Ant Bully is a top down action/adventure game that might be suitably described as "Legend of Zelda lite". This is a game I had as a teenager, obtained from a sunday market and played over and over.
It's a short game that still lasts long enough for each game mechanic to be thoroughly explored. The player moves from area to area clearing a path through enemies and obstacles, sometimes with the help of ants that can be given different tasks like digging holes and pushing rocks. Combat is simple, with a few different weapons to use, and some strategy required for different enemy types, and there's a little bit of item collecting to do. One gripe that adult-me has with the game is that the collectibles that provide "upgrades" don't really help much. The worst offenders being the weapon upgrades, which add a second and third attack animations that really only tempt the player to endanger themselves when standing still to use them. Child-me most appreciated the turret sections of the game, in which the player has to shoot at bugs from a rotating gun turret. Another redeeming part of the game is the boss fights, of which there are three. The bosses themselves are pretty cool, with big colorful sprites, and the encounters with them are definitely the highlights of the game. All in all the gameplay is decent, particularly for a licensed game.
The graphics are pretty good for a GBA game! It has a cartoony style as was common for GBA games and even though it has the typical pale pallette, it doesn't look bad on both backlit screens and the original console. There is quite a lot of slow-down in some areas though, even on real hardware. The small setting is not a common one in gaming and allows for some novel and cute set-pieces to appreciate - like the seemingly gigantic clover petals lining each area, or discarded objects like drink cans and bottles. On reflection, there are quite a lot of bottles in this game, maybe the scale isn't too consistent. Even so, the game has charm, which is something of a surprise considering what its based off.
I think this game is worth playing. It's not a masterpiece, but it's something different - a game to play when you've played the best of the rest and want something new.