Justice League Heroes - The Flash is a well crafted and fun game for the Game Boy Advance that takes good advantage of the system's capabilities to deliver gameplay that is quick, engaging and fun. The Flash puts the fastest man alive in the spotlight as he is sent out on a mission to figure out who is behind a series of robot attacks in key locales around the globe. The Flash's adventure begins in his stomping grounds, Keystone City, and takes him to Gotham, Themyscira, Metropolis and a mysterious Sunken City. The storyline is played out between acts using comic book style panels as Flash interacts with his team mates and an all-star line-up of familiar villains that includes Killer Frost, Grod and Zoom - all leading to a mysterious and powerful enemy.

The Flash is a pure arcade game complete with power-ups, life ups, health and other goodies that you'll use as you battle hundreds of robots, thugs and super villains. Unlike the DS Justice League game, there's a lot of variety in the enemies you'll face. From the lowly street thug to giant menacing robots and enemies like Gorilla Grod, there's some real challenge to be had in every level.

To defeat this cavalcade of evil doers you'll use powerful attacks that take advantage of the Flash's innate ability to manipulate speed. These powers include basic attacks like a punch combination that knocks bad guys down and a nice jump kick move, to more robust attacks like "seeking" which takes Flash straight to an enemy for a direct and violent head-on assault (which can continue on to another enemy nearby much like the Pinball attack in the console versions of Justice League Heroes), "ground pounding", which delivers an earthquake like area effect move that knocks everyone in the vicinity off their feet and "whirlwind" which allows Flash to spin around violently like a top, knocking everyone in his direct path to the ground. While there's not a lot of moves to choose from, what's there works pretty well and looks great. Flash really does move like you'd expect him to in a videogame and fights in a similar speedy and impressive fashion.

When you need a little extra help you can find power-ups that fill your health and Flash bars or you can call one of your many Justice League pals to stop in briefly and attack everyone on the screen. This can prove to be detrimental in some of the more populated levels where multiple robots and thugs are gunning for you at every turn.

Much like the regular fights you'll encounter throughout the game, the boss battles are also a lot of fun and many of their attacks are crafted in a way that provides players with a decent challenge. Beyond using your speedy skills to defeat each of these powerful foes, it's important to try to save your lives for the end of each stage. Obviously, the more you have going in to a boss fight, the better chance you'll have of only having to go through it once.

And that's pretty much the gameplay in a nutshell - but gameplay alone doesn't make for a decent game. JLH The Flash also has another thing going for it - a great overall presentation that takes advantage of the GBA's capabilities. In addition to some decent tunes and great sound affects, The Flash also throws in some cool catch phrases that the Flash bleats out whenever he feels the need. Likewise, his Justice League Comrades have catchphrases that they bellow as they deliver their powerful attacks and depart back to the Watchtower or wherever they came from. It's a real shame that the developers of the DS game didn't pay as much attention to the little details that developer Wayforward did..

When you've grown tied of playing the single player story mode there are a few other modes to get some extra replay value out of. There's a gauntlet multi-boss battle mode called Boss Rush and an epilogue mode called Superman Race where the Man of Steel and Flash race around the world to clean up what remains of the robot menace. Finally there's a theater mode which gives you access to the main story's scenes and How Games Are Made - a nice extra that explains how the game was made from story board concept to full blown GBA gaming goodness. While these extras provide a limited amount of replay value they are nonetheless a welcome addition to this package.

In the end, Justice League Heroes The Flash is a decent arcade action game that really delivers the goods to Game Boy Advance players. It's a shame that the DS version isn't half as good as Flash's solo adventure. If you own a Game Boy Advance and think The Flash is one of the coolest Justice League members ever then you owe it to yourself to pick this game up.