Gameplay is mainly divided into three different types; Stitch's main levels involve him running and gunning á la Metal Slug through alien environments (and Hawaiʻi in the first level), wielding plasma blasters with his four arms. Lilo's segments are Puzzle Platformer levels with a bit of sneaking around as she tries to find a way to contact Stitch and get off the ship. Finally, there are some Tempest-like tube shooter segments in which Stitch flies a small spacecraft as he tries to reach Dr. Pestus's ship, shooting down enemies and obstacles as he flies through space.
This game was surprisingly well-received by critics, who found the Run-and-Gun gameplay highly engaging and the graphics to be colorful and well-animated. It was also commercially successful, selling 620,000 copies and earning $14 million in the United States by August 2006.
It received a standalone sequel in 2004 called Disney's Lilo & Stitch 2: Hämsterviel Havoc, which is based on Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
Tropes relating to Lilo & Stitch for Game Boy Advance include:
- Aliens Speaking English: C'mon, you know this franchise by now. Besides that, Stitch actually speaks some very fluent English in this game's cutscenes, with only his Third-Person Person sticking around for the most part.
- A Winner Is You: When Lilo and Stitch defeat Pestus, the Grand Councilwoman thanks them for saving the planet and gives them a spacecraft to head back home. The duo cheer as they fly off and the game cuts to credits.
- Blob Monster: One of the boss fights in the game features Stitch fighting off one to get a new spaceship.
- Canon Foreigner: Nearly every single alien introduced in this game.
- Classic Cheat Code: Holding the R and Select buttons with the cursor over "Start Game" and pressing A starts the game with 99 lives.
- Covers Always Lie: Stitch does not wear his spacesuit at any point in this game.
- Edible Ammunition: Stitch can throw pineapple bombs at enemies.
- Filler: The game takes place after the original film, but it's a standalone story that has no bearing on the franchise's canon overall.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Because Experiment 626 will tear that cover and force his hand through that GBA platform label to get to you!
- Insectoid Aliens: Dr. Pestus is a robotic one.
- Landfill Beyond the Stars: Stitch crash-lands on a junkyard asteroid called Scum, where he has to find a new spaceship to replace the one that was wrecked in his crash.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Pestus genetically modified mosquitoes to build an army and he kidnaps creatures to serve them as food.
- Password Save: Done through icons showing Stitch, Lilo, Scrump, a plasma blaster, a flying saucer, a hibiscus, a rocket, and a pineapple. A new seven-icon password is shown after completing a level.
- Playful Otter: Averted; the alien otter mooks are certainly not playful.
- Run-and-Gun: The side-scrolling Stitch levels are essentially a Disney version of the Metal Slug series.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: The North American box art (pictured above) has Stitch (in his Experiment 626 form and suit) preparing to murder you by hitting you with a small, ripped-off part of the box art.
- Shoot 'Em Up: Besides the Run-and-Gun Stitch levels, the levels where Stitch pilots a spaceship turn into a tube shooter à la Tempest.
- Stealth-Based Game: The Lilo levels have her sneaking around a spaceship trying to evade her captors in order to escape.