I remember asking my father to buy me Kingdom Hearts for Christmas when I was 12. This was the same time that every other child was asking for the brilliant Grand Theft Auto Vice City on Playstation 2, but instead of pretending to be a yeyo-dealing thug I wanted to explore the Disney universe developed by the same creators of my favourite game ever: Final Fantasy X (the extras disc of which the following trailer below was on). I was 12, give me a break!
Yet despite the relatively child-friendly appeal of Kingdom Hearts, I purchased and played the game again when it was released as ‘Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix’ on the Playstation 3 when I was 23. It’s a fantastic game with a semi-cult following and, despite the very aged graphics, has done enough to garner relatively immense hype for the upcoming addition to the series: ‘Kingdom Hearts 3’.
For me, the appeal of it was not the compounding of the innocent yet lovable Disney characters like Goofy and Mickey Mouse (although I’m not as big a fan of Donald Duck to be honest), nor was it the simple yet enjoyable mix of traditional final fantasy tactical gameplay with hack and slash mechanics. The real beauty was that it was a game that showed that guns, cars and violence were not pre-requisites for a memorable gaming experience.
Happy Birthday Kingdom Hearts! Here’s to many more happy gaming memories that will hopefully be created by the third instalment like the first two episodes did.
By Alun Wrighton
