Besides the normal fighting and platforming, some levels have Goku riding on the Flying Nimbus while others have a simple but effective Fighting Game format. There's plenty of Unlockable Content as well, including pretty much every single enemy in the game as Secret Characters.

One year later, Dimps made a One Piece game for the GBA which serves as a Spiritual Successor to this one.

Tropes:

• 1-Up: Shaped like Goku and/or Krillin's head.
• Adapted Out: Despite the fact that this game covers nearly all of the original Dragon Ball story, it ignores the final 23rd Martial Arts Tournament arc, likely due to the fact that Goku physically grew into a teenager when the tournament began and that would require a change in sprites. Consequently, this means King Piccolo doesn’t create Piccolo Jr. when he is killed.
• Attack Deflector: In addition to being able to destroy or deflect bullets, Goku and Krillin can also deflect missiles and other explosives back at the enemy by hitting them with their midair upward kick. Only Goku can use his Up+B to deflect bullets, while only Krillin can use his grounded Up B to also deflect missiles.
• Auto-Pilot Tutorial: When the One-On-One is introduced during the story, the game overtakes the player character to demonstrate the new moves key to defeat the boss.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Goku is portrayed as a perfect beat 'em up character. His mobility, power and range are all top-notch. You can play as Krillin and many other characters in Extra mode, but the advantages they might offer over Goku come with glaring skillset limitations and a cumbersome way of just moving around. Yamcha, for example, has the powerful Wolf Fang Fist but can only move by making repeated short dashes. Drum can warp, but only about one foot, and that can screw you over when near bottomless pits.
  • Akuman's Devilmite Beam is an instant kill on any enemy except Goku, but takes awfully long to charge and the ki gauge is completely lost if the move is interrupted.
  • The fully-charged Kamehameha and other similar beam moves are powerful and cannot by interrupted by damage while active. However, enemies can hit you from behind for a very high amount of stacked damage if you're not careful.
• Balloon Belly: In One-On-One mode, Krillin can inflate himself to glide for an instant.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Combined with Heads I Win, Tails You Lose and Hopeless Boss Fight in two cases. When Goku fights Tao Pai Pai and King Piccolo for the first time, he's severely weakened and is supposed to lose. If you win, you lose control as the enemy stands up and knocks out a massively cutscene-incompetent Goku. At least you won't get a "You Lose" message. Against Jackie Chun and Tien, however, you're required to win, even though Goku lost those fights in the original story.
• Black Screen of Death: When Goku punches General White into the horizon, the scene fades out at the time of impact.
• Bonus Feature Failure: That most of the enemy cast is playable is a good, novel idea. But most of their movesets are very limited and not much fun to play.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: True to the original story, Buyon is invincible until you break the wall of his room to let the cold wind freeze him.
• Boss Rush: Bosses on Parade Mode is an unlockable gauntlet against every boss in the game, excluding the One-On-One fighters. The final enemy is a gray palette swap of Goku.
• Bottomless Pits: Watch you step so you don't fall into those, though it is possible to recover from some pits by wall-jumping between walls.
• Bowdlerize: Like the Funimation dub but unlike the European version, the American version changes Oolong's wish for "some girl's panties!" to "the world's most comfortable pair of underwear!"
• Break Meter: In One-On-One Mode, the fighters' Rush Gauge are depleted if they're unable to block or parry attacks. While it isn't empty, the characters have Super Armor and don't take damage, but once it is, the attacker is able to peform a full combo on the defenseless opponent.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The hidden hard mode of Small Fry Fight is the ultimate test of Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure that remained unknown for two decades since the game was released. Enemies come from all sides in combinations devilishly designed to slaughter the player for any mistake and to blindside them if they think they can just turtle away firing Kamehamehas! Several enemies in this ten minute-long gauntlet noticeably attack at a much faster rate, move in unique patterns or have several times more HP than usual, making even otherwise harmless things like the Red Ribbon aircrafts very menacing all of a sudden if they land a combo on the player. There's even an unique miniboss fight in Giran to cap things off, with him showing up backed up by minions shooting bullets all over the place.
• Charged Attack: Doable with Ki attacks by holding R. Power depends on how much the special gauge is filled and performing those attacks has no cost to it (In One-On-One Mode it does). While charging, characters become slower, but they can still attack normally to chain the Ki attack.
• Collection Sidequest: Many items are hidden around the levels, although most of them have no real purpose.
• Collision Damage: Subverted in a very fair way, running or walking into enemies does not hurt you. Stage hazards also damage enemies, which can make for some amusing Disaster Dominoes in certain levels.
