Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors

Dragonball Z: Supersonic Warriors gives you control of one of the many Z warriors or the series’ villains (from Vegeta to Buu) and lets you duke it out with another fighter on a wide open area. Unlike traditional fighting games where you can walk, dash, and jump, this game lets you float and dash in any direction. Mobility may be limited at first due to the floatyness of the controls, but you’ll be able to fight much better once you learn how to use the ki dash in order to speed up your moves.

When it comes to fighting, you have a light and heavy attack. The R button charges your ki, and pressing any of the attack buttons while charging will let you do either a heavy or light ki blast, depending on which attack button you pressed. Pressing both attack buttons while holding the R button will let you do a super, the type and direction of which will depend on where you are relative to the opponent.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Assault (Gameboy Advance)

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Assault is a 2D fighting game that pits various Gundams and pilots against each other in 1 on 1 bouts. The game is technically a handheld installment of the Battle Assault series of games from the Playstation, with the main difference being that the available Gundams are limited to the ones found on the Gundam Seed franchise. Basically, it’s more of a spiritual successor to the Super Famicom’s Gundam Wing: Endless Duel, with a number of improvements.

For starters, there’s more play modes available: there’s a story mode, a VS. mode, an Arcade mode, a survival mode, a time trial mode, and even a practice mode. The combat is also faster and more novice-friendly due to the presence of an auto mode (where the input commands for specials and supers are simplified.) However, the biggest change is in the mechanics – first is that Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Assault now allows you to customize your gundam before the start of a fight, allowing you to balance the distribution of energy in order to prioritize HP, thrusters, or PS armor. Speaking of PS armor, the second change is that the mobile suits now have breakable armors. If you sustain enough hits, the armor breaks and you are left weaker (not to mention less fun to look at.)

If you are a big fan of Gundam Seed and you liked Gundam Wing: Endless Duel on the Super Famicom, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Assault should be right up your alley. It’s not as deep a fighter and the visuals aren’t that polished (it looks washed out and pixilated even on the Gameboy Advance’s small screen,) but it’s still a good handheld fighter and it occupies a specific genre niche on the GBA. Should be good for short bursts of mecha fighting action.

Shonen Jump’s One Piece (Gameboy Advance)

Shonen Jump’s One Piece is a sidescrolling beat ‘em up for the Gameboy Advance, based on Eiichiro Oda’s long-running pirate themed manga/anime series. The game is exclusive to the North American market, which is kind of odd considering that most anime-based games are released in Japan first and localized later (if at all.)

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.

Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2 (Gameboy Advance)

Back in 2002, Webfoot Technologies released Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku on the Gameboy Advance. It was an attempt to marry the Dragon Ball Z license with the action RPG genre. Unfortunately, the dialogue was awkward and the combat was clunky and unsatisfying. The game ended up being a disappointment for fans of the Dragon Ball franchise and fans of the action RPG genre.

Rather than give up, Webfoot technologies tried again after a year by releasing a sequel, Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2 , and it’s a good thing they did because not only is it a significant improvement over Legacy of Goku, it also stands as one of the better examples of the action RPG genre on the Gameboy Advance.

Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku 2’s story picks up where the first one left off: at the start of the Cell Saga, putting you in control of a pre-teen Mirai Trunks as he watches his timeline’s Gohan die at the hands of the Androids. Then you gain control of young Gohan in the present timeline for the obligatory tutorial. Thankfully, the tutorial is short and you soon find yourself thrust into the story proper – with Cyborg Frieza and King Cold’s arrival and their defeat at the hands of a now adult Mirai Trunks. From thereon, you play through the game while being given control of various characters, all the way to the Cell Games story arc.

Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu (Gameboy Advance)

I’m going to break form a little bit in here. I’m not going to waste any more words building things up only to tell you this one simple truth: Dragonball Z Taiketsu for the Gameboy Advance is a really crappy game with no redeeming value whatsoever. Even if you’re a very big fan of the franchise and only have a Gameboy Advance to your name, there are better Dragon Ball games for your device and your money is much better spent buying those.

Dragonball Advanced Adventure (GBA)

Dragonball Advanced Adventure is a 2D side-scrolling action game for the Gameboy Advance that is based on the exploits of the series’ protagonist, Son Goku, when he was still a young boy. It follows the events since the start of the anime all the way to Goku’s first defeat of King Piccolo – along the way he’ll meet Bulma, Krillin, Oolong, Yamcha, Tienshinhan, Puar, Hermit Turtle – and fight against the Red Ribbon Army, Pilaf, and the aforementioned Piccolo.

Advanced Adventure is easily one of the best games you’ll find on the Gameboy Advance (it’s probably right up there with Astro Boy: Omega Factor) even if you don’t like anime games. Both presentation and execution are top notch, and it’s got extra game content up the wazoo.

Visually, Dragonball Advanced Adventure takes its cue from the anime, and does a good job with it, at least as far as the Gameboy Hardware can offer. The colors are bright and crisp, and the sprites are well-detailed. The sounds are well-done, with the intro theme perfectly mimic-ing the show’s intro, while the voices are spot-on for the characters.

Gameplay, as mentioned above, is 2D sidescrolling action. Goku can walk, run, block, jump, and punch, but also has access to a variety of special attacks such as his trademark Kame Hame Wave and his power pole, which has the power to extend all the way to the moon if the user wills it, but only manages to reach across the screen for this game. Advanced Adventure also has shades of MetroidVania, as paths can branch and some destinations can be reached through different paths. However, the player is not required to stick to one path and those who have no patience for exploration can take the shortest path – the game knows that it’s a beat ‘em up and doesn’t try to force you into playing a different game, except for those stages where you have to play a SHMUP.

The enemies in the game are varied, but not varied enough to not require palette swaps. Thankfully, the pace moves fast enough and you are not forced to kill enemies except in some cases, so if you find yourself getting bored hitting the same dog-guy over and over, you can choose to jump over his head and skip the fight. Or heck, you can bust out one of the two screen-filling supermoves to clear everything.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Gameboy Advance)

Astro Boy: Omega Factor is not just one of the best anime games, but also one of the best video games you’ll ever play regardless of system. Even if you’re not familiar with Osamu Tezuka’s iconic manga/anime franchise about the little boy robot, Omega Factor is still going to be a hell of a lot of fun to play.

History 

For the uninitiated, Astro Boy (or Tetsuwan Atom, as it is called in Japan) focuses on a fictional future in which robots co-exist with humans not as servants or workers, but as equals. The titular Astro is a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science Doctor Tenma based on the image of his son Tobio, who died in a car accident. Astro’s adventure starts when Doctor Tenma sells him to a cruel circus owner, after being disappointed that the robot cannot replace his son (mainly because the robot cannot grow old nor express human feelings.)