Edible Apple

First announced in August, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is finally available in the iTunes app store for $9.99. Chinatown Wars is a recent addition to the GTA franchise, and was originally popularized on the Nintendo DS where both critics and users heaped praise upon it. From the looks of it, Rockstar has maintained the top down gaming experience in Chinatown, so if you’re used to GTA: San Andreas or GTA IV, you might have to take some time to get used to the different camera angles.

We’ve yet to give Chinatown Wars a spin, but being big Rockstar fans here at E. Apple, we’re confident that the app will deliver. As it stands now, one of the better “modern” games we’ve seen on the iPhone has been Gangstar: West Coast Hustle – a GTA like game from Gameloft that does a great job of mixing Chicano culture with the typical carjacking and gunplay you’ve come to expect in the GTA series.

In the meantime, TouchArcade has already gotten their hands on the app and have posted some gameplay footage and first impressions.

Much like other versions of the game, screenshots barely do it justice. Liberty City in motion on the iPhone is amazing, and all the jagged edges in the screenshots quickly fade away when you’re racing down a street, under elevated train tracks, and through alleys as you escape the police. The realtime clock in-game also changes the lighting of the city, shifting from the orange glow of a sunset to the street lights turning on at night. It really looks awesome.

And just in case you thought Rockstar might hold something back with the iPhone version of GTA, check out some of the warnings for the app on iTunes:

– Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

– Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity

– Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

– Infrequent/Mile Realistic Violence.

So yeah, this app’s legit.