Sure, the handheld version was a big technical improvement over Liberty City Stories, but there's nothing substantially new to the series here and once again it comes off feeling weak on the PlayStation 2. In fact, after remembering our time with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, we can't help but feel that Vice City Stories isn't quite everything it could be.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you've begun to grow tired of the franchise's mechanics, mission structure or overall feel, this won't renew your love of the series. By that we mean that while things have been cleaned up or expanded a bit here or there from Liberty City Stories, it's still largely the same game that we first saw with Grand Theft Auto III.
Still though, it's Grand Theft Auto through and through.
