Developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and published for the Game Boy Advance by Ubisoft in 2003, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a scrolling action game based on the Oscar-winning film of the same name.

Set in 19th Century China, you play as Jen, an aristocratic female thief who steals the legendary Green Destiny sword and goes on the run with it. Jen is the apprentice of Jade Fox, a renegade Kung-Fu master, and arch enemy of Lee Mu Bai, owner of the Green Destiny sword. Lee Mu Bai and his warrior friend, Yu Shu Lien, pursue Jen, and Jade Fox, in order to retrieve the sword.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon features 25 levels that depict many of the scenes from the film. Cut scenes intersperse these with still images and text, telling the story.

Before starting the game, players can view the Kung-Fu Guide, which demonstrates how all of Jen’s special moves are activated.

In-game, Jen uses a sword to fight enemies, and can also double jump, and wall-jump by default. At the top of the screen is Jen’s health bar (in yellow), and eating food re-fills this. Defeated enemies release pink, glowing lights that can be collected, that increase her ‘Chi’ (shown in blue, underneath the health bar). Chi is consumed when performing special moves, and must be replenished when depleted.

Collecting ten dragon symbols awards an extra life, and collecting a glowing sword will power-up Jen’s sword for a limited period of time.

Sometimes the scrolling will stop, and Jen must defeat a certain number of enemies before being allowed to move on. There are also occasional boss battles that usually involve fighting major characters from the film, like Yu Shu Lien, Lee Mu Bai, “Thundercloud” Lo, and Jade Fox.

Although Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon didn’t review particularly well when it first came out, I think it’s a pretty good game, with decent presentation, responsive controls, and reasonably engaging gameplay. It’s challenging and fun at times. It could maybe have done with a bit more detail, but it does have enough variety to keep players who like scrolling fighting games happy for a period of time. It’s certainly not a bad adaptation of the classic Ang Lee film from the year 2000.

More: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on Wikipedia