Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

Genre: Compilation / Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

I feel like I need to start this review upfront with the elephant in the room, because it dominates every conversation about this release. When Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition released in 2021 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch (with a PC port coming in 2023), it was notoriously an absolute disaster. Nasty performance issues on every platform, laughable issues caused by sloppy AI upscaling, and just an overall lack of polish made a laughingstock out of what should have been an absolute triumph of a remastered game Compilation. Critics and fans alike universally trashed this release as a rushed cash grab, a claim that seemed to be further justified by publisher Rockstar removing older versions of these games from digital storefronts.

However, I find myself in the unusual situation of reviewing these games in 2025, and a lot has changed. More specifically, Rockstar released a patch that has addressed the most significant issues plaguing this release. And I’ll say right now, in my playthroughs of these games, any performance issues I noticed on Nintendo Switch were negligible. I’ll get to those in a bit, but I want to make this clear right from the start – Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition as it exists in 2025 is, in my opinion, what I believe many were hoping they would be getting when this game released in 2021.

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A Grand New Era

When Grand Theft Auto III released on PlayStation 2 in 2001, it took the world by storm. While the earlier Grand Theft Auto games were moderately successful, Grand Theft Auto III was far more ambitious, bringing the series into full 3D rather than the Top-Down gameplay of the prior games. In doing so, this became something much greater, an Open-World Action-RPG where players could explore a massive city, and make it their playground.

Of course, this was very much an adults-only playground. While it didn’t feature any actual nudity, or any visceral violence on the same level as the Mortal Kombat franchise, the world of Grand Theft Auto is one filled with mob violence, gangs, drugs, strip clubs, hookers, foul language… in many ways, this was like a Martin Scorsese film in videogame form. And naturally, this didn’t sit well with some politicians and parent groups.

However, beyond the sleaze and scumminess of Grand Theft Auto’s world, there’s also quite a lot of satire. Many of the characters you encounter are absurd caricatures, and even passersby on the streets mutter brief utterances mocking the archetype they’re modeled after, like aforementioned prostitutes randomly spouting “I’ve got an itch”, and a stereotypical gay man’s lines being pulled directly from The Village People’s song lyrics. The in-game radio stations that play licensed songs even include one station that is entirely talk radio, with the host, guests, and callers all ridiculous caricatures of petty and small-minded people living in a world where life is cheap.

In addition to the licensed music, there was also a good amount of voice acting throughout the game, including some name talent like Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, and Frank Vincent, actors who already had experience working in mobster films – perhaps standard today, but at the time this was pretty impressive.

Going back to Grand Theft Auto III today, it has aged pretty noticeably. While at the time it seemed like an incredible, detailed world to explore, now it seems somewhat barren of things to do compared to its later sequels and modern games inspired by the Grand Theft Auto franchise. You can only save one vehicle? And only live in one location? And there aren’t any minigames? And there are only a few missions you can take on at any given time? Keep in mind that at the time this was revolutionary and would go on to influence countless other games that would follow in its footsteps, but by today’s standards, Grand Theft Auto III seems kinda’… quaint.

Still, it’s enjoyable to play, even if it would be far surpassed by what was to follow…

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A New Vice

When Grand Theft Auto: Vice City released on PlayStation 2 in 2002, just a year after Grand Theft Auto III, it was a surprisingly huge step beyond its already-massive predecessor. Most noticeable from the start was that this game received a huge infusion of personality. Players were no longer some nameless goon working his way up the mob, they were now Tommy Vercetti, sent by the mob to start a new empire in the Miami-esque town of Vice City, only to get double-crossed and now tracking down the ones responsible. Vice City itself was a neon-filled paradise next to Grand Theft Auto III’s somewhat plain-looking New York City/Chicago amalgamation, Liberty City, with this game inspired by TV shows and films like Miami Vice and Scarface. And where Grand Theft Auto III was a vaguely contemporary game, Vice City was firmly set in the 1980s, with everything from the outfits to the art style to the music on the in-game radio stations reflecting this.

