t been on Nintendo platforms before but Chinatown Wars was a brand new instalment that, more than anything else, made full use of what the DS was capable of… almost to an uncomfortable degree. 

There was something hilariously icky about selling and moving drugs using a DS touch-screen like you were getting away with something Nintendo shouldn’t know about. The game had lots of unique moments all throughout its campaign that used the console’s gimmick, and they had plenty of variety, from filling Molotov bottles and arming explosives to setting up a sniper rifle and burning documents.

The core gameplay was more akin to GTA’s original top-down feel but with the ability to move protagonist Lee around Liberty City on foot. It was a refreshing reminder of, and an update on, what came before GTA went full 3D.

So whilst there were plenty of concessions that didn’t put Chinatown Wars on the same scale as the PS2 games, it instead made something great out of what it could do. This is to say that, whilst DS fans may be dismayed that the first appearance from the console here is a GTA game of all things, it turns out that Chinatown Wars is the highest-rated title on the system. 

Wild.