| Grand Theft Auto | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Digital Eclipse |
| Publisher(s) | Rockstar Games |
| Series | Grand Theft Auto |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release date(s) | October 25, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure, Open world |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | cartridge |
Grand Theft Auto: Advance is a handheld console game developed by Digital Eclipse, published by Rockstar Games, and released on October 25, 2004 for the Game Boy Advance. It is the first to not be developed by a Rockstar Games studio. The game is referred to as "Grand Theft Auto Advance" on its title screen; the game's cover art and all promotional material refer to it as simply Grand Theft Auto.[2]
The game is played from a top-down perspective; this view angle was seen on the first two games in the series, GTA and GTA2, but vehicle-based side-missions (such as "Vigilante" and "Paramedic"), the heads-up display and a large majority of the weapons, first introduced in the three-dimensional counterparts, have also been included. Unlike previous top-down Grand Theft Auto games, vehicles can now flip over.[3] It is the first game from the Grand Theft Auto series which got an 16+ rating from PEGI and an M rating (recommended for mature audiences though any age is still allowed access) from the Australian Classification Board. The game was released a day before the North American release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
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The game is set in Liberty City, in 2000 the fictional GTA city that appeared most prominently, in Grand Theft Auto III. Indeed the earliest announcement of this game was that it would be a port of GTA III, but at some point in development (it is unclear exactly when this occurred) this idea was rejected, probably due to technical limitations and the time needed to reconstruct the previous game's missions in the new two-dimensional environment.
The game was actually released as a prequel to GTA III, taking place one year prior to the events in GTA III. As it takes place in GTA III's Liberty City, familiar landmarks re-appear and the overall street layout is the same. However the locations of familiar secrets such as Rampages, hidden packages and jump ramps have all been changed, so players familiar with the city's corners and alleyways in GTA III will have to explore them afresh in GTA Advance. The city's three islands have been noticeably changed in its conversion and elements impossible to interpret to a top-view perspective, so there are no longer any sloped surfaces, and the tunnels and train system have been removed.
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Grand Theft Auto series |
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1961 – London, 1961 1999 – Grand Theft Auto 2 1984 – Vice City Stories 2008 – Grand Theft Auto IV 2009 – Chinatown Wars |
Mike is a small-time criminal, working for the more connected Vinnie. He was saved by Vinnie when he was homeless, though not too much information is revealed about this. They decide to leave Liberty City together and retire from their life of crime elsewhere, but Vinnie decides that they should look for a few more jobs from their employers, the Mafia (although it is not revealed which Mafia family it is; the game's place in the GTA timeline suggests it is either the Forellis, or more likely the Leones), prior to leaving, for more money and reputation. During one of these missions Vinnie is suggestively killed in a car bomb, taking the duo's money with him. Mike, who Vinnie was like a second father to, swears revenge, and death to the person that set up the car-bomb.
His revenge leads to his falling out with the Mafia, and he ends up working for various gangs, mostly the Yardies, the Colombians and the Yakuza. Each gang or single employer, such as 8-Ball, a close friend of Vinnie's, persuades Mike to do jobs for them as they help him find out the truth about Vinnie's death.
In the later stages of the game, Mike finds out that Vinnie has actually staged his own death, and Mike swears revenge on his old partner, eventually killing him. During the next mission 8-Ball is arrested (setting the stage for his escape in GTA III's intro sequence), but Mike manages to escape on the late Cisco's (the Colombian boss') plane, after seeming to kill Vinnie's real boss, King Courtney. There has been a bit of controversy over this, as the player may receive missions from him in the form of phone calls in GTA III. Judging from Courtney's dialogue after the fight, he may have escaped his death.
The game has an all-new storyline. The protagonist is no longer Claude but a new character named Mike.
Some of the characters from GTA III appear in the game, including bomb-shop owner 8-Ball and the Yakuza crime boss Asuka, although none of the Mafia characters from GTA III appear, and entirely new characters such as Vinnie (Mike's friend and first employer), Cisco (the leader of the Colombian Cartel), and Yuka (Asuka's niece) have been added to the mix. Several characters which were only referenced in GTA III are now met face-to-face, such as King Courtney, the Yardie boss.[4]
The game had to be adapted to the GBA's hardware limitations. As a result it does not have animated cutscenes, nor does it have GTA III's much-lauded pedestrian dialog. All cutscenes are text-only with hand-drawn pictures of the characters' faces, with a thematic backdrop behind. The art style is consistent with that used for the cover and loading art of the three-dimensional releases in the series. Replacing the pedestrian dialogue, some soundbites taken from GTA III are played when the player hits someone's car. Short police radio voiceovers will announce the player's location and vehicle type when the player commits a crime.
The game does not feature radio channels. Like the Game Boy Color ports of GTA and GTA2, each car has one fixed tune that is constantly repeated and cannot be changed. These include parts of some familiar GTA, GTA2 and GTA III tunes, in instrumental versions.[3]
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 70%[5] |
| Metacritic | 68/100[6] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Game Informer | 7.5/10[7] |
| GameSpot | 6.5/10[8] |
| IGN | 8.5/10[9] |
Critical reception was mixed. On the review aggregator GameRankings, the game received an average score of 70% based on 41 reviews.[10] On Metacritic, the game received an average score of 68 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.[11]
IGN gave a score of 8.5 out of 10, calling the game "a great, recommended action title."[12] UGO gave an "A" rating, saying that "if you're a great fan of the series, then Grand Theft Auto Advance is definitely the game for you."[13] Game Chronicles gave a positive review, calling the game "nothing short of amazing."[14] Nintendo Power was also impressed, saying that "the game's scope is massive, and the missions are varied and rewarding."[15]
GameSpot gave a score of 6.5 out of 10, saying that "by and large, [the game] just isn't much fun."[16] Game Informer gave a score of 7.5 out of 10, calling the game "only a bare-bones reminder of a much greater work of art."[17]
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