This might be the strangest place Disney has decided to put their new Tron 2.0 game on. The Gameboy Advance isn’t’ exactly a power house of a system capable of displaying the work that Tron 2.0: Killer App does on the Xbox. So why release it on the GBA? And does it even merit your attention? Let’s find out shall we.

Digital Eclipse (a Canadian company by the way) has been charged with the task of bringing Tron 2.0 Killer App from the Xbox over to the GBA, and truth be told, they did a pretty decent job of it. (editor's note: We first saw this game back at E3, read about Buena Vista's Booth here.)

I’d go over the story, and universe of TRON, but I’ve done it three times now for various previous and reviews, so I’ll just direct you to our latest preview for the Xbox. You’ll get all the back-story on the story that you need there.

Tron 2.0 Killer App gets some heavy replay value from the inclusion of a new playable character which was introduced in Tron 2.0 on the PC. Mercury (a Light Cycle Program) has been added as playable, and she has her own quest and story to play through. Meaning not only will you play through as TRON, but her as well. She’s not exactly a whole new kind of character, but she’s got just enough differences from TRON to make her feel like a different gaming experience.

The game takes place from a top down angled view, and looks very similar in quality to what Digital Eclipse did with the Spyro games. The gameplay is also similar to Spyro, in that you have to jump from platform to platform and shoot enemies. Shooting is obviously done with discs for TRON, while Mercury uses a spinning baton to attack. You’ll also find many hidden upgrade chips throughout the level, which encourages you to explore more-so then you ever would in Killer App without it.

While the gameplay is generally pretty solid, there are issues, as with the auto-locking system. By pressing the throw button you can lock onto the closest enemy, which is normally a good thing, but in instances where there is more than one enemy on screen it could be trouble, because the game will lock onto the closest guy, regardless of whether that’s who you want/need to kill first or not. The ability to cycle through bad guys would have been nice.

Beside the top down angled gameplay there are also a few other ways to play the game. You're able to drive around in a Tank, in a pseudo 3D view, and obviously you can expect to ride around in the Light Cycles. Light Cycle battles thankfully control very well, and use a unique camera system that zooms in and out depending on how close the Cycles are to each other. Without Zooming in on the action it would probably be very hard to control the bikes, but that won’t be a problem thanks to the unique camera work.

Besides the different modes of play you’ll find tons of little mini-games throughout Tron 2.0: Killer App. Players will have to hack into locked doors by connecting one end of a circuit to another – this feels out a lot like Tetris in the way it’s played. The mini games almost always offer you the chance to uncover special items, and helpful equipment. Some of the mini games work, some not so much; but they’re all a change of pace.

Aside from the main game, you’ll be getting a couple of classic additions to Tron 2.0: Killer App. Buena Vista has offered up the original arcade games Tron, and Discs of Tron from way back when. Both games aren’t exactly easy to play thanks to the differences in the actual way they were played, but it’s the first time those 2 old school titles have seen the light of day anywhere other then the arcade, so Digital Eclipse can be forgiven for the less the perfect translation of the games.

I’ll be honest with you – when I got Tron 2.0: Killer App for my GBA I wasn’t expecting much. In fact I half expected to have to hand out a garbage review for the title. So it comes as a great surprise to me that Digital Eclipse did a good job of translating a First Person shooter to the Gameboy Advance in a respectable way. The inclusion of the original Tron games helps push up the coolness factor -- so thumbs up to all for creating a fun on the go Tron experience.