YMMV / Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

• Alternative Character Interpretation: When Hsin Jaoming calls out Kenny for incriminating Zhou and Chan, does he do it out of remorse for ordering his own son's death or because he was really ashamed of falling for Kenny's deception? Also, when he asks Huang to grieve for all they have lost, was he referring to Chan as well?
• Anti-Climax Boss: Kenny is incredibly fragile. He doesn't put much of a fight and can be nuked with a Sword.
• Awesome Music: The game's main theme was already a pretty sweet hip-hop beat with Chinese instrumentation, but the lyrical remix in the PSP and mobile ports is downright amazing, with Ghostface Killah and MF Doom spitting bars about the game's story and themes.
• Dancing Bear: A lot of the game's initial attention was around the fact that it is a Grand Theft Auto game, the poster child of Rated M for Money, that is exclusive to a Nintendo system. This is a case where the attention didn't directly translate to sales, as the Grand Theft Auto fans weren't ready to try an experimental entry on a system they aren't used to, while the Nintendo fans didn't flock to the game after the initial amusement of "they're making a GTA game on the DS" wore off.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Wade Heston had this charm, despite appearing late in the game. He even pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment in the final act by helping Huang get away from FIB and IAD disputes in order to thwart Kenny's treachery.
• Jerkass Woobie: Huang Lee may be abrasive and sarcastic, but it's not hard to see why. To summarize, he's a playboy who was pulled into this mess, worked very hard to prove his loyalty to The Triads and the Tongs, but was constantly dismissed by his ungrateful employers. Then he learns his Evil Uncle was behind everything, and while he gets his revenge, the Triads are now leaderless. He may have the most tragic story out of all the GTA protagonists, rivaling Niko Bellic.
• Nightmare Fuel: The mission “Flatliner” where Huang is sent by Zhou to steal an ambulance, containing Uri (an old friend of Zhou’s) and when he returns, Zhou cuts Uri’s heart out of his chest with a dagger. Although the viewer doesn’t see the kill happening, we hear slashing and screaming, and then we cut to see Huang’s horrified expression and Zhou’s eerily relieved look while his face is covered in blood. The music doesn’t make thing any better.
  • The Nintendo DS version paints this in a more realistic (and horrifying) picture, due to Huang’s face looking more terrified and Zhou managing to look even scarier in addition to a Slasher Smile.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Some people only remember this game for the drug dealing mini game, and the fact that it was released on a Nintendo console initially.
• Polished Port: The PSP version got graphical improvements, several new radio stations and an entire new series of missions for reporter Melanie Mallard.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: In usual Grand Theft Auto tradition, the amount of secondary play elements (drug trading, taxi driving, ambulance rescue, vigilante, rampages, scratch cards, etc.) make it all too easy to spend hours of time in Chinatown Wars while barely touching the main story.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ling Shan seemed to be set up as a possible Love Interest for Huang Lee. She's abruptly shot and killed in an alley in her second mission appearance.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Chinatown Wars looks quite impressive for a DS title. The fact that the entire map of GTAIV (well, minus Alderney) was squeezed into a 512MB cartridge is reason enough for applause, but the game one-ups that by delivering an impressive level of detail, realistic vehicle physics (vans are top-heavy and wide-turning, sports cars turn on a dime but are ridiculously fast, etc.) with flippable cars, bright vivid colors, and all under a consistent 30FPS. The PSP, iOS, and Android editions are even better, with richer color schemes and highly detailed lighting and effects.

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