With the expanded personality came an expanded voice cast budget, with this game’s voiced roles including Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds, Danny Trejo, and Jenna Jameson (yes, that Jenna Jameson). Liotta himself voices Tommy, and his performance as a forceful, headstrong character is worlds apart from the quiet blank slate from the previous game.

It’s not just the personality that’s expanded in Vice City, though. In addition to a larger Open World, this game also brought a much wider variety of vehicles to explore it with, including motorcycles and mopeds, helicopters and planes (the original Grand Theft Auto III had The Dodo, a vehicle that barely qualifies as a plane). There are a greater variety of weapons, the ability to change outfits, and you now had the opportunity to invest in businesses to ensure a regular influx of cash, really fitting the game’s theme of growing a business empire.

There are also more subtle changes. Vice City is just more fun to explore and move around in than Liberty City was, with more variety in its locales and more ways to get from one place to another. Vice City has actual facial movement and hand articulation, where the original game’s characters were all stone-faced, even when talking. There are more elaborate damage systems for vehicles…

In short, while the gameplay at its core remained largely the same, Vice City represented a huge evolution of what Grand Theft Auto III presented players with only a year before.

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California Dreamin’

The final entry in “the Grand Theft Auto III Trilogy” of games released in 2004, and once again expanded on what people could expect from a Grand Theft Auto game and shifted its focus to a new location, with this game set in the 1990s in San Andreas, a massive area containing three cities: Los Santos (this game’s version of Los Angeles), San Fierro (a take on San Francisco), and Las Venturas (a take on Las Vegas), along with the outlying regions around them, with many claiming that while previous Grand Theft Auto games had players driving around an entire city, San Andreas contained an entire state.

Another change is that while previous games in the series focused on organized crime mobs, San Andreas’ story and themes shifted to focus on gang violence, with films that inspired this game including Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society, with a strong focus on police corruption, with the game’s events mirroring the real-life gang wars between the Bloods and Crips, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the Los Angeles Rampart police corruption scandal. Given this serious topic matter, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas feels at times darker and more grounded than its predecessors.

This game has players taking the role of Carl “CJ” Johnson, a young man returning home from out of state after learning his mother has been killed. It’s not long after arriving back before he’s confronted by the corrupt police, who threaten to frame him for the murder of a cop unless he takes on dirty work for them. Meanwhile, CJ’s old friends and gang members have been under siege by one of the other local gangs threatening his neighborhood. Over the course of the game, CJ takes it upon himself to take back control of the neighborhood and confront the forces threatening his crew.

When it came to voicework in this game, Rockstar went with an unknown, Young Maylay, for the lead, and instead went for celebrity talent in supporting roles, including Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, The Game, and Ice-T, with multiple rappers voicing roles in the game. Needless to say, this definitely gives San Andreas a different tone than the prior two games.

Of course, it’s not just the story and size of the map that changed in San Andreas. This game introduced yet even more vehicles, including bicycles. There are now character stats that can be built up over the game, a hunger system that requires players to occasionally eat (but not eat too much, or they’ll get overweight). Players can now climb and swim (getting into water in previous games would instantly cause your character to become “wasted” and wind up in a hospital). There’s also a much wider range of character customization, including hairstyles.

These changes weren’t for everyone – the more grounded tone of the game and attempt towards something somewhat more realistic weren’t to everyone’s liking. However, at the same time these changes and the more character-focused story have made San Andreas a game that is to this day still the favorite in the series for many.

Before moving on, I should probably mention the Hot Coffee controversy, overblown as it was. In its original release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas contained code within the game of a minigame that was inaccessible to normal players, but players who modded the game could access it. This minigame included fully-clothed sex between two of the game’s characters. Again, through normal play there was no way to access this minigame, and it featured no nudity, yet its discovery set off an absurd level of outrage, a class-action lawsuit, an FTC warning, and an ESRB fine of $1 million.