• Combos: You better learn how to chain your attacks for when you fight the harder bosses. On the enemy side, many of their attacks have this effect, as Goku only gains invincibility frames when knocked down.
• Compressed Adaptation: Not as much as the One Piece game made after it, but not every scene from the manga is covered. Android 8 doesn't appear in the Muscle Tower level, for example.
• Coup de Grâce Cutscene: Goku's last attack on King Piccolo is depicted on a cutscene.
• Covers Always Lie: The North American box art has adult Goku in the background, despite not appearing in the game.
• Degraded Boss:
  • Right after you beat Major Metallitron at Muscle Tower and then on several different occasions, you can find more of him as a normal enemy although thankfully without his Last Ditch Move Rocket Punch.
  • Tambourine returns as a normal enemy, although now without the wings.
• Double Jump: Krillin and a few other characters can double jump, while Goku actually can't.
• Double Unlock: You can see the secret characters' cards in Extra Mode but you can't unlock them if you don't have all the Dragon Balls. In the Japanese version, you needed to input a button-press code in the title screen to be able to use them as well.
• Dual Boss: Pilaf Machine and Shu Machine on Pilaf's Castle. The five Murasaki Brothers on Muscle Tower.
• Easter Egg: If you start the Small Fry Fight minigame while holding L+R on the character select screen, it enables an alternate version of it that is a massive combat sequence with enemies that display behavior found nowhere else in the game. The game gives no clue that this exists, and the damn thing was first documented online in 2022 when it was found in a prototype, under the mistaken assumption that it was cut content.
• Extended Gameplay: Extra mode allows you to replay the levels and enter the red doors that were locked before, so you can find the rest of the collectibles. Also, extra characters are playable in it.
• Every 10,000 Points: You get the first extra life at 20,000 points, then at 50,000, then 100,000, and every 100,000 afterwards.
• Fighting Game: One-On-One Mode plays like a standard fighting game with simple mechanics.
• Flash Step: Doable in One-On-One Mode by pressing L after getting knocked down.
• Flunky Boss: Many sections in the hard mode of Small Fry Fight have respawning enemies assisting a Boss in Mook Clothing. Bomb-dropping dinosaurs and aircrafts are particularly dangerous because they are designed to fly in from the sides and punish you for going on the defensive and shooting Kamehamehas at the wrong time. This is something not seen in the main game aside from how Yamcha has Puar as an invincible helper who will drop bombs on Goku every so often.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • To figure out some of Goku's more advanced skills the player has to try out button combinations on their own or Read the Freaking Manual, as only the One-On-One mode has a tutorial.
  • Extra mode has a player select menu with only Goku and Krillin available by default. Icons of almost every enemy and boss are scattered around the mode, but initially appear to do nothing. What the game doesn't tell you is that you need to find the Dragon Balls in extra mode and beat Krillin's story mode to be able to actually use them.
    • The icons for Jackie Chun and Piccolo only appear in the Rock Crushing and Small Fry Fight minigames respectively, with a random probability of dropping.
  • In the Japanese version, a secret code had to be used on the title screen to actually enable the secret characters after collecting all Dragon Balls, similarly to Mega Man Battle Network 2 and the first Zatch Bell: Electric Arena.
  • The alternate version of Small Fry Fight can be enabled by simply holding L+R while selecting a character. However, there is no in-game clue that it exists and the code was seemingly never documented online even in Japanese sites until 2024, two years after this mode was first found in a prototype of the game. This is despite the game, like other GBA games of its time, having had a secret codes section on its Japanese website and a detailed guidebook exclusive to Japan.
• Heart Container: The Super Life Water items (with the Ultra Divine Water maxing it out). There are other variations for upgrading the Kamehameha and Goku's attack power (and by proxy the Power Pole's range and his Up+B's duration).
• Humongous Mecha: The boss robots used by Pilaf and the Red Ribbon Army.
• Immune to Flinching: Some attacks have this property.
• Indy Escape: Giant boulders make an appearance in Pilaf's Castle and Yajirobe's Prairie (mainly the Cave that holds the Super Kami Water).
• Invincibility Powerup: A turtle shell which makes Goku invincible and able to deal some Collision Damage to enemies.
• Kamehame Hadouken: It starts off weak and short ranged, but Goku can later charge it into it's blue screen-filling form. It's useful for damaging enemies from a safe distance, but some can run at Goku to prevent him from turtling too much.
• Launcher Move: Goku can launch grounded enemies high into the air with a kick activated by pressing Up+A+B, at which point he can jump in pursuit and pummel them before they hit the ground. Most characters in Extra Mode (but mainly Krillin) can also perform this with just an upward B command. In VS mode, using your forward B combo after depleting their Rush Gauge does this automatically.
