Review: Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is quite possibly one of the smartest marketing decisions in video game history. Combine everyone's favorite Disney characters and movies with Final Fantasy-styled characters into a massive rpg game and push it on the masses. It's no wonder the game, and its subsequent sequels, have sold so well. The game has expanded from the Playstation 2 to the Game Boy Advance, and future games are being developed for other Sony and Nintendo systems. But does the quality of the game match the hype?

Let's start with the story. A young boy, Sora, is living with his friends on an island. All things are happy and fun until the heartless show up and begin to devour everything in their sight. Suddenly, Sora is caught up in a bizarre world where Disney characters are having their world's destroyed by the heartless. With his new companions Goofy and Donald, Sora must enter the much loved Disney films to reclaim their land and find his lost friends. The story is by no means groundbreaking, but it is compelling enough to draw even a casual video game player into the wonderful world of Disney.

The game play is intuitive without seeming too easy. The fights are fast and furious, but not uncontrollable, and the rpg team building with Disney characters is just fun. You fight with giant keys and can call upon Disney characters for special attacks. With an expansive world of Disney films to explore, gamers might find themselves more interested in living in their favorite films than completing the game right away. This interest in the settings creates a high re-playability factor that many rpgs lack.

The downside, sadly, is the length. While rpg fans will undoubtedly slug their way through the entire game, many casual gamers will never even reach the Disney worlds before losing interest. Disney titles in the past have been so successful because they throw you right into their worlds. Sadly, Kingdom Hearts does not do that.

Even with the excessive length, Kingdom Hearts is an exciting, fun game for players of all skill levels. The game marks a return to form for Disney games that hasn't been seen since the heyday of the Sega Genesis system. Hopefully, Disney can reclaim their spot as a consistently solid licensed franchise in gaming outside of Kingdom Hearts.