Drake & Josh for GBA is a top down game with emphasis on puzzles and stealth. It's stylisticly similar to Zack & Cody GBA game that was released earlier with similar mechanics, so I think it makes a fair comparison, it's made by the same company after all.

Unlike Zack & Cody game, this game features refined stealth mechanics, you won't get busted as soon as someone notices you, instead you have a sneak meter, making stealth a little more lenient, as well as some other additions. The camera also pans where you're looking, which shows what's ahead, though its a double-edge sword, since you can't quite see what's behind. But overall I didn't feel like the screen crunch affected stealth of this game negatively. Drake is the stealth segments character, having the ability to walk slowly past sleeping enemies, popcorn or walk on wet floor without slipping. He can also charm girls with his guitar which activates a quick time event where you have to press buttons in order. You'll be doing that a lot, and I don't care for that, especially since failure wastes your time, and it's used in basic ways. There are a few sections where you have to sneak the girl past NPCs to make her stand on the button, since she can activate a conversation for them and distract them. Neat, I guess. Getting busted usually sends you to the latest entrance, I think the checkpoints are reasonable, but there is one major issue of this entire game, the timer. Each level has a timer, not only you've gotta think carefully, but also fast. While it makes sense from realism standpoint (you don't have infinite time), it hinders the enjoyability of this game. Getting busted will make you repeat sections and running out of time makes you redo the same level from all over, which can be frustrating, and these levels are quite lengthy, especially if you're going for 100% completion, which is collecting trinkets throught the game. I didn't collect all of them because it can be tough to spot them all and you've gotta think about time, which is strict and some of them can be ridiculous.

Besides Drake's stealth, Josh segments feature some puzzle solving, with more complex puzzles compared to Zack & Cody GBA, which isn't exactly surprising. Drake & Josh is a teen sitcom, so the target demographic of this game is teens, and teens should have more brain power compared to little children. And while I appreciate some of the complexity, again, the strict timer doesn't leave a lot of room for thinking. I had to use emulator's pause function to figure some of them out without wasting precious in-game timer. Maybe I'm overcomplicating some of them, I admit I'm not the smartest at times, but I definitely didn't want to put up with time wasting nonsense. There's still a light stealth element to Josh's segments, but they aren't the primary focus. In one level you'll also have to catch some sheep, which was kinda neat but also fairly repetitive, you can't move very fast when holding an item as Josh, and when the sheep struggles, you'll have to do a QTE similar to Drake's guitar. One small saving grace is that Josh can run, which is handy when going back and forth and in general, really.

Aside from that there are a few minigames, like foodfight and Pipe Mania kinda deal. These only appear once each, though I imagine the password given for these offer more challenging versions of said minigames, but I didn't try them out. Speaking of, the password system. Personally, I don't care if the game features passwords or proper save system, however it speaks more about the game's production more than anything. Zack & Cody GBA offered battery backed save. That game was published by Buena Vista Games, Disney's video game publishing division. Drake & Josh was published by THQ and doesn't offer save feature. I think it's a clear case of different publishers having different priorities or demands. It's understandable why save feature was cut, to save on money. Disney didn't cheap out however and did allow for save feature to be in the game. You want to know something? There was another GBA game by the same company, called "Enchanted: Once Upon Andalasia", released after this game, and it was published by Disney Interactive Studios. And it has the save feature. THQ simply wanted a quick buck, which is why saving was cut.

Unfortunately, making this a quick cash-in kinda shows, the game feels less polished overall, with some glitches and odd design choices. Most of the time, the camera pans back to the player position but usually goes beyond screen boundary, resulting in camera snapping right after, which can be distracting. There were a few instances where the dismissed girls jittered near their original position never quite reaching it, and also when they follow they can be easily despawned offscreen, having to go back and get them again, and some buttons can be activated only by certain girls, which is counterintuitive. Continuing on with the girlies, when you get stunned, mash that A button to unstun quicker, but A also dismisses a girl, which once again makes you go fetch her again. And at times it isn't clear if you're supposed to lead one somewhere, wasting precious time on escort. There were instances where I tried to block a laser with a box, but the laser stunned me but didn't get propertly covered so I couldnt retrieve the box, making me restart the room. And it's a shame, because I think the game has the potential to be at least decent. As simple a change as the removal of the timer would significantly increase enjoyability and make the game less frustrating. While I appreciate some refinements and more focused design compared to Zack & Cody GBA, this game arguably has more frustrating aspects holding it back. This game also lacks quality of life things like generous save system and the ability to look around the map by pressing select. The presentation of this game is honestly pretty decent, the in-game characters look cartoony but also more detailed compared to Z & C, once again I think the envoirements look pretty good, they don't feel quite like The Legend of Zelda this time, mostly due to different mechanics and absence of combat (which was GBA Zack & Cody, though it was pretty basic so I'm not upset by its omission), and again, some of the music tracks are pretty good. I don't think this game is awful, it was still somewhat engaging, but it's still mediocre at best.