When comparing GTA: Chinatown Wars vs Game Dev Story, the Slant community recommends Game Dev Story for most people. In the question“What are the best Android games without in-app purchases/paywalls?” Game Dev Story is ranked 8th while GTA: Chinatown Wars is ranked 58th. The most important reason people chose Game Dev Story is:
Nearly everything is self-explanatory, and the bits that aren't get explained by your secretary. This makes for a game that is easy to understand, even if it does not seem evident at first.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Compelling events make the story interesting
The power struggle between gangs has resulted in the death of your father. You have flown from Hong Kong to avenge your father's death. The missions vary, and all could be plausible making it easy to get lost in the story.
Pro Local multiplayer is more fun than you'd think
The local multiplayer takes advantage of this open-world game in the best ways possible. You can challenge another player to different activities - including Death Races (last alive or first to the finish wins), Stash Dash (get to a delivery van first and make deliveries while the other player tries to stop you), Liberty City Survivor (1v1 battle against your opponent with many police around), and Defend the Base (co-operatively protect targets from incoming bad guys).
Pro Decent graphics
The graphics and lighting effects have been improved over the original version (on the Nintendo DS) to a point where they're good enough for modern mobile gaming.
Pro Controller support for improved controls
GTA: Chinatown Wars has built in controller support which means it is compatible with the Google Nexus Player as well as the Amazon Fire TV. This means you can play it on your phone/tablet with a Bluetooth controller, or on an Android console on the big-screen TV with a Bluetooth controller for an even more console-like feeling.
Note: not all Bluetooth controllers are supported
Pro Simple and intuitive gameplay allows the game to be accessible, no matter the skill level
Nearly everything is self-explanatory, and the bits that aren't get explained by your secretary. This makes for a game that is easy to understand, even if it does not seem evident at first.
Pro Very engaging due to quick progression and frequent events
Contracts are measured in weeks and development cycles in months, but time passes at the rate of one day per second. Though the core gameplay involves watching little icons pop up over your employees' heads, rarely do five seconds go by without some player action being prudent, if not required.
Pro Fulfils a fantasy of creating a game studio
You get to choose what type of game you want to make, what tools you use to make it, who you hire to make it, what systems you publish the final product on and you get to watch how it is received by the world. Then you do it all over again bigger.
Pro A free demo version is available for anyone to try out
Game Dev Story Lite is available for free on the Google Play store. The Lite version ends after 2 in-game years.
Pro Entertaining business success model typical for Kairosoft games
Cons
Con Controls on touchscreen are not that good
Driving can be pretty difficult with the touch screen controls, though there are two different settings, so one may work better than the other.
Con Not an original game
While not a con for everybody, this game has virtually nothing new about it. It was originally launched for the PSP (PlayStation Personal) and Nintendo DS (dual screen - new generation of GameBoy). The tutorial is borrowed from the PSP version, while it retains the mini games from the DS version.
Con Game is not free
Con Punctuation and grammar errors
Game Dev Story is a Japanese game that was translated to English, which shows, as sometimes there are a few grammatical errors in game. This shows a lack of polish, which may aggravate some players.
Con Unclear method of determining a game's success
Sometimes it is unclear how to find out how successful a game is.
Con It's very hard to fail
Your employees' salaries are waived the first year ("government subsidy") and you can go into the red to pay them after that. You can't develop a game without some initial funds, but since you can always take a contract to make money, there's basically no hole you can't crawl out of.