Family Tennis Advance is a brilliant "cute" tennis game made by Namco. I play it all the time, especially if you have a real person to play against it's a lot of fun. Not sure if it was released outside of Japan, but it's not expensive. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is very captivating and the funniest RPG I've ever played. Any Mario/Wario platformer. Kurukuru Kururin & its successor, Kururin Paradise, are very cool and motivating.
Button smashers? That always brings Pokemon to mind... Anyways, I'd suggest a fighting game of some sort.
You mean Gunstar Super Heroes? Yeah, it's a sweet game, although not as good as the original IMO. Advance Guardian Heroes, as I think it's called, was always pretty crap in my opinion. Definitely the worst of all Treasure sequels.