Rockstar’s Best GTA Side Chapters Prove Spin-Offs Still Hit 93+ Scores
Rockstar’s open-world legacy isn’t built only on its headline releases—some of the studio’s “smaller” GTA spin-offs and handheld entries have earned standout critical scores, proving that budget constraints never stopped these projects from delivering full Rockstar-level quality.
Grand Theft Auto’s best-regarded “side chapters”
Over nearly three decades of GTA history, several secondary entries have ended up among the strongest-reviewed games in the series—especially when judged against the limitations of their original platforms.
-
2009 – GTA Chinatown Wars
Released for the Nintendo DS, Chinatown Wars scored 93/100 on Metacritic, one of the highest results ever recorded for a Nintendo handheld built around a touch-screen interface. A similar reception followed on PSP, where the same title reached a 90/100 metascore.
-
2005 – Liberty City Stories
Arriving on PSP, Liberty City Stories closed its review run with a score of 88/100. The article highlights the significance of that result for a GTA prequel to GTA III, especially given the hardware limits of its time.
-
2006 – Vice City Stories
Vice City Stories, a spin-off of GTA Vice City, launched in 2006 and kept the setting in Vice City during the 1980s. The game received praise from specialized outlets, with the claim that it was even better than its predecessor. It’s also described as combining the criminal empire system and more mature technical presentation, blending the mechanics associated with GTA San Andreas with Vice City’s tone and atmosphere.
Why these releases matter for GTA players now
While not everyone remembers every GTA entry as “the best the series ever made,” the key takeaway here is that these titles weren’t filler between major launches. They were full Rockstar productions that, in some cases, matched or surpassed the review scores tied to GTA III, Vice City, and GTA San Andreas. If you’ve been considering catching up on the series beyond the mainline games, these handheld and spin-off chapters are presented as well worth revisiting.
