Chinatown Wars came across as a token effort
Ian, you said yourself you weren't interested in it just because it was on the DS so I take that to mean you never even played it, so with all due respect you are speaking about something you don't know anything about. I can assure you it was not a "token effort". Chinatown Wars is (or at least was at the time it was released) the largest DS game ever made. The huge map of Liberty City is there. It really pushed the envelope of what the DS hardware was capable of.
Did it have as good graphics as GTA IV on the PS360? No, it didn't. But there was no possible way it could because the hardware couldn't do it, but Rockstar did the best they could, and if you can get past the graphics and lack of voice overs, it really is a good game with a decent story. I have read customer reviews of the game on amazon and there were a lot of people who couldn't get past the graphics and bashed the game solely for that reason. Maybe you are one of them, and if so you probably should avoid the game, but if you can look past that and if you are a GTA fan then you seriously should give the game a chance. I'm sure you can pick it up for cheap these days.
He should have gotten a Wii GTA game made
It would have been pretty much the same thing. The Wii is capable of better graphics than the DS, but it still would have been inferior to the PS360 version. There is also the matter of the controls, which you would probably complain about.
Ian, have you ever played the Godfather on the Wii? That's probably the best sandbox game available for the Wii. Its not GTA, but hell maybe its even better than GTA.