# Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

33 Hacker News commenters recommended Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its nostalgic 1980s setting, strong soundtrack, and how well this browser port runs on phones and laptops. Critics say on-screen controls are clumsy and some missions are frustrating.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs smoothly in browser (9 comments): "This works amazing well. I started playing and just 5 minutes in, I was completely hooked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330313)) "Feels pretty smooth on my phone for something that's running in the browser." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330398)) "Performance is remarkably stable for a game running in a browser." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46312443))
- Nostalgic childhood memories (3 comments): "Brought back the summers of my childhood where I mindlessly roamed around the Vice City" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330237)) "play it every time feel depressed to be recovered by warm childhood memories" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48293432)) "Vice City will always be my favorite" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46941144))
- Impressive browser port (4 comments): "The physics of the car tires in vice city by themselves outweigh 99% of all apps in terms of complexity and features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49674879)) "Incredible that they put out such a great game in so little time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46331527)) "this is one of the most impressive thing i've see on HN" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330442))

## What people warn about

- Clunky on-screen controls (2 comments): "It runs well, but the on-screen controls are, well, on-screen controls." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46331111)) "The shooting controls were abysmal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46940836))
- Missions frustrating to retry (2 comments): "There was this one fucking mission in GTA VC where you had to fly a toy aircraft but controls were fucked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49512728)) "having to retry several missions multiple times" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474918))
- Missing licensed songs and bugs (2 comments): "Grand Theft Auto games are known for dropping songs from the soundtrack due to licensing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48749460)) "Saw some funny bugs I don't remember from the original, but it looks a lot better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46330604))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Last Ninja](https://hackerapproved.com/p/last-ninja.md): 13 recommend
- [Max Payne](https://hackerapproved.com/p/max-payne.md): 11 recommend
- [Contra (NES)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/contra.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City", https://hackerapproved.com/p/grand-theft-auto-vice-city/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).