Legendz on the GBA is one of those weird little gems that never got enough love. You start off stranded on this island where ancient creatures—some cute, some terrifying—come to life through these special wind-up toys. The whole thing feels like Pokémon meets Shadow of the Colossus, but with a toy-collecting twist.

At first, I thought it was just another monster battler, but the way you actually wind up your creatures before fights gives it this weirdly satisfying physicality. And the island? Packed with secrets—hidden caves, puzzles, even rival tamers lurking in the tall grass. The sprites are chunky in that classic GBA way, but the monster designs? Absolute fire. Some of them look like they crawled out of a Studio Ghibli sketchbook.

Fair warning, though: the difficulty spikes out of nowhere sometimes. You’ll be cruising along, then bam—some overleveled jerk with a dragon ruins your day. Still, there’s something addictive about grinding for parts to build stronger Legendz. It’s the kind of game you play in bed at 2 AM, telling yourself “just one more dungeon” until your GBA batteries die.