Duel Masters: Shadow of the Code is one of those GBA card battlers that flew under the radar but actually holds up surprisingly well. It's got that early 2000s TCG vibe—think simpler rules than modern card games, but still enough depth to make deck-building interesting. You start off with a basic fire/water deck, and within a few matches you're already digging through booster packs for those sweet civilization-specific combos.

The AI isn't pushover-level easy either—I remember getting wrecked a few times by the CPU's light/darkness decks until I figured out how to counter their removal spells. The pixel art for the creatures is charmingly chunky, and there's something satisfying about the way the GBA's sound chip handles the attack animations. Not gonna lie, the story mode is barebones (typical "rise through the ranks" stuff), but the core gameplay loop still hooks you if you're into old-school card battlers.

Definitely a solid pick if you miss the days when TCG adaptations didn't need constant updates to stay fun.