Remember the original Grand Theft Auto games on PC? Remember how the quaint top-down visuals somehow made the psychotic violence all the more shocking, like seeing Mario pull a shotgun on Luigi? Mobile developer Tag Games does, because Car Jack Streets is old skool GTA on a mobile handset. And actually Tag don't just remember GTA 1 and 2, they were there – the company's founders were mission designers at DMA Design, quitting during the 3D renaissance of the series. So this is authentic stuff – unlike the gamut of similar mini-GTA wannabes that have troubled the mobile sector over the past three or four years.

Here's a YouTube trailer to set the scene...

The narrative premise is simple: you're an inveterate gambler in debt to mafia hardnut, Frankie, to the tune of one million dollars. He wants his money back in daily installments and the only way you're going to get it is – ta da – by carrying out various missions for the city's criminal fraternity. One day that'll mean driving the getaway car at a bank job, the next it'll be hosing a rival gang with bullets or gatecrashing a major drug deal. And as usual, you can jack any passing vehicle you fancy from sports cars to buses and family saloons. There are only about five or six different vehicle types in the game, but you get used to it, and it sort of adds to the miniaturised charm.

At the start of the game, you pick up a GPS device that guides you to each mission location via a teeny red arrow. This is sort of where things start going pear-shaped. There's no map display for proper route planning, and the section of road visible onscreen is pretty limited, so you'll often find yourself accelerating down dead ends. Controls are tricky too, especially in reverse, and the collision detection is horribly unforgiving so mission after mission will time out as you struggle with basic navigation and interface issues. Not a good game design feature.

The roads are also incredibly narrow, allowing little margin for error when bombing from one mission to the next. And of course, with every squished pedestrian your criminal-o-meter rises, so you'll have cop cars whizzing after you, adding yet more pressure. It took me a whole flight from London to Rome to complete just one successful mission – and that was delivering a pizza. Yep, between criminal jobs it's possible to earn an honest wage driving busses and taxis and making deliveries. It's not thrilling, but hey, at least it doesn't involve you having to get out of the car and shoot at indiscriminate sprites that may or may not represent gangster enemies, passing pedestrian, police officers or the people you're meant to be protecting.

There is one brilliant feature though. The game ties in with your real phone clock, so if you're given a mission that starts at 7pm, that means the real 7pm – if you're in an important meeting, or getting married, you'll need to make your excuses and leave. The visuals are also quite stylish, with lots of neat little features like the ability to knock fire hydrants over so they spray water everywhere, or to leave skid marks on pristine lawns.

Car Jack Streets is an intermittently entertaining game, managing to produce the odd flash of true GTA anarchy, despite a control system that could reduce a saint to foul-mouthed frustration in less than ten minutes. It's interesting for its DMA/Rockstar heritage, especially to fans of the original Grand Theft Auto titles, but it's a little too flawed in execution to capture the imagination of occasional mobile gamers.

Published by I-Play. Available now.