Part of the credit has to go to the art design, which recreates every personality from every world wonderfully. Square has captured the essence of each character with loving care, if not necessarily an eye for exact replication. The worlds you'll explore, from Alice's Wonderland and Peter Pan's Neverland and Aladdin's Agrabah, are all rendered with something approaching reverence, even if too much of the scenery is simply painted on the walls.

It's a good thing this journey is so captivating, because in many ways, Kingdom Hearts plays more like an average action game than a cutting-edge Action/RPG hybrid. It feels a little too jerky and heavy when lead character Sora jumps, and the camera is often too close or out of position - those are quibbles you usually hear about a hack-and-slasher. And the combat, which happens in real-time instead of using RPG-style turns or meters, amounts mostly to locking on to an enemy and pumping the single attack button till he pops, exploding in a piñata-like rain of cash, health or magic orbs, and other items.