Overall 8.5 Graphics 7.6 Sound 7.3 Addictive 8.1 Story 7.9 Depth 7.4 Difficulty 5.3
3
An Unsatisfying Crime Adventure on GBA! Mister X
Ask anyone what they think of when they hear “Grand Theft Auto”. Most will associate it with brutality and violence, more conservative folk may interpret it as a weapon in and of itself. The general view, however, is that this series is vicious and folks not familiar with such acts need not observe. So why is it that Rockstar Games decided to put a title of their most infamous franchise on the Game Boy Advance? Was it intentional- to “taint” a system made by the devotedly family friendly Nintendo? The world may never figure it out. What
is known for sure is that Grand Theft Auto Advance was originally intended to be a port of Grand Theft Auto III, but was eventually made into a prequel of the latter. Released in 2004, GTA:A came out the same day as San Andreas, arguably the greatest open world game of all time. Can this almost-was-a-port hold up to its big brother?
A Not So Fresh Story of Ascendance in The Big Apple.2000, Liberty City. Small-time crook Mike and his mentor Vinnie are “saving” up money to move away from Liberty and on to more lucrative opportunities. Almost ready to leave, Mike witnesses Vinnie's death via car bomb. Swearing vengeance, Mike travels around the city doing work for various criminal figures in order to elevate his own status and deduce who Vinnie's killer is while also working towards his original goal of leaving the so-called “worst place in America” for good. New characters here are the rotund bartender Jonnie, Colombian mob lord Cisco, and the physical appearance of treacherous Jamaican Yardie boss King Courtney. There are also some returning members: bomb expert 8-Ball, Yakuza leader Asuka Kasen, and the prostitute Misty.
No matter the limitations of the system, any game can have a good story. Given that GTA is widely lauded for including such a feature with each title, it's strange seeing it absent here. I counted, and there are only about 8 or 9 characters with
any importance. Now, that's not a big deal, GTA III had only about 12 characters but the chemistry between them and their individual characteristics were rich enough for that to not be a problem. However, the only interaction between any characters are with Mike and everyone else. Not only that, any twists or developments are bland and heavily telegraphed. But most prominently, the characters are flat and boring. Though this is a big problem throughout the series it's especially noticeable here. Mike is always the same naive, thick-skulled brute who lets his bosses use him without limit.
Whatever. It's GTA, right? You probably skip all that anyways. Moving on...
Story: 1/10Liberty is Bigger......But There's Nothing To Do!The first game to be set in Liberty City since GTA III, and a year earlier (chronologically), you'd expect to see some new stuff around. Maybe more districts, more side-missions, collectibles, stuff like that. Well, the city is larger this time around, sure. But there's actually
less to do now. They even removed the paramedic and vigilante side missions! Besides the 41 bland, boring, simple, easy story missions there are 18 races split up around the 3 districts, none of which took me more than one try to beat, as well as a “demolition football” challenge which is kind of like the stunt jumps in other games mixed with a time challenge. Nifty, sure, but once you beat (again, very easy) it you can't do it anymore!
Now, Grand Theft Auto wouldn't be Grand Theft Auto without some autos! The
selection is identical to that of GTA III although there is a new secret Formula 1 car....that handles the same as all the other fast cars. You have the Infernus and the Banshee and some gang cars for variety but like the rest of the game, they're nothing special. To the game's credit, though, they handle very fluidly and the controls are mapped to all the right places, d-pad to steer, A for the gas, and B for the brakes. Being the GBA that's not that big an accomplishment however.
Then there's the weapons. Probably because there aren't any buttons available to slide through a roster (the shoulder buttons are used for drive-bys and getting into a vehicle) there are no restrictions on having one type of weapon per class at a time. For example, Mike can carry both the baseball bat AND the katana at the same time. As well as the car bomb. And the flamethrower. You can buy all these from the Ammunation for a reduced price like in GTA III so there's no real reason to not be carrying thousands of rounds of ammo. Guns work simply enough, just face the guy you want to kill and fire!.....
Running out of stuff to talk about guysFinally there's the difficulty. If you aren't acquainted with GBA controls this will be a bit like jumping into cold water right after waking up. You don't have the precise directional control of other consoles and that will be the cause of most of your deaths early on. Once you get it down though, which should only take about an hour, You'll be gunning down baddies (or civvies, depending on how you like to play) with ease. Cops are a pushover and with a fast car you should have no trouble losing them.
Hey Rockstar, if you were able to blow up the size of the city on a console inferior to the PS2 in terms of performance, why couldn't you put in more....things? Seriously, I'm not making this review short because I don't like the game but because there's so little to talk about. I pushed myself to come up with stuff to discuss but to no avail. The game works, I suppose, like that's supposed to be a plus. You know they actually cut a barrel from this game? You were supposed to roll it towards enemies and it would crush them. If that was kept I would have given the game an extra 5 points at least, but alas.
Meh, let's move on.
Addictiveness: 2/10Depth: 2/10Difficulty:3/10See The Sights in Glorious 2D And Hear Nothing Good!To be fair, the graphics are the game's strong point. Perhaps they aren't as crisp as Pokémon FireRed or other first-party GBA titles but they're still quite impressive for the system. Cutscenes consist of stylized head shots of the characters currently talking with the occasional fitting background. The head shots strongly resemble the artwork you see loading up any Grand Theft Auto title and it's quite fascinating to see them used in the actual game. The backgrounds are thematic, for example a cutscene in Chinatown will feature signs with Han characters and a street thick with vendors. These cutscenes almost make up for the comparatively poor graphics during normal gameplay. The textures and sprites, while typically (see below) smooth and consistent throughout, are overall underwhelming and resembling GTA I. One. The one released in 1997. From this top-down perspective Mike and all the pedestrians look like little cartoon stick figures. It looks even more like a cartoon when you see the punches- the punching hand appears to increase in size by about 500 percent. Overall, however, the graphics in their entirety are good. That's just it, good. Not too attractive but they work.
