**We HIGHLY SUGGEST you read this thread to get a tutorial guide and ACTIVATE CJS’ Save Option**

The Road To Release has finally ended. Thanks to the release of this highly anticipated game!

Car Jack Streets ($4.99)

On the heels of Payback‘s success, another GTA descendant graces the iPhone scene. This time, Car Jack Streets seems to bring a ton of reputation how so? This game is developed by the guys that worked on the original Grand Theft Auto! Did Tag Games successfully deliver the GTA atmosphere in CJS? Do the real time mini missions bring something new to the table?

We’ll let’s continue reading to find out, shall we?

GTA Design: SOLID YES!

Car Jack Streets undoubtedly captures the spirit and design of the original Grand Theft Auto game. From the colors to the cars and buildings textures, the game smells GTA from a mile a way. This is a damn great thing! Compare the screens:

Controls + Game Layout

Here are the following control screenshots for both when walking and driving:

Keep in mind the health bar on top left of the screen. You need to replenish health every now and then by picking up green health bars. The right side of the screen shows the money you owe + earned so far. This side of the screen also shows your wanted level. Try to keep this at 0 or 1. The more stars you accumulate, the more cops will be chasing you. Try to hide on tight spaces for a while to cool off the cops and take away the stars.

To walk, there is the directional dpad on the bottom left of the screen. Please note that you need to somewhat maintain your thumb within the dpad boundaries. Unlike in Hero Of Sparta or iDracula where the controls get stretched outside of the drawn area. There is no pressure to maintain within the dpad and should be  consideration for future updates.

The car controls are a little icky and very confusing at the beginning. You need at least ONE whole hour of driving around before orienting yourself to the controls. Looking at the screen above, the car controls seem straight forward. Don’t let it fool you as it’s quite the opposite.

The controls are difficult because the left and right steers do not change manually in game with the visual directional change. For example, going North a street, of course left and right steers are normal. Once you head back down South, left visually is controlled right on the steer and vice versa. Add the fact that your mind anticipates the acceleration and brake buttons get switched as well. We ASK you to stick learning the controls. It will come second nature to you and and you WON’T regret learning it with the gameplay payoff!

Gameplay

The story begins with a video explaining why your character Randall is in $1,000,00 dept to Frankie. Frankie then warns Randall to make weekly payments otherwise, he’ll get blown up to pieces.

Car Jack Streets runs in real time (like 24 ;p). Mini missions need performed to earn money. $50,000 is the max you can earn per week. Some include going postal:

While some include would require you to comeback to the game 20 or 30 minutes later, in real time, like the ambulance mission.

Guns, rampaging, health pick ups, rockets, hidden boxes and other cool stuff abound:

Car Jack’s Strengths

The games strengths come three folds:

• Obvious GTA inspired design (well put together may we say!). As we said earlier, TAG was able to pull it together and give us an authentic GTA-like experience for the phone.
• Licensed soundtrack. If you think you liked Payback’s soundtrack, wait ’til you hear CJS’.
• Missions. To us, this is where CJS is pulling most of its weight from. The mini missions are super fun which range from driving a bus to racing on a race track. It adds complexity to the game and at the same time, it makes you HAVE TO come back and play it, otherwise the game restarts from the beginning. It’s sort of like a blown up micromanagement game in a way that it needs your tender attention to fully complete the game. It’s definitely NOT a pick and play game in its literal sense. The missions are fun and easy to be picked up though. Just make sure to fire up the game on a specific time the game calls you to.
• GPS Unit. The game comes with a handy GPS unit in which you can access GPS POI/locations and character/mission transcripts from:

Some Misses

We feel deeply attached to the game and thus we feel to be more picky about it than any other game. If we had a grading system, CJS gets a solid 8/10 and gets 20/10 once these are sorted out:

• Some AI is completely botched. People walk on top of stopped cars, and you go through steel poles. (TAG will be addressing this on the upcoming update)

• DITCH the scroll bar to read text. To read text, you have to manually scroll the bar down to read the rest of the text. The bar is way too small and this control just DO NOT work for us. Taps would work so much better. Less clutter removing the scroll bar and more intuitive.
• Where is the map? CJS does NOT come with a mini map. It uses directional arrows to show you around the area. You have to be adept to these arrows as well as paint the picture of Jack City in your head to accomplish timed missions.
• Finnicky buttons. Sometimes CJS buttons require multiple taps before it actually recognizes the user input.
• Sandbox/Freeplay Mode. Enough said ;p

Conclusion

Surprisingly, even with a couple major corrections CJS warrants, the game is a definitely addictive and super fun! It is sooo worth sticking to it and learning the controls and to navigate without a map. We say definitely buy it!

We  seriously feel that TAG has reached 80% of what’s to become an iPhone gaming legend. The basics of a great GTA descendant have already been put into place. Some more tweaking and it’ll reach Zen Bound/Eliss status in our books.

Car Jack Streets is definitely not one to be missed!