Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an action-adventure video game, developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The game was released for the Nintendo DS in March 2009, PlayStation Portable in October 2009, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iOS in January 2010, and Android and Fire OS devices in December 2014. It is the thirteenth game in the Grand Theft Auto series and a follow-up to Grand Theft Auto IV and is the first to be released for handheld consoles since 2006's Vice City Stories. Set within modern-day Liberty City (a fictional parody of New York City), the single-player story follows young Triad member Huang Lee and his efforts to recover a sword gifted by his late father after it is stolen from him, while inadvertently becoming caught in a power struggle amongst Liberty City's Triads.

The game was fundamentally designed for players to have notable interactions with objects on the DS and smartphone systems via their touch-screen controls while offering unique elements of gameplay not found in other entries within the Grand Theft Auto series. The most notable element, the ability to buy drugs from suppliers and sell them to dealers to make money, proved controversial following the game's release. Despite this, the game received largely positive reviews from critics.

Following his father's murder, Huang Lee has a simple mission: deliver an ancient sword to his Uncle Kenny to ensure his family retains control of the Triad gangs of Liberty City. Huang is a spoiled rich kid who expects everything to run smoothly, but his trip does not go exactly as planned. After being robbed and left to die, he will search for honor, riches, and revenge in the most dangerous and morally bankrupt city in the world.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment. It has a different presentation from previous games in the series, by partially resembling the first Grand Theft Auto titles. Instead of a ground-level view behind the protagonist or a top-down perspective, Chinatown Wars uses a fully rotatable camera angled down at the action. Chinatown Wars also uses cel-shaded polygons with black outlines to produce a comic book-like aesthetic—a first for the series. The title takes place in a scaled-down rendition of Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City, with the exception of Alderney.

Unlike Grand Theft Auto IV, the player can disable as many police cars as possible to escape the police instead of leaving a "wanted zone." The more stars the player has, the more police they have to take out for each level. For example, for a six-star level, they have to take out six police cars to get down to a five-star wanted level, and so on. There is also a drug-dealing subplot that allows players to peddle heroin, acid, ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine, and depressants around the city. Players can make a profit by recognizing market conditions and demands based on geography and plying their wares accordingly. CCTV cameras work as this game's secret packages, destroyed by throwing a Molotov cocktail bottle or a grenade. This also decreases the chances of being caught while making a drug deal and provides discounts for buying drugs. Chinatown Wars applies many Grand Theft Auto IV features such as the next-gen HUD. Ammu-Nation returns in the form of an in-game website where the player can order various weapons through their PDA to be delivered to their safehouse. Players will also get emails that they can read either from the PDA or the laptop present in their safe house.

While stealing a moving vehicle is similar to that of previous Grand Theft Auto games, Chinatown Wars uses a different system for stealing parked vehicles. Depending on the car, it can be started in one of a few ways. Older cars require a few turns of a screwdriver in the ignition, while other cars require hotwiring. Newer, more expensive cars (with the exception of a bulletproof van) require the player to "hack" the computerized immobilizer. It is still possible to flip cars or set them on fire. The player is unable to pilot any of the aircraft in the game, but he can still see the ones at the airport or flying above him, although if a player uses a certain code on the Nintendo DS by using "Action Replay DS" the player can acquire a helicopter and fly it.