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Platform: GameBoy Advance Genre: Action Publisher: Rockstar Developer: Digital Eclipse ESRB: M (Mature) Released: Q4 2004
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Grand Theft Auto Advance
Score: 7.0 / 10 |
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Pros: - Great GTA flavor in portable form - Lots of missions - Giant city to explore
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Cons: - Overhead view |
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"If the overhead perspective doesn’t frighten you off, Grand Theft Auto Advance is a good GTA game to take on the road." |
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Grand Theft Auto Advance is a real throwback. San Andreas, the latest installment of the GTA franchise on Playstation 2 bears no resemblance to this top-down 2D title. It you remember far back enough, the original GTA used this view. I think I played the original game for about an hour before frustration overcome the novelty of being able to shoot anyone and run over cult dancers. The missions were tough! Partly due to some iffy control but most of my frustration could be traced back to the overhead view. (Check Rockstar’s official site to download the original.)
Now, all these years later and the perspective still drives me nuts! Targeting your attacks is extremely difficult and there’s no obvious way to tell you’re actually hitting someone until they drop dead. Enemies are also indistinct from the rest of the crowd. They might wear the same color but you won’t really know if they’re an enemy until they attack you – and by then it’s probably too late to escape. The same can be said of some of the cars. I couldn’t figure out why the cops were in continual pursuit. It was because I kept smashing into cop cars without even realizing it! When moving about on foot, the camera zooms closer then when you “borrow” a car the camera pulls back so you can see where you’re driving. The camera can be adjusted manually through the pause menu but it doesn’t change the overhead view, which really is GTA Advance’s biggest liability.
The story centers on a couple of thugs preparing to do one last job then skip town with a bag full of money. After a few basic missions to get a grip on the control and how everything is structured, the story takes a turn. The predictable story isn’t as strong as those stories found with it’s big brother counterparts, but sometimes it was the only thing stopping me from turning the game off and forgetting it. The developers have gone a long way to pack in a ton of options into the four buttons and direction pad. It can be cumbersome (not to mention frustrating) trying to change weapons during a firefight and more than a few deaths will be experienced because you couldn’t switch weapons fast enough. The guarantees several run-throughs for most missions (which run the usual GTA gamut of illegal activity) as you attempt to have the right weapon armed to suit the situation before the confrontation.
Control behind the wheel of you “borrowed” vehicles is very good, with the fire truck a lumbering beast compared to the light-bodied sports cars, which scream along and can execute some pretty wicked-looking powerslides. (The fire truck can also powerslide but it usually results in rolling the truck onto its roof.) Like other GTA games, autos can be stored at your hideout. Also carrying over to this portable GTA aside from the wanted meter and vehicle-specific mini-missions, is the same stylish artwork and character design. Character exchanges usually happen between very well drawn headshots. GTA Advance’s soundtrack consists of 136 digitized music tracks! No, it doesn’t but give it a few years and I’m sure storage problems will be a thing of past. What music there is, is tinny and scratchy. If the overhead perspective doesn’t frighten you off, Grand Theft Auto Advance is a good GTA game to take on the road. If you want to play another “M”-rated game I would point you in the direction of Max Payne, which is a better translation of it’s big brother counterpart. - Omni (November 14, 2004)
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