Dragon Ball - Advance Adventure is one of those GBA gems that actually makes the old-school beat 'em up formula work. You start off as kid Goku smashing through waves of enemies with his power pole, and before long you're flying through air battles or squaring off in one-on-one fights against bosses like Tao Pai Pai. The fighting feels surprisingly solid for a handheld game—landing a Kamehameha never gets old.

What’s cool is how it mixes things up—some levels are straight-up brawlers, others have you dodging bullets mid-air, and the boss fights play like a stripped-down fighting game. There’s a ton of characters to unlock (30 total if you count all modes), though the story mode itself is pretty short at 16 levels. They took some liberties with the plot, but honestly, it’s fun seeing the early Dragon Ball arcs condensed like this.

Oh, and the treasure hunting? Actually worth it. Finding Dragon Balls or items that teach you new moves (or boost stats) gives you a reason to replay levels. Even if you’re not big on Dragon Ball, the gameplay holds up way better than most licensed GBA titles. Definitely a hidden pick for fans of action games.