June 15, 2009 - It was only a few months ago that Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for Nintendo's handheld and like so many games in the series, reviewers loved it. In fact, it remains one of the highest-rated DS titles by IGN. Our own Craig Harris, who wrote the official review, even asked the game to marry him, but sadly it declined his offer. Chinatown Wars did a lot right, so it's understandable that Harris still sleeps with a boxed copy of the product under his pillow. Rockstar's ambitious offering included a fun new and engaging storyline, a huge and open world to explore, a robust list of varying gameplay mechanics and challenges and tight controls, all brought together by a very competent 3D engine and a pleasing art style. That's a lot of love for a DS game, especially when so many developers don't even care enough to fake ambition when creating software for the platform. That being the truth, I'll be honest: I figured Chinatown Wars would forever remain the pinnacle of DS action titles. But fast forward to the present and -- surprise, surprise -- there's actually a genuine competitor on the horizon that might just be worth your full attention. It's called C.O.P.:The Recruit. Yeah, not a great name, but thankfully it plays and looks better than it sounds. The Recruit is published by , Ubisoft but more importantly, it's developed by Velez and Dubail Dev (better known as VD-Dev by the two or three people who are actually familiar with the studio). Probably not ringing any bells for you, but consider the company's history as a handheld developer. It made V-Rally 3 for Game Boy Advance in 2002, which IGN scored an 8.0. Back then, we wrote the title was "visually incredible" by GBA standards. It followed up the title with Stuntman for GBA the next year, which scored an 8.5. We said the title featured "stunning 3D graphics" as well as challenging and fun gameplay to match. And it made Driv3r (seriously with the '3,' Atari?), also pretty good, both technically and mechanically. If nothing else, VD-Dev has experience making driving games and also producing some fantastic handheld-centric engines. C.O.P. takes the software house's expertise in both to the next level. You play as Dan Miles, a former street racer and new detective in the Criminal Overturn Program (C.O.P. -- see how they did that?), who protects New York City from "large-scale threats." Like terrorists, apparently. When your mentor, detective Brad Winter is falsely arrested, you embark on an investigation to discover the real reason for his arrest and hopefully restore his good name, but as you go deeper under cover, you begin to unravel a widespread conspiracy that may directly tie into a forthcoming attack on the city. I've been playing around with a short demo of The Recruit for a couple of weeks -- the same one E3 attendees saw at the annual exhibition recently -- and while it's all over in a matter of minutes, it still adequately conveys the style and feel that VD-Dev is going for. The cinematics unfold via static hand-drawn cut-scenes and text overlays. Nothing fancy, and to be frank, the storyline and characters border on the generic in my experiences so far, but the in-game engine and gameplay challenges are much more interesting.