From the best part of the game, however, we get into the worst. And this is a shocker. GTA games always attract criticism but it's hard to argue that their soundtracks are spectacular. So what do we have here? A couple of pre-set songs that are in fact remixes of tracks featured in GTA III....I think- on the GBA they sound nothing like their original versions but rather indescribable messes. It's heartbreaking, really. Some of video gaming's best soundtracks belong to the same console. There are few real sound effects, just the monotonous sound of gunfire and the occasional pedestrian interjection, which would have been cool yet, of course, there's only a couple of bland ones in this game.
Now THAT'S what I call pathetic!
Graphics: 6/10Music: 1/10Pros:-Acceptable Graphics-Larger city to explore (if aimlessly)Cons:-Dull story-Almost nothing to do besides main missions-Horrible music (where there is any)Consensus:Remember when I said this game came out on the same day as San Andreas? To say Grand Theft Auto Advance lives in that games shadow would be the understatement of the century. A competent open-world game, Advance would be far better off on a non-portable console. With better characters. And better music. And more stuff. The ellipses I used so incessantly throughout this review was not because of my laziness, but rather indicative of how you keep wanting more to come from this game but never getting it. Stick with GTA III.
Graphics 6 Sound 1 Addictive 2 Story 1 Depth 2 Difficulty 3
Review Rating: 4.6/5
Submitted: 02-27-16
Updated: 02-29-16
Review Replies: 2
8.5
GTA Advance review Charlie506
Okay, this is my first *successful* review. My real first one was locked, because it had less than 100 words. My favorite Grand Theft Auto game was San Andreas or GTA IV. Okay, so let's get it started!
Graphics ~ 8
For a 32X portable console, it's pretty awesome. If your new to video games, or if you play "bro games" like GTA V, you might think there's ants all over the screen. Seriously, someone said that to me. It's overhead, like the rest of the early GTA games.
Sound ~ 7
No music, (duh.) There's police car sirens, murmurs, gunfire, explosions, whatever what you'll see in a GTA game.
Addictiveness ~ 7
I don't play the game anymore, but the first time I played it, I went on and on and on coming back to this game.
Story ~ 8
The story is sort of like GTA IV, you're a guy with guns with a lot of personality.
Depth ~ 9
Of course there's a lot of depth! It's GTA! A city! Lots you can do!
Difficulty ~ 4
It's not that hard, but there's a part when I'm in a six star chase (I think) trying to escape the cops. I can't pass that part.
Graphics 8 Sound 7 Addictive 7 Story 8 Depth 9 Difficulty 4
Review Rating: 4.2/5
Submitted: 05-17-14
Review Replies: 1
10
Gta Agoron
Ah Grand Theft Auto advanced a good game from a good Franchise not the best but really good game. The graphics are good for a gba game but bot the best graphics ever on the system. The songs are great to listen to. The game is really addicting the game has a lot to in it to do mostly killing but there are other things like racing and stuff. I am not going to spoil the story but it has plot twists. It is really good at pulling you in and killing people. Its not that hard of a game. If you like killing people with guns, cars, and also kill cops this is the right game for you.
Graphics 9 Sound 9 Addictive 10 Story 9 Depth 9 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3.8/5
Submitted: 12-06-13
Review Replies: 1
9.3
GTA Advance supercool22
Grand Theft Auto Advance is a great game. The missions are hard that is why the difficulty is 10 and the camera is just like GTA Chinatown wars. Here are some cheats from the game , A, B, Start (cheat mode), Left, Right, Up, Down, A, A (unlock all guns), Left, Right, Up, Down, A, L (unlock armor), Left, Right, Up, Down, B, B (replenish health), Left, Right, Up, Down, L, L ($15000), Left, Right, Up, Down, A, R (lower or raise wanted level), Left, Right, Up, Down, R, R (max or zero wanted level), Left, Right, Up, Down, B, R (toggle gang hostility level select),
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 10 Depth 9 Difficulty 10
Review Rating: 2.8/5
Submitted: 12-23-12
Updated: 12-23-12
Review Replies: 1
9.1
GTA advance review mr.ziggyphoenix
The GTA series is a very successful series that is on may platforms such as consoles but also on handhelds such as the game boy advance. When I played the Game boy advance version I didn't think it would be too good but then it was actually pretty good. I never review a game unless I really liked it or really didn't like it.
Graphics: 8
Just as the graphics on the GBA aren't the best this game doesn't have the best ones in the world. This game still manages to have fairly decent graphics that provide a little old fashioned arcade fun.
Sound: 8
The sound tracks were pretty good in this game. My personal favorite sounds are when the cops are after you. It always makes things more exciting.
Addictiveness: 10
This is quite an addictive game. I could play this for hours on end just hitting cops so that they chase me through the city. I also find the idea of being able to drive car like you stole it to be fun when I'm going 100+ down an alley.
Story: 8
Not a bad story if I will say. Starting as a mob member for the Mafia with my goal of leaving the city without getting arrested brings up some interesting questions like why did the character join the Mafia in the first place.
Depth: 7
This game has some depth to it but most of the fun isn't in doing the missions like the story line wants you to do but instead attempting to get six stars just to find out what happens.
Graphics 8 Sound 8 Addictive 10 Story 8 Depth 7 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 2/5
Submitted: 12-11-15
Review Replies: 1
10
cool game thebossman
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so this game very cool the story on gtaa is very easy to play if my little bro can play you can play it and the difficulty is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo easy very easy
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 1
Review Rating: 1.8/5
Submitted: 06-18-11
Review Replies: 1