Editor’s note: This review was written by Terone Burgenheim, a game design student at Full Sail University. Terone started playing games when he was knee-high to a grasshopper. His first game system was a small Donkey Kong mini-arcade that you had to put your face up against to see the screen. Later, his family got the Nintendo Entertainment System that came packaged with Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. Terone had all the normal games for the original Nintendo. As far back as he can remember, his favorite game was RC Pro-AM. Terone would play that game for days, as well as Zelda and just about any RPG that tickled his fancy. His family was rather poor back in those days, so his next game system was a book about Dungeons and Dragons. It’s all history from there. Terone hopes to one day recreate all the best parts of all the best adventures he experienced playing Dungeons and Dragons and all the consoles, as well as some new and fantastic adventures no one has ever seen. His main game focus is PC, and his goal is to be as well-rounded as possible to be the best game designer he can be.

When I heard that Square-Enix was teaming up with Disney to create a videogame, I was curious what Square-Enix talent could produce when set free on the beloved Disney universe. I never played the first Kingdom Hearts, so I didn’t know what to expect when I borrowed the game’s sequel from a buddy. I am also a purist: When I try a game for the first time, I don’t read any reviews or the manual, except for the basic controls page. Nor do I allow anyone to tell me anything about it until after I’ve played.

The beginning full-motion video took me by surprise. The amazing music and extremely crisp graphics set me up for a game that I was sure was full of action and adventure. Watching Sora, the main character, running around with a Keyblade, smashing little dudes to the tune of some nice techno music was a treat. Then seeing Donald Duck with a wand and Goofy with a shield pounding the little guys into the ground ... I was excited to say the least.

I am a purist and don’t read game reviews until after I’ve played; the majority of them just regurgitate the plot points, then add complaints here or there. I decided as I wrote this review that I wasn’t going to do this. Instead, I want to tell you about my experience and allow you to come to your own conclusions. Besides, there is power in silence.

The start of Kingdom Hearts 2 slowed things down from the intense action-oriented movie I had first seen. The story in the beginning was obviously engineered to get you used to the controls and introduces you to what’s going on. It also allowed Square-Enix to show its quality of writing, humor and fun that was carried throughout the entire game. I was surprised to see how uncomplicated but also how fun the combat parts were. That’s a rather tough thing to pull off, in my opinion.

Eventually, I finished the introduction and started the real adventure. Incredibly, the game is Disney that you play through. It is an amazing concept that Sora enters the various Disney worlds, like The Lion King or The Pirates of the Caribbean, to battle the main antagonists. In world of The Lion King, called the “Pride Lands,” Sora turns into a little lion cub and carries his Keyblade in his mouth. This shows the amount of thought Square-Enix put into Kingdom Hearts and the story. Little nuances like this help maintain the believability and fun factor. It wasn’t just Sora entering these different worlds and everyone is automatically OK with it; he had to fit in somehow so the tenants of these worlds wouldn’t freak out.

Another awesome concept is the Gummi ship. You can build your own spaceship any way you want (but with boundaries) and fly through a 3-D space-shooter when traveling to the different Disney worlds. It was very fun and addictive. Many hours were spent designing cool Gummi ships.

It is obvious Square-Enix worked from the bottom up to ensure its tempo and standards were held throughout Kingdom Hearts 2. They never fudged just to make sure something fit. Everything fit perfectly.

Square-Enix never faltered on the lavish graphics, voice acting and music. Each world was painstakingly polished to ensure a continuous and coherent design in all aspects considered, and all homage was paid to the piper of the original Disney worlds. Aspects of the best Square-Enix RPGs are there: skill trees, summoning and magic. Once again, these are packaged nicely with the simple but intuitive controls, allowing focus on what’s going on rather than menu management. None of the skills are hardwired either; you can go back and rebuild Sora at any time to fit any situation on the fly if need be.

The combat for Kingdom Hearts 2 is superb in its flexibility and glamour. The various “Drive Forms” are downright cool. The Keyblades are incredible in their design as well as the special effects that come with them. In some instances, especially with the forms that wield two Keyblades, you can’t even see Sora under the cloud of special effects as you lay waste to droves of baddies. You can even engineer Sora to the point he never touches the ground during combat, explosively colliding with enemy after enemy in a profound torrent of relentless torment.

Some of the other Kingdom Heart 2 reviews I’ve read mention that the combat is a button-mashing frenzy. This is partially true, as combat does come down to just a few buttons on the controller. This is also an absolutely absurd comment to make. Of course combat comes down to hitting buttons. The controllers have many buttons on them so our commands can be executed by our character in the game. This applies to any game you play. Sarcasm warning: “How dare the creators make me press buttons to play the game!”

I think Kingdom Hearts 2 is a game you must play or buy because there has never been a game like this before. If you play games for their stories and adventure, you will be fulfilled. If you play games for the combat, you won’t be disappointed. Overall, the game is a relief and vacation from the majority of other games. Some refuse to try Kingdom Hearts because Disney is all over it, but trust me: It really is a game for all ages. If you’ve ever paid attention to Disney movies, you’ll know they always put some humor and nuances in there for the adults watching the movies. Those are all over this game. You’ll laugh your pants off many times.