The Wii Version Will Come With a WiiBong and WiiSyringe

Oh, look: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has “reignited” the debate about violent videogames. What a surprise. Last time GTA and its publisher, Rockstar Games, sparked this kind of outrage was over “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and the infamous “Hot Coffee mod”–a patch that unlocked an explicit but anatomically improbable sex scene between the game’s protagonists.

This time the outcry is over the Nintendo DS-bound Chinatown Wars and its drug-dealing minigame, which offers players the chance to try their hand at a little narcotics trafficking. “We wanted to have a drug-dealing minigame in lots of the GTA games,” said Rockstar vice president Dan Houser. “We played with it a little in ‘Vice City Stories,’ because it worked really well juxtaposed with the main story. It works well with what GTA is, with driving around the map, and it gives you another thing to think about–another layer or piece of the puzzle to keep you motivated.”

And another layer to add to the GTA marketing campaign, which clearly thrives on controversy.