To some, Disney is a magical kingdom filled with much loved characters and timeless stories. To me, Disney is a hateful place full of annoying animated mice and songs that make me want to murder kittens, so quite why I love the Kingdom Hearts series so much is a bit of a mystery.
Kingdom Hearts and its sequel, the imaginatively titled Kingdom Hearts II, were released on the PlayStation 2 to critical acclaim. Series producer Tetsuya Nomura took the cheery House Of Mouse and mashed it up with Final Fantasy; a mix that should not work but somehow does.
[drop]The main character in Kingdom Hearts, Sora, is joined on a quest by Donald Duck and Goofy. The gameplay is much like that of Final Fantasy, party members can excel in magic or combat, unleash special moves and can gain experience. The quest takes the fearsome trio through thirteen worlds, ten of which are based on Disney movies.The cast for the series is huge and every major Disney character makes an appearence alongside Cloud, Cid, Wakka, Yuffie, Sephiroth, Squall Leonheart, Tiddus, Auron and even Moogles from the Final Fantasy series.
Captain Jack Sparrow, Mulan, SImba and  Tron make it to Kingdom Hearts II, joined by persistent villains Pete and Maleficent (the Witch from Sleeping Beauty). Trying to fit all these characters and worlds in to one story seems impossible but somehow it works. As I mentioned, I’m not a fan of Disney but whilst playing Kingdom hearts: Birth By Sleep on the PSP I let out an audible squeak when Maleficent appeared.
Square Enix and Disney lavished the games with some the best cut scenes you will ever see, helped by an impressive voice cast with many characters retaining their orginal actors. Â Billy Zane, David Boreanaz, Mandy Moore, Haley Joel Osment, Hayden Panettiere, Ming Na, James Woods, Mena Suvari and Zach Braff all appear.
I think I have enjoyed the series so much because it’s a little ‘naughty’ with the Disney characters. In this day and age violence is frowned upon by the entertainment giant, so getting Donald Duck to beat someone up is subversive fun. I also enjoy the rather surreal nature of the game. How can you not love a series that, rather than summoning a vengeful god as your special move, allows you to call upon the awesome powers of… Simba, the cute cub from the Lion King.
Or Tinkerbell.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep on the PSP sold 1.7 million units, the original Kingdom Hearts on PS2 sold 5.5 million and the sequel racked up an impressive 3.9 million. With the various ‘remixes’ and additional Nintendo titles the series has racked up over 14 million sales so the question is where is Kingdom Hearts III?
In the Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Ultimania guide book, Nomura announced the third game, but production has yet to start as the team a busy working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Little has been seen on this mythical game and a release date has yet to be set.
Assuming a three year development for Kingdom Hearts III, even if Final Fantasy Versus XIIIÂ arrives in 2012Â there is a very good chance that the PS3 and Xbox 360 may never see a Kingdom Hearts game.
Dig out your PS2 (or backwards compatible launch PS3) or pick up a bargain price PSP and Birth By Sleep. If you’ve never played a Kingdom Hearts game you are missing out.
MegaBonez
I was a massive fan of the first 2 games, I’d love to see a third!
Person678
Play Birth by Sleep on PSP is you haven’t, it’s easily the best.
MegaBonez
Haven’t got a PSP unfortunately!
Crocadillian
I’d like to try this, in a sense to try and remove the dislike I have for both Final Fantasy and Disney. I think it will take quite some time to though :P
Sympozium
Just dislike new Disney..(hehehe)and its fail comedy, I’m sure you can make it one day…:p (if it ever gets HD’d up)
iiekka
bought these in my recent ps2 game buying frenzy, havnt played them yet but they are near the top of my list. they where some of the most expensive ps2 games to get hold of as well, especially if you want non plat versions
MayContainEvil
Nice write-up Tuffcub, I had actually forgotten how much I loved these games. I blame that on the huge time since they released one on console, the handheld iterations are of no interest to me.
We shouldn’t discount the possibility of Squeenix doing a HD re-release. They would have to be incredibly stupid not to do this for both KH and Final Fantasy, they have so many studios I’m sure they can find one with nothing better to do.
DrNate86
This is one series I would love to get HD remade, including the PSP game, as I missed it first time around but always wanted to play it.
KeRaSh
I’d love HD remakes of these games. Never really gave them any attention even though I’m a huge Square Enix / Final Fantasy fan. My girlfriend loves Disney so this would be a perfect game for us to play together.
DrNate86
I love Final Fantasy AND Disney, so it would be the perfect game for my girlfriend to catch me playing and debate my worth as a man!
KeRaSh
Oh, I think I’m way past that point, already… ;)
tantalus_blank
Agreed, I’ve only played the first one so I’d like to catch up before kh3
Germanos
I’ve recently bought both Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 on ebay ( non platinum yay! ). ‘m really looking forward to play them, bu I have to finish Dark Chronicle ( Dark Cloud 2 ) first, which is also an awesome jrpg :)
tantalus_blank
I’ve been playing DC lately too, awesome game :)
DrNate86
Dark Cloud was great, I didn’t realise there was a sequel!
Germanos
Yea and it’s 10x time better then the first one ( which was awesome ). Just just have to get used to that you’re playing an PS2 game ( some graphic bugs etc. ) and its an fantastic challenge, adventure and time-stealer :P 58h on current save and I’m not even in the last chapter and I kind of rushed through some chapters o0!
Haseo
It works so well, it’s almost unbelivable and i bet that it didn’t sold more units just because people wouldn’t give it a try!(Disney chars and all…). Sure a few charactes can be annoying and such but it’s got a great story and the gameplay is sick
Topgearsam
I was huge fan of the first 2 games and birth by sleep, never got round to playing the Ds and Gba versions but a Kingdom hearts 3 would be great, Just wish it would come out soon.
Devil2k
Great series, I absolutely loved it and hope for the 3rd part to come soon!
ScottyB
The best PSP conversion to PS3 would be KH: Birth by sleep
I would buy that in a heartbeat.