GTA Advance is a broken mess but playing it before GTA 6 might be the best thing you do

by LSPDfanJul 24, 2026, 05:55 PM1 views0 replies
L
LSPDfan
Jul 24, 2026, 05:55 PM

I finally dug out my old GBA and a copy of GTA Advance last weekend. I knew it had a bad rep but I wasn't ready for how rough it actually is. This thing makes the original top-down GTAs look like technical marvels.

Rockstar dropped it on the exact same day as San Andreas. Imagine that. While everyone was losing their minds over CJ and the Grove, some poor soul at Rockstar Leeds was shipping this 10 FPS disaster. It's technically part of the 3D universe too, which is hilarious when you see it in action. The game plays like a bootleg GTA 1 with none of the charm.

People always defend it with "the GBA couldn't handle more" but that's nonsense. The GBA ran Mario 64 without a dedicated graphics chip. This game just wasn't optimized. It's also stupidly hard, like unfair hard. I died more times in the first hour than I did in my last full playthrough of San Andreas.

But here's the thing. After suffering through it for a few hours, I started thinking about GTA 6. About how far we've come. From a choppy top-down mess on a handheld to whatever insane detail Rockstar is cooking up for Leonida. The weather systems, the NPC routines, the sheer scale. Playing the worst entry in the series right before the new one drops might actually be the perfect palate cleanser. It's like eating a gas station hot dog before a steak dinner. You'll appreciate every little thing in GTA 6 that much more.

So yeah, it's a terrible game. But if you can stomach it, give it a shot. Just don't expect to have fun.

Source: r/GTA6 · Curated content.