Shonen Jump’s One Piece is basically One Piece’s answer to Dragon Ball’s Advanced Adventure. Both games are from Dimps Corporation and it shows in the amount of work that went into the games. Shonen Jump’s One Piece didn’t have as much content nor depth as Advanced Adventure, but you can see the same amount of polish in both visuals and gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, the game puts you in control of Luffy and you go from one side of the screen to the other while fighting pirates, marines, fishmen, and other random cannon fodder (like dogs.) The enemies come in different flavors – there are long range types and melee types. The variety in enemy types isn’t enough to drool over but they’re varied enough to require different approaches to combat. The game isn't punishingly difficult but you’re not going to blindly mash buttons while pushing the forward button in here. The game also has end level bosses that are based on enemies Luffy has faced in the anime and manga. The bosses, as expected, require different strategies to beat and scale in difficulty as you progress through the game.
The controls are responsive and Luffy has a wide variety of moves at his disposal, although most of them have to be unlocked throughout the course of the game by accumulating bounties (basically the game’s score.) Luffy can sprint, punch using his stretchable extremities, slingshot himself through poles, and launch impressive super attacks if the bar at the bottom isn’t empty (it fills up gradually as you defeat enemies.) Additionally, the bar at the bottom also allows you to summon Luffy’s crewmembers for help. Upon summoning, the crewmember (which could be either Zolo, Sanji, Nami, or Usopp) will launch an offensive attack or a support move. However, none of the crewmembers are available upon your initial play – you have to unlock the supports first by finding them throughout the stages. They’re not hidden or anything so unlocking them is simply a matter of playing normally and coming across the characters.
As for extra content, you start the game with only Story mode available alongside Options and Collection. Story mode lets you replay the levels once you’ve finished them once while Collection lets you view the items you have collected along the way. Once you finish the game once, you gain access to the Mini-Games section. The Mini-Games section has Ship Battle, which lets you fight either generic pirates, generic marines, or the fishmen. If you manage to collect all the coins in the game, the Mini-Game section will also have the Boss Rush, which lets you replay the boss battles at varying difficulties.
All in all, Shonen Jump’s One Piece stands out as one of the better sidescrolling beat ‘em ups on the Gameboy Advance. It could have used more content (particularly a VS. Mode like the one present on Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure,) but even in its current state, the game is still enjoyable enough that it’s easy to recommend it to any GBA owner even if they’re not familiar with One Piece.
