Grand Theft Auto is awesome. I think that we can pretty much collectively agree on that by now, right? You may not be a fan of the violent themes, but these games pretty much rule open-ended sandbox console gaming. The first time Vice City was unleashed on the masses back in 1999, it was a big deal. GTA III was nothing short of an amazing success on the PS2 and everyone wanted to see where Rockstar would take the series next. Into the 80’s we all went, and chances are you loved it just like we did. Now, of course, we’ve been to San Andreas and back to Liberty City on the PSP once already, not to mention inhabited countless cities in other games trying to capture that GTA “it” factor. Rockstar is now offering up the opportunity for a whole new series of events in the neon-saturated Floridian city of Vice.

If you played Vice City on the PS2, chances are that you remember Lance Vance. He was a mysterious and helpful badass back in the day, and Vice City Stories puts you into the shoes of his brother Vic. Vic’s kicked out of the army after…well, you’ll see. Regardless, after a couple of missions you’re out on your ass and in need of cash fast, so it’s time for some crime. This game presents everything you’d expect in the single-player GTA experience. There’s hilarious and intense dialog, stories of betrayal and revenge, not to mention lots and lots of guns. There’s a ton of variety presented in the missions and definitely enough challenge to keep you on your toes. The driving and shooting translate well to the PSP, even with the lack of a second analog stick – you hold the left trigger to put the analog stick in view mode. It’s not as natural as GTA on a console controller, but it works. There is, however, a pretty serious control issue that surfaces any time you try to target and attack someone close to you, but everything else from motorcycles to helicopters feel great.

After you do a bit of work you’ll get to the meat of your revenue generating ventures, the new empire system. You can take over a number of gang-run businesses throughout the city, and operate them in a few different ways. You start off with the ability to pimp, extort, or run a protection racket, with three more avenues of employment opening up later on. Each profession requires you to complete a series of tasks in order to earn the most money possible. It’s what you’d expect from GTA – track down and kill targets, run hookers around and more. It’s fun and provides yet another break from the main story action. If you want more distraction, try the new different types of vigilante missions, or find races, paramedic, firefighter, taxi missions. There’s finally a checkpoint system with these side-missions in VCS, so you’ll only have to do them five at a time. These missions are all fun and challenging, but we did hit a couple of glitches that caused frustrating loss of progress (Don’t take an ambulance into the Pay-n-Spray with passengers inside).

You should also keep an eye out for the unique stunt jumps that you’re used to, but there aren’t any hidden packages this time around - instead, there are 99 red balloons that you’ll have to shoot. It’s a great way to make sure you don’t accidentally pick one up and sneak in an extra 80’s reference at the same time. It’s also worth noting that all three of these missions will be shown on your pause-screen map once you’ve found them, and this should virtually eliminate that 99.9% completion nightmare some of us have lived a couple too many times.

The rest of the performance you expect from GTA is all there too…well, almost. The story really feels like it didn’t get as much attention as the gameplay this time around. This title may have given us some much needed fundamental changes, but instead the story seems like it’s been done to death. Even though the actors do a great job (some better than others), many of them sound like they don’t believe what they’re saying at all. There’s some kind of a disconnection with the characters in this game because of it, and there aren’t a whole lot of memorable performances. We enjoyed Danny Trejo as Umberto Robina and Phillip Michael Thomas as Lance Vance, but much of the rest of the casting could use some work. The pedestrians had some funny things to say, but the radio felt kind of weak to say the least. The DJ’s just weren’t as funny, and the commercials were kind of uninspired. Let’s just hope this is because all of the writing efforts are being funneled into GTA IV. You can use custom soundtracks, but it’s a little more complicated than we’d like to see.

The graphics in this game look good for something that fits in your pocket, but the biggest problems in this game present themselves graphically. When you’re driving fast, you can expect a ton of pop-up and draw distance issues, and these tend to cause a lot of unnecessary car crashes. You’ll be tearing down the street and running from cops only to find yourself wrapped around an invisible tree, and it’s often a pretty big problem. The rest of the game looks good enough for what it is - which is a lower resolution version of a five year old game, so keep that in mind. The load times are all acceptable, and don’t bog down gameplay like some might expect.

There are some multiplayer ad-hoc (see: local wi-fi, not internet) games available here that also set this title apart from its predecessors, but unfortunately they don’t shine as bright as the single player challenges. There are more modes than were featured in Liberty City Stories, with ten in total. The different types of gameplay present some fun challenges, but to get the most out of it you’re going to need five friends with PSPs and copies of this game.

So what’s the final low-down on the latest version of one of our favorite games? They just keep getting better. Liberty City stories had us with our noses buried in our PSPs for a long time, and this game is no different. There are finally a few core improvements that we’ve been wanting for a long time, and these really helped us get past some of the game’s more prominent issues – such as the return of the inability to climb walls and fences, or the serious graphical pop-up issues. This game is a ton of fun, and feels like a definite improvement to some of GTA’s core elements. Rather than just smush a GTA game onto the PSP, it seems like some thought was put into this one specifically to make it a great handheld game. It may have us a little concerned about how this game’s eventual PS2 release will fare, but for now we’re having a blast.