Feelin' Kinda Goofy

So, I got my PS2 back in October. It took me this long to hook it up, and the first game I played, GTA3, has already been reviewed. Due to the lag (onset by laziness), I only now am ready to review Kingdom Hearts. Let me tell you up front, I don't know what all the hype was about.

This is a common syndrome really. People get really worked up over a game, so much so that they might not notice the flaws inherent in the design. By the time I get to it, much later on, and with most of the hype cooled, as often as not I don't see all the joy everyone else expressed in their reviews.

The game starts off with a 3 hour musical cut-scene that you can't skip past. You get to see this epic every time you start up the game. Very irritating. As it is, this is out intro to the weird world of Sora, the hero, who has no connection to ANY of the crossover characters from either Square or Disney. We take a hold of Sora and guide him through the many worlds of Disney as he tried to stop that nasty Heartless, little black Muppet-like creatures bent on stealing everyone's hearts... or souls... or somethings...

This is the first big flaw with the game. I know that Disney probably wouldn't want anything too scary in a game with their name on it, but the heartless are really to silly to be effective enemies. Beyond that, every world you go into has practically all the same heartless as before. Sure, one or two new ones are thrown in, but the repetition of fighting most of the same enemies over and over again does kinda wear after a while.

Coupled with that is some rather ineffective AI for your characters. The game in in real time, much like most Final Fantasy game are not. It's like Secret of Mana really, where you run around and beat the shit out of stuff without the aid of a menu system. Sadly, you don't have control over your two allies, Donald and Goofy, and Donald is the healer for the group... and he's a moron. As often as not he fails to even heal HIMSELF, let alone anyone else in the group, and you end up using your items.

Plus, the camera is pretty shoddy. It's not the worst camera system I've ever seen, but I've been spoiled by Mario 64. I want THAT level of control over the camera, and the relatively hands-off approach KH makes you take is rather irritating.

Those are my gripes. The game is cutesy fun, and that action is pretty solid, when you get to it. I like traveling between the worlds, where you get a cool space shooter style of play... but even this gets tiring after a while.

The biggest flaw with the game is that it's fairly repetitious, and while fun in small does, it wears after even a couple of hours.