Eiichiro Oda's manga and anime One Piece is one of the most, if NOT the most, successful franchises of all time. Following the story of Straw Hat Pirate captain Monkey D. Luffy, who seeks to become the king of the pirates, the One Piece manga has sold over half a billion copies worldwide and is considered a national treasure in Japan. With its blend of humor, heart-felt and complex characters, and sense of a grand adventure, One Piece has been one of my favorite anime titles, and I've delved back into it in recent years.

It's also seen success in the world of video games, and frankly, a lot of its early efforts have fared better than a good lot of the early Dragonball related titles (including the pile of room temperature piss that was Dragonball GT Final Bout), which were utter shit. Spanning over 56 games since 2000 have been developed, with 32 of them being released in the United States.

However, the US was "graced" with an exclusive One Piece game that has never seen a port anywhere else, based on the show's initial run under its 4KidsTV production (4Kids' treatment of anime in the late 90's and early-mid 2000's deserves its own treatment, but not here), simply titled One Piece for Nintendo's mighty little handheld, the Game Boy Advance.

Released in 2005 for the Game Boy Advance (I'm getting fancy and playing it on my Nintendo GameCube, via Game Boy Advance Player) and developed by Dimps Corporation, One Piece serves as a rather loose adaptation of the East Blue storylines. Serving as a side-scrolling brawler/platformer, you take control of Luffy, as you play through six different locations from each arc, taking you from Romance Dawn to Orange Town, Syrup Village, the Baratie, Arlong Park, finally ending in Loguetown. Like the show, you gain members of the Straw Hat Pirates for each location you clear, and each of them act as offensive and defensive assists for Luffy. 

Credit where it's due, as an abridged sum of the East Blue stories, One Piece does a pretty quality job at nailing some key moments, it's a part of what gives it some decent replay value. The sprite work is impressive, the characters may be a little super-deformed and squished, but they're pretty expressive and feel like they've leapt right off the television screen. It's one of the reasons the GBA remains a highly touted platform for me, the sprites and colors were a beautiful swan song of a then bygone era of what would signify retro games at the time. There's a little bit of occasional graphical clipping (I've ended up stuck on rocks and pieces of wood, but it otherwise runs smooth, boasting a great deal of animation. 

I do have a little bit of an issue with navigating where I'm going, as many of the areas can look similar. There are portions in the game that require you to drop down for some alternate routes or hidden passages to collect coins, and more than a handful of times I end up plummeting to my doom. There's no crouching feature, and you can't scroll the camera with the shoulder buttons, as they're mapped for other functions, so you gotta play it often to get familiar with the layout of each location.

As far as the controls, it feels a little stiff and out of control. I suppose that's probably appropriate for a character like Luffy. Powered by the Gum Gum Fruit, Luffy can perform his signature attacks such as his Gomu Gomu Pistol, Gatling, Rocket (used by pressing R, used to propel Luffy with the aid of poles and posts), Gum Gum Bazooka, Spear, and War Axe. Many of these moves have a delay and recovery time, though it feels like Luffy is stuck in cement after execution. There's quite a few frames of animation for the wind-up times, meaning some are a little risky to use. Jumping is awkward as hell, Luffy garners absolutely no momentum, and letting go of the direction you're holding makes him come to a complete stop in mid air. Meanwhile, on the ground, Luffy controls like he's either sticking halfway in cement, or when running feels like he's on roller skates. 

Sanji, Usopp, Nami, and Zoro can be found throughout the levels, and it costs a single power bar. Zoro (named "Zolo" in the original localization) slashes through all the enemies in range or launches a tornado attack. Usopp can temporarily stun an enemy with a rotten egg or clears enemies with an Exploding Star, Nami steals random assist/healing items or hits enemies on screen with a lightning bolt, and Sanji will either heal you with a fresh-cooked roast or flatten enemies with a series of punishing kicks.

It doesn't take much to build meter to launch these, but a caveat is it feels inconsistent on where the enemies are placed in order to trigger them. For instance, if a boss is jumping, there's a chance that Zoro's strike, which travels across the ground, will miss completely. Same with Nami's theft. It's completely random what she'll steal, but when I feel I need a bomb to knock a foe off of me, or looking to replenish even a little bit of health, her dash, which almost requires you to be right next to someone, will completely whiff, wasting the attack. It's easy enough to replenish, but can be very annoying. Still, these abilities are pretty useful, and can turn the tide of a battle. Midway through the game, it can get a little tough to try and muscle through. One Piece's controls are robust, Dimps gets a lot out of the GBA's functions. With it's inconsistent collision detection and spotty jumping, I feel it can be a little on the plain side. 

The game has a lot of appeal to it for fans of One Piece. It ends up feeling like there's a better game hidden beneath some of the clunky execution and plodding platforming. Many kills can be a touch cheap, as getting knocked in the water can be a common occurrence from one erratic bomb thrown by a pirate that's barely on screen. For an anime game around this time period, it's certainly better than most, and is just above feeling like a novelty cash-in. The challenge is respectable, I feel the ordinary mechanics may have a hard time holding one's attention, especially on a platform with better side-scrollers. It's cute and ambitious enough to give it a shot.