What if ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’ was on the Commodore 64?

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

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It would look, and sound, a lot like this. And the best part is how it’s an improvement on the original.

Of the three variants of Grand Theft Auto 3 on the PS2, I liked Vice City the most, but it was hardly perfect. Mostly the ending sucked, and this make believe de-make for the C64 fixes all of its problems.

My biggest nitpick would have to be the voice acting of Ken Rosenberg, your neurotic lawyer pal. Along with all the needless flailing of his arms (due to the limited tech at the time, that’s the best Rockstar could do when it came to “acting”), which is now totally absent.

But the biggest actual problem is how broken the sequence is as a whole. From the confrontation you have the big boss downstairs, which immediately and awkwardly cuts to upstairs, to the wonky controls being super pronounced thanks to the architecture of the mansion.

And especially the Scarface-esque final showdown that isn’t nearly as tight or elegant as it could have been. Sure the video above is of an idealized version of what a C64 could actually do, like that (sweet as hell) chiptune rendition of Working For The Weekend, but that too is nitpicking.