Since I’m having trouble coming up with lead in paragraphs and you guys all know what this whole month is about, I’m going to just start the article. Thanks!

OK, I’m just going to come out and say it… when I first heard that Squaresoft (oh, the good old days) was collaborating with Disney on an RPG, I was a bit dubious (“dubious” here having the meaning of ‘throwing up in my mouth a little’) to say the least. I legitimately didn’t think it was going to work… like, even a little. After a while, screen shots started surfacing and I was even MORE unconvinced. I saw my first glimpses of the main character Sora, which weren’t all THAT bad except tha he appeared to be partnered with Donald and Goofy and carried a big key as a weapon. Once again, that “dubious” sense took over again and I resigned myself to thinking that this game would flop harder than a fish out of water at the Super Mario Bros. Movie premiere. [Heeeey I like that movie!! -Jess] Sure enough, when the game was finally released, I picked it up any as a die-hard Squaresoft supporter. After a few minutes in and what seemed like an overly lengthy training portion, I was finally in and questing in grand old style. Turns out that the game ended up being a lot more fun than I was expecting once I dismissed the fact that I was expecting it to play like a standard Final Fantasy-type game. The real-time combat was very refreshing and the story ended up being pretty good despite the (to me anyway) more kiddy visuals. The amalgam of Disney and Square was actually one that worked far better than thought possible, as the cartoony atmosphere was well-bolstered with the standard dosage of Squaresoft’s great game play design and I did ultimately play this game through to the end. I did rather enjoy the nods to all the Final Fantasy games that were present in the game and the inclusion of the optional “Super Boss” battles and as a whole, it was a pretty satisfying experience with the small exception of the Gummi Ship sequences, which felt a little tacked on, in my opinion. For the most part though, Kingdom Hearts stuck out in my head after I finished it for more reasons then just the Disney gimmick (the theme song “Simple and Clean” by Utada Hikaru was stuck in my head for the better part of a year) and I’m quite glad I played it.

-Evo out.

TAG TEAM BATTLE Jessica IN!

 Okay, so today is… -checks the title- Kingdom Hearts! Yay! Wooo!! Okay enough of the cheering, on to the point. Kingdom Hearts was a surprising hit for me. I don’t typically have a love of the cuter things in life (despite what those who actually know me might say…) but I have to say Kingdom Hearts was a refreshing game that seemingly came out of no where for me. Living under a rock as I did for most of my younger days, the first I had heard of such a game was on the Disney channel itself while perusing for something more substantial to fill my precious little brain with. Something about a blurb about Imagineering or crap  like that. It caught my eye for about five minutes then I promptly forgot about it. It stayed that way for… I am thinking years, when one of my friends pointed out the game to me, and I promptly borrowed it, played it and fell in love, despite large sections of “NO THANK YOU!” -cough- Gummi Ship -cough-. They story was light and fluffy enough for me to get into it without feeling a huge sense of urgency and by the end of my time playing my friends and I had come up with several mini challenges within the game itself. (My favorite being who can beat Sephiroth with the Kingdom Key in the least amount of time.) Did I enjoy playing as pre-pubescent clueless boy a duck or a dog thing? Not so much. However I did enjoy that you could replace two of the members of the three stooges with actual useful characters such as Beast.  Summing it all up, Kingdom Hearts was an endearing fun game that I would gladly play again. That is more than I can say about any of the portable versions and part of II.

-Ninja Vanish!!!-

-Ninja Reappear-

OH YEAH…. I am pretty sure it is pronounced TIED-US not TEA-DUS. [<--Thank you SO much for this... $#!t drove me NUTS! -- Evo] [I third this his name sounded awful in this game and I refuse to ever call him that. Fail! -Megan]

-Ninja Vanish-

Hello all! Megan Highwind here! Kingdom Hearts combined two things that I really love, Disney and Final Fantasy. I think that Kingdom Hearts was a huge surprise to me as well as many others. I did not think it was really possible for these two heavy hitters in different parts of the media world to come together to make something fun that did not tip the scales as too cheesy. I won’t lie and say there weren’t times where I was playing and could not help but think that everything was a little too sugary sweet, but in general I think that the game was a huge success. I really enjoyed getting to play through the worlds of Disney characters that I watched on VHS (I’m not going to lie, I still own one of these and love going back to childhood and watching movies on it!) and getting to see more of their stories; getting to play with them in your party was even more fun! The real time battle elements were also something that I really enjoyed about this game. There is really nothing like a boss battle where you actually have to run away from the boss to avoid being hit instead of just hoping that your character is good enough at evading to do it themselves. Overall, Kingdom Hearts kind of took me by surprise. I was intrigued by the idea of Disney and Squaresoft coming together on a project and it was a huge success. Sora and the gang drew me in and I can’t wait until the next Kingdom Hearts game comes out so I can see what happens next!

- Megan Highwind has left the party.

Greetings everyone. So, Kingdom Hearts. At first, I thought that this game was a joke before it came out, mostly because it just seemed that Disney characters mashed up with Final Fantasy characters into one game was a little ridiculous, but once I started keeping up with its development status, I started to believe that it just might work if done properly. When it finally did come out, I picked up my copy, sat in my chair and started playing the game. As I progressed through this unlikely crossover, I found myself enjoying the game and all it had to offer. I loved how I could control my characters movements and actions in real time, rather than just letting them sit there waiting to either kill the enemy or wait to be killed themselves. I also found it fascinating that I was able to travel to different Disney worlds and being able to recruit that world’s character to my party because sometimes I found it quite boring just using Sora, Donald and Goofy every single time in every single fight. Another thing I found interesting, was the weapon that Sora used. Instead of being a standard weapon choice (such as a sword, lance, axe, bow and arrow, etc.), he used a giant key-looking-weapon-ma-jig called “Keyblade”. At first, I found this to be silly, because if Sora could beat people’s faces in with any weapon of choice, the last thing that I would expect would be a big @$$ key, but nevertheless, I accepted the weapon for what it was and what it stood for and in the end, I ended up liking it and all of its wacky variations (Oathkeeper FTW). In the end, I enjoyed playing Kingdom Hearts and was quite delighted with every moment of it (yes, even the Gummi Ship stuff). Even when I beat the game, I still found myself going back to it, which shows how much of an impression it left on me. Being able to play a game where my favorite Disney and Final Fantasy characters existed together in one package, was a great experience and it’s an experience that will gladly re-live *cough*MAKE KINGDOM HEARTS III ALREADY!*cough*. Sorry about that, must be coming down with something.

-James B. Boss