• Last Ditch Move: After his first defeat, Major Metallitron shoots his hand at you while you're leaving the room.
• Ledge Bats: Bats and other enemy types sometimes serve this purpose.
• Limit Break: By pressing L, your character executes a strong attack that uses up some of the special gauge (main Goku and Krillin, as most of the extra characters use L to block). Goku can power his up by holding R to charge up their Ki first, allowing them to automatically follow up their attack with a Ki blast, the strength of which depends on its charge level before they used the Limit Break. In 1-on-1 fights, Goku, Jackie, Tien and Piccolo have a highly-damaging super move that can be performed by pressing L and R at the same time, they need a full Ki gauge and using it drains the bar completely.
• Marathon Level: Every single stage is rather long and filled with mandatory enemy encounters.
• Mercy Invincibility: You get some if you're knocked down.
• Mythology Gag: Because Krillin can't ride the Flying Nimbus due to not being pure of heart, he instead rides the Dark Nimbus (here translated as the "Black Nimbus") Korin gave Mercenary Tao in anime filler.
• Palette Swap: The color palette of enemies let's you know what kind of attacks they have. This is especially important for the red multi-legged robots, which explode for large amounts of damage when they die.
• Puzzle Boss: You can't hurt Buyon normally during his boss fight. You need to bust a hole open in the wall to let the freezing air outside blow in the room and freeze Buyon, where he is made vulnerable.
• One-Hit Kill: Akuman can kill almost any enemy in a single hit with his Devilmite Beam, including bosses, but it takes an entire maxed out Ki bar to perform, takes an eternity to charge and is easily interrupted. Just like in the original manga, only Goku as both a boss and playable character is completely immune to it.
• Shoot the Bullet: Punch the bullets to destroy them. You're even required to punch the Battle Jacket's big missile to avoid it's full screen damage range.
• Secret A.I. Moves: When fought as a boss, a few playable characters such as Goku and Krillin can dash like they do in Vs Mode. However, not much of their attacks are that much of a secret, but with several playable characters they're performed slightly different.
• Secret Character: Almost everyone you fight against in the game can be unlocked in Extra Mode. You can swap between characters anytime at the pause menu once they're available.
• Spikes of Doom: Which deal high damage — even to enemies.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: Up+B as Goku spins the Power Pole to deflect bullets.
• Super Armor: Bosses turn unflinchable and gain high defense when you hit them too recklessly and often become invincible on top of that. Goku also has armor while firing the Kamehameha, but no extra defense. If certain enemies get you from behind at this point, expect to take over double of the damage you'd usually take from their attacks.
• Super Title 64 Advance: Interestingly enough, the English version is called "Advanced", which is a common mistake people make when talking about the GBA.
• Timed Mission:
  • The Island of Training level runs on a time limit as you search for a rock and play the Level in Reverse to chase after Krillin when he steals it.
  • The normal Small Fry Fight mode gives you 150 seconds to defeat as many enemies as possible. The game ends when either the timer runs out or when it runs out of enemies to spawn. The hard mode has no time limit, and instead counts how many seconds you took to beat all enemies.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: Downplayed in the first minute of the game. The first Pterosaur you meet spawns after beating the third bandit on the level's first encounter. However, its altitude is relative to Goku's position, so you can use launching kicks on the bandit to spawn the dino so high into the sky that it becomes only barely hittable by a jumping staff strike when it uses a diving attack.
• Video Game Tutorial: There is an Auto-Pilot Tutorial when the One-On-One is introduced during the story.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Yamcha. Yes, Yamcha. If you didn't get yet that you can't just spam the attack button to defeat bosses in this game, fighting Yamcha will do the trick. His Wolf Fang Fist is fairly predictable, but deals a TON of damage if it connects. Puar will also regularly bring bombs to drop at the most inopportune times.
• Wall Jump: Done just like in the Metroid games (jump into a wall, face the opposite direction and jump).
• Warm-Up Boss:
  • The Bandit King is a very slow-moving enemy with just two easily avoidable attacks.
  • Giran is the first enemy in the Martial Arts Tournament stages and he has a very limited moveset. Ironically, it is him who appears at the end of the secret hard mode of Small Fry Fight, making him the True Final Boss of sorts even though he's not much tougher when fought in the beat 'em up mode. The challenge there is that he's a Flunky Boss of a hard-as-nails ten minute-long level.
• A Winner Is You: Bosses on Parade and both versions of Small Fry Fight end with a simple congratulations screen and your final time and score.
• You Have Researched Breathing: High jumping with the Power Pole is limited to specific spots to keep it from breaking the level design. On Extra Mode, however, you can quickly find a Power Pole item that quietly removes that limitation.