Surely not. Surely not even Rockstar, which hasn't made a bad game yet, could successfully transfer the Grand Theft Auto series to a hand-held console.
It seems the most incongruous of relationships.
The Nintendo DS is a family-friendly, cutesy flip-top gaming machine; Grand Theft Auto is an intense, violent gaming series populated by pimps, prostitutes and perps.
But my scepticism turned to wonderment within about five minutes of playing Chinatown Wars, the newest and most radical addition to the long-running and controversial GTA series.
The bold move to try a hand-held version of the game follows last year's extremely popular, if slightly overblown, GTA IV on the Xbox 360.
That followed the familiar format of GTA games - walk and drive around the city, engage in ultraviolent confrontations, watch engagingly funny cutscenes, and choose to complete chapters of the story or do side missions.
Clearly, the level of gameplay and graphics in that game was never going to fly on the DS, which has small screens and a fraction of the processing power.
This is where game designers really earn their cash.
Rockstar's boffins looked at what they had to work with and decided to squeeze every drop of capability out of the DS.
What have they come up with? Only one of the best hand-held games I've ever seen.
Gone are the traditional GTA third-person views and the extensive gameplay options, obviously.
But in their place are features that make this an addictive experience.
Chinatown Wars has you playing Huang Lee, a product of a Chinese gangster family.
Huang is sort of a spoiled brat who returns to Liberty City following the murder of his father and is flung straight into some serious turf wars.
Like all GTA games, you get to choose between delving into full missions and pottering away on minor business.
In the case of Chinatown Wars, the side quests revolve around drugs.
Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, ecstasy - a pharmaceutical smorgasbord.
You have to seek out dealers around the city, buy as low as you can and then pass on to other dealers for as high a price as possible.
This is all very appalling, of course, and must not get into the hands of impressionable youngsters.
But I can't believe how much fun it is.
You don't even think about the fact that you're dealing hard drugs.
It becomes a simple but amazingly enjoyable side-game in economics.
The split-screen DS set-up works well, with the top screen a top-down view of the action and the bottom (the touch screen) used for accessing menus and participating in fun little things, like hot-wiring cars.
Compensating for the lack of power, the game features comic stills and text dialogue, which you might think is a big step down but really makes little difference.
Everything just works perfectly.
GTA: Chinatown Wars is a brilliant achievement, a spankingly good addition to the series and the one major reason you should own a DS.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Rockstar
Nintendo DS
Five stars out of five
