Hard to believe: The Nintendo DS is celebrating its 15th birthday this year. It almost goes through as retro. Two screens, touch controls and a microphone inspired the developers at the time to come up with creative game concepts and invited a completely new group of players into the world of video games: the “casuals”. Today we celebrate the little miracle or the 15 best titles that flickered towards us from two screens.
15th place: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
GTA and Nintendo, th is combination gave mixed results twice before China town Wars. Neither the Game Boy Color nor the Game Boy Advance could capture the wicked atmosphere that the series is known for. In the third attempt, Rockstar did just that and without a template against which a DS version had to compete. The mobile GTA is perfectly tailored to the handheld and loosens up the much loved street chaos with cool missions, within which you have to hide in a parade or throw Molotov cocktails from a helicopter. GTA: Chinatown optically oriented itself to the old 2D parts of the series, but expanded them playfully and narratively with the open world sandbox gameplay and a cynical gangster epic as in the modern episodes.