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KINGDOM HEARTS When you put two and two together you get four, when you put blue and green together you get aqua and when you put Squaresoft and Disney together you get a certified hit. That’s exactly what Kingdom Hearts is; a powerful mixture of one of Japan’s top game developers and one of America’s biggest animation houses. KH brings together excellent, action-based gameplay with some smooth, stylish visuals and a gripping story (it’s from the Final Fantasy guys, of course it’s gripping) to produce a charming experience that gets my vote for game of the year so far. The graphics, as I mentioned above, are top notch. Each Disney inspired area of the game is faithfully re-produced to look and feel as close to the movies they are based on as possible. A few stand-outs are the “Nightmare Before Christmas”, “Peter Pan” and “Winnie the Pooh” sections of the game. Colors are bright and vibrant, texture work is great and, aside from a few times when there were ridiculous amounts of enemies on screen at once, the action is silky smooth. The story, which features the usual amount of twists, turns and tear jerking endings, is about a group of young friends (Sora, Riku and Kairi) who live on a small island. Now, living on a small island, one tends to tire of constantly seeing the same scenery so, Sora and his pals decide to strike out and explore the rest of the world. Not too long after completing the makeshift raft that is to carry them on their journey, their tiny island is rocked by a storm that makes “The Perfect Storm” look like just a little sprinkle. After taking out a few hostile bad guys known as “Heartless”, Sora finds himself in an unfamiliar place without his friends by his side. From here, he meets Donald and Goofy, two knights in the service of King Mickey, who explain that their ruler is missing and they must find him. Sora, who has been endowed with a mysterious weapon know as the keyblabe decides to strike out on a journey with his new companions to look for his comrades. Gameplay is tight and features a variety of things for the player to do. Mini games, such as collecting all 101 Dalmatians throughout the worlds, are everywhere and they often reward you generously for completing them. Kingdom Hearts offers a good mixture (there’s that word again) of Action, RPG, Platforming and puzzle solving. Combat, which you will be doing a lot of, is a cinch thanks to the employment of an Ocarina-of-Time-style targeting system which allows you to lock onto an opponent, circle and use a variety of moves. At first Sora only has the ability to attack with his keyblade but through the accumulation of experience points and ability points, he will be able to learn magic spells, more powerful keyblade attacks and even some FF-style summons featuring some well-known Disney characters. Cameos, cameos, cameos. From Cloud Strife to Donald Duck, there are a lot of recognizable characters packed into this game. You will find yourself fighting bad guys alongside Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” and doing battle with Squall and Yuffie in a Greek arena. A lot of the characters from Final Fantasies seven, eight and ten (all characters designed by KH lead designer, Tetsuya Nomura) make guest appearances along with basically every memorable Disney character on the face of the planet. Sound is the normal Square fare, with FF veteran Nobuo Uematsu handling much of the soundtrack. Also featured is an opening and closing theme by Japanese and soon to be English recording sensation, Utada Hikaru. If you haven’t heard this girl yet then I highly suggest you check out some of her tunes. A large cast of big talent voice actors (including Billy Zane and Lance Bass) were tapped as well as some of the original voices behind the Disney cameo characters to bring most of the dialogue to life, and while most of it is good, there are a few times when the switch from spoken to text dialogue seems a bit awkward. The thing that makes Kingdom Hearts so enjoyable is its pure charm. Much like a Disney movie, it seems geared toward children at first glance but after spending some time with it you realize that and adult will get the same, if not more, enjoyment out of it. You would think that Final Fantasy and Disney characters interacting with each other would seem a bit odd and hard to swallow but it really isn’t. The camera system is a bit off and calls for the player to put in a little more work to get a good view of the action but becomes second nature after about an hour. My only other complaint was a horribly done gummi ship shooting/Star Fox inspired crap wad of a mini game that you are forced to do in between sections of the game. This part feels like it was rushed and could have easily been left out of the game; replaced with a simple cut scene of your ship moving to the different worlds. If you’re a Final Fantasy fan pick this game up. If you’re a Disney fan pick this game up. If you’re just a fan of a charming gaming experience with a lot of heart and some good gameplay then for god sakes, pick this game up. «·°¯`·.¸¸.··..ßizzÿ The Kîd..··.¸¸.·´¯°·» 9 out of 10
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