Driv3r: 2005
Developer: Velez & Dubail
Genre: Racing

As the other games in the series before it, Driv3r also received an adaptation to a handheld platform. Driv3r for the Game Boy Advance adapts the story of the console version (changing many of the details), but presents its own level and mission design in a graphics engine adapted to the handheld’s capabilities.

As in the original, the player controls series protagonist Tanner, who infiltrates the South Beach gang, a group of car thieves based in Miami. The story is mainly told through cutscenes that employ stills from the rendered scenes of the original, with dialogue adapted to any changes in story. While the original moved through three cities, the city of Istanbul is missing in the GBA version: only Miami and Nice remain.

Gameplay is mission-based as in the original, with 25 missions in total (12 in Miami, 13 in Nice). Goals include chasing cars, getting to a certain location within a time limit, protecting another character, evading police, taking part in shootouts, and much more. Many missions consist of multiple objectives that have to be accomplished. Between missions, the two cities can be freely explored, and several secrets and some extra challenges be found, including four different driving mini-games: Trailblazer (following a trail of traffic cones), Destruction (driving over a number of crates), Slalom (navigating between gates) and Checkpoint (racing between different points on the map).

The graphics engine is similar to the one used in developer Velez & Dubail’s earlier GBA titles like V-Rally 3 and Stuntman, with the environment modeled in texture-mapped 3D and cars and characters as sprites.