Super Mario 64 was big. It has sold over 11 million copies worldwide and has gone to be the best selling game on the N64 platform. This, of course, caught the attention of other developers. Square game producer, Shinji Hashimoto, thought of the idea of bringing Final Fantasy characters to an open world in the likes of Super Mario 64. He had one big problem, however, Mario was one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. How was Final Fantasy supposed to compete against the likes of the Italian plumber? As luck would have it, Disney and Square shared the same office building in Japan. One fateful day, Hashimoto went in an elevator with an executive from Disney. He pitched the idea of an RPG with Disney and Final Fantasy characters to the executive and work began on the project in February 2000.
 
Finally, on March 28, 2002, Square released Kingdom Hearts, a 3D RPG with Disney, Final Fantasy, and some original characters. This game won the hearts of many who played it and has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. So, is this game truly a wish come true? Or is it poor and unfortunate?

Note: I will be reviewing the original PS2 version and not the final mix.

You play as Sora, a young boy from the Destiny Islands. Later, the Heartless took over and the islands were consumed in darkness. After his friends Kairi and Riku went missing, Sora takes the legendary weapon called the Keyblade and uses it to slash through his enemies. In Disney Castle, King Mickey has gone missing and the royal guards, Donald and Goofy, have to find him. After crossing paths, Donald, Goofy, and Sora team up to defeat Maleficent. 

You can explore worlds from Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, and beyond. In order to travel to these worlds, you must use the Gummi ship. Controlling the ship is simple, just hold the X button and occasionally move the ship to avoid obstacles. I found the Gummi ship to be a waste of time and quite boring. You could customize the ship but I never bothered to because I didn’t need to. When battling the bosses in the game, they tend to be easy but very tedious. You can’t skip cutscenes either so, if you die, you will have to deal with the same long cutscene you’ve seen a few times already. 

While you are fighting, you will gain MP so I just stuck with the strategy of attack, retreat, heal with cure, repeat. Some of the worlds were pretty fun to explore but there were others that were either maze-like or just very empty. The story was also a bit lacking but it had great characters and I’m quite shocked about the cast. They brought back a ton of the original actors including Kathryn Beaumont as Alice, Jodi Benson as Ariel, and, although they didn’t get Robin Williams, they got Dan Castellaneta who voiced the Genie from Aladdin and the Return of Jafar and the TV show. 

The soundtrack for the game is amazing! With great songs “Dearly Beloved,” “Hikari,” and “This Is Halloween.” This soundtrack will make you either cry or hum along to some of Disney’s remixed classics.  My only problem with it is that, while some of the worlds do have remixes of its respective movies, I wish it had remixes in all of its worlds. 

To recap, the story for this game is a little lacking, not to mention it has a slightly confusing ending. It does, however, have charming characters and a great cast to boot. I give the story a B+. I had a fun time with the gameplay, especially around the ending. Battling the bosses and traveling via Gummi ship can be very tedious and the worlds can be very difficult to navigate through, however. I give the gameplay a B. The soundtrack is great but I wish it had more Disney remixes. I give the soundtrack an A.
Overall, this is a fine game. It’s not great, but I had a fun time playing it. If you’re a Disney fan, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it and all it’s Easter eggs. I give the game a 7.5/10.


At a Glance: Kingdom Hearts
Summary: Save Sora’s friends, defeat Maleficent, and find King Mickey by exploring Disney worlds in this RPG.
Rated: E for Everyone: Cartoon Violence
Price: $2.99 (Gamestop)
Distributor: Square Enix
System: PS2
Release Date: March 28, 2002
Rated: 7.5/10

I have the HD version on PS3 but have never beat it. Got over halfway though. I thought it was fun but interesting point you said in your post about Mario and them wanting to compete with that because Final Fantasy was easily as popular as Mario at the time. FF7 didn't sell as much as Mario 64 but it was close despite having to share the gen with FF8 and FF9 whereas no other mainline Mario released on N64.

Well, in this interview in Iwata Asks, that did appear to be the case. http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews...ators/11/0

Nomura - "Well, just as I was working on FFVII8, Mario 649 was released. The fully three-dimensional spaces and the freedom you had to run around them had a big impact on me. When I told my colleagues I wanted to make a game like that, they said 'but Mario's already a world-famous character. It would be impossible to start from scratch with an all-new character.'"

Iwata - "They didn't think you could compete with Mario?"

Nomura - "Exactly. Somebody even said 'The only way you could do it is with characters that are as well known as Disney's'. That really stuck in my head, so when I heard we could be working with Disney characters, I naturally jumped at the chance."