Klonoa's unique combination of platforming elements works just as well on the GBA as it does on home consoles.
Klonoa is an odd animal creature w/ an attitude, something in the vein of Sonic the Hedgehog only instead of being a hegehog, he's a rabbitskunk. He is tasked w/ traveling into the worlds of other people's dreams and fixing them when something goes awry. In order to do this he has the ability to jump and hover for a short time. He can also capture enemies using something called wind bullets from his ring and then either throw the enemy or use it to give himself some extra boost in his jumps. Similar to Kirby games, each enemy has its own special ability which must be utilized by Klonoa to reach new areas to complete each level.
To be honest, the plot here isn't much more than an excuse for Klonoa to travel to five varying fantasy worlds to complete a half dozen or so levels in each one. In addition to the main levels which provide puzzling challenges, there is a fast paced snowboarding level and an auto-scrolling race level for a little variety. This is in addition to bosses for each world, each of which provides a unique experience of his own.
The platforming itself is not terribly challenging. Klonoa can be hit by enemies three times before dying and really the only chance of insta-deaths are on the auto-scrolling race stages. The challenge here really comes from the puzzling elements and these are well done. The puzzles can take some time to figure out and are very rarely frustrating while still being challenging enough to be satisfying. Most people will be able to breeze through the game in a few hours but, similar to most Mario games, additional challenge can be had by collecting items on each stage--in this case gems--which reaches an almost masochistic level of difficulty on the snowboarding and auto-scrolling levels.
Overall, Klonoa: Empire of Dreams is just a joy to play. Die hard lovers of platforms and puzzles might find it a touch on the easy side to simply play-through but the challenge is there if you want it. It might not reach quite the level of replayabilty of the very best platformers but at least one playthrough is an absolute must for lovers of the genre.