Since the PSP has been released, I have been searching for the true "killer app" of the system and since I've played Rengoku: Tower of Purgatory a few months ago for my PSP, I truly thought that there was never going to be a "killer app," for the handheld. I was wrong. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories has proven that it is possible to have a game on a handheld that can give you a complete console gaming experience.

To have a game like Grand Theft Auto on a handheld is an amazing feat. When I first heard of Liberty City Stories, I was very skeptical. I thought that something big would be missing from the game, or it would be top-down just like Grand Theft Auto II. I was, once again, wrong! Liberty City Stories is a complete Grand Theft Auto game. The same kind of driving, environments, humor, missions, and obscene violence is included in this game.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a mixture of all of the previous games in one. As most of you already know, Liberty City Stories takes place in Liberty City, which is the same city from Grand Theft Auto III. This is also three years before the original. You play as Toni Cipriani in this game, who was in the original GTA III as a Triad hating gangster.

Unlike Grand Theft Auto III, the main character isn't mute. He does have a voice, and so do the other characters in this game. Also unlike GTA III, you can ride on motorcycles. Funny how there weren't any motorcycles in GTA III, yet in Vice City, set in the 1980's, there were. I smell a time paradox. Unfortunately, like the original, you won't be able to swim or go into several buildings like in Vice City or San Andreas.

You're on a mission to become number one in Liberty City, but it won't be that easy. Not because the missions are totally difficult (most aren't at all), but because the missions themselves get boring very fast. Most missions don't get much in depth, and the ones that do are very difficult. Missions consist of stealing a rival gang's car/tank and/or destroying it, protecting someone, rescuing a character, killing a gang leader, or causing some mayhem. I found myself just cruising around the city more than accomplishing missions.

Like in GTA III, the story is lacking major excitement. Once you go visit a person who wants you to do a task for them, a short humorous cut scene comes up, and less than thirty seconds later, you're off on a mission. The story does get interesting at times, but that doesn't increase the excitement of doing another mission.

Now because this game is on a UMD, the soundtrack list doesn't have several songs like in the previous Grand Theft Auto games. The soundtrack itself isn't that bad at all. Although I do only recognize the hip-hop and opera musicians on the soundtrack, I do occasionally enjoy other stations on the radio. There is a pop station, two techno/eletronica stations, a flashback station, a rap station, an opera station, one Jamaican station, an Indian station, and of course, a talk show station. I personally like Liberty City Jam (hip-hop) for its New York hardcore style rappers (the Lox, Method Man, Redman, Big Pun, etc.). Each station has its own very humorous commercials.