All of this over an inaccessible minigame where two characters have consensual sex… in a franchise infamous for players being able to hire a prostitute to regain health, and then beat her to death to get your money back.

Amusingly, Rockstar accidentally included this code in the game again in the initial release of this collection, although it has since been removed again. As if this whole thing wasn’t absurd enough already.

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The Definitive Edition?

I think it’s fair to say that this is a trio of legendary games. And while they’ve aged a lot (especially Grand Theft Auto III), and are nowhere near as impressive as the series’ more recent entries, they’re still a blast to play today. But then the question becomes, how well are they represented in this remaster?

Well, if I was answering that question closer to this bundle’s original release, I’m sure the answer would have been “horribly”, but as of right now, they’re… decent. Make no mistake, the character models are still dated and chunky (especially in Grand Theft Auto III), the animations can be clunky, level geometry can still be a bit blocky. I also noticed a fair amount of aliasing and a lot of pop-in. There’s also this odd visual distortion around anything moving. However, the resolution and framerate are certainly better than they were on their original platform (though still nowhere near anything we’d see as respectable in a modern game), and the textures look much nicer now. These are a trio of ugly games that have been cleaned up some, but still look quite ugly.

There are also now a wealth of new gameplay and display options, and on Nintendo Switch specifically there’s plenty of options to enable gyroscopic motion control, as well as HD rumble.

And now it’s time for me to finally say what may well get plenty of people writing angry comments in response – Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is a decent remaster of three incredible games. It may not have started out that way, but at this point I think these versions of the games are acceptable, and while the graphics are still pretty sub-par by today’s standards, the biggest complaints I have in regards to these games is actually due to the source material – the games themselves simply cannot compare to the likes of Grand Theft Auto V. However, this is offset by how much value is in this package, as it contains all three games. That is a ton of gameplay in one package. If you’re looking for classic Grand Theft Auto on Nintendo Switch, and don’t mind how dated these games are, I think you’ll be more than satisfied with this package.

tl;dr – Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition may have released in a disastrous state, but thanks to post-launch patches it has since become a decent remaster of a trio of phenomenal games, to the point where I would say the worst issue with this bundle is how dated these games are next to more modern Open-World Action-RPGs like Grand Theft Auto V. Those complaints aside, I would definitely say that this Compilation of legendary games is well worth getting on Nintendo Switch.

Grade: A-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

Genre: Compilation / Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

It has now been four years since Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy- Definitive Edition first released, and post-launch patches have greatly improved the game, but it’s still pretty rough on Nintendo Switch, especially compared to other platforms. And I’ll let you know now, that hasn’t changed much when playing this version of the game on Nintendo Switch 2.

I’ve seen elsewhere claims that this game is smoother on Nintendo Switch 2, with framerate improvements, but whether or not that’s true, I can’t say I noticed much of a difference when playing the game on Nintendo’s new hardware. However, there has been one very noticeable improvement: loading times.

The Nintendo Switch 2 improves all loading times on all three games, but the most dramatic difference I noticed was the time it takes to load up a saved game. On the original Nintendo Switch, the loading times for me were 28 seconds in Grand Theft Auto III, 14 in Vice City, and 31 in San Andreas. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times were reduced to 8, 5, and 8.

It’s a pretty massive difference, though of course in the grand scheme of thing it would have been nicer if the Nintendo Switch 2 could have affected the visuals of the game overall in a similarly drastic way. This is still an improvement over playing the game on Nintendo Switch, but don’t expect anything close to the version on other modern platforms like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

tl;dr – Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition may have released in a disastrous state, but thanks to post-launch patches it has since become a decent remaster of a trio of phenomenal games, to the point where I would say the worst issue with this bundle is how dated these games are next to more modern Open-World Action-RPGs like Grand Theft Auto V. Those complaints aside, I would definitely say that this Compilation of legendary games is well worth getting on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

Grade: A-

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