Play Bleach Advance : Kurenai ni Somaru Soul Society Online

If you grew up mashing buttons on GBA beat 'em ups, Bleach Advance: Kurenai ni Somaru Soul Society feels like slipping into a familiar pair of shoes—except these ones let you swing a comically oversized sword. The pixel art nails Ichigo’s spiky hair and Zangetsu’s ridiculous size, and there’s something weirdly satisfying about clearing screens of Hollows with a poorly translated but enthusiastic "Getsuga Tensho!" shout.

It’s basically the Soul Society arc crammed into a side-scroller, so you’ll bounce between fighting Renji’s snake-zanpakuto nonsense and Byakuya’s "I’m-too-cool-to-look-at-you" energy. The Bankai animations are hilariously over-the-top for a GBA screen, and the soundtrack has those crunchy midi renditions of the anime’s hype themes. Not gonna lie, the combat’s a tad repetitive after a while, but it’s the kind of game you play for the vibes—like rewatching early Bleach episodes but with more button-mashing.

Definitely more fun if you’re already a fan, but even if you’re not, it’s a solid time capsule of mid-2000s anime game madness. Just don’t expect deep mechanics—this is pure nostalgic dopamine in cartridge form.