Released in 2002, Kingdom Hearts was the first joint endeavor of Disney Interactive and SquareSoft entertainment. Although both sides say that the other started negotiations for making this game, it still proved to be a huge success. Once released abroad, however, Japanese fans were disappointed that the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts was lacking the three optional bosses (Ice Titan, Kurt Zisa, and Sephiroth which, of course, was the greatest source of annoyance). Thus Square and Disney's Japanese headquarters decided to release a revamped version of Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. Not only does this new release sport the optional bosses included in the American/European release, but has an extra boss battle against one of the Nobodies (the Unknown), and extra cutscenes, including what happens to Riku after being locked behind the door to Kingdom Hearts (i.e., how he ends up in Castle Oblivion in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories) and the epic battle between Cloud and Sephiroth (shown after you defeat Sephiroth in the Coliseum), amoung others.

The battle system is great. You can move backwards, forwards, left, right, up, down, jump, spin around, anything that a real person could do while fighting, with none of that scrolling or two-directional battles you get in most other games. Also, the enemies appear right in the area, instead of the characters being taken to another screen to do battle in (a la FF VII and Chrono Cross). You can use physical attacks, magic, and abilities (the last two are learned in different parts of the game). The storyline is also pretty cool, what with the travelling to different worlds and all. A great game to play, and guaranteed to make you want to keep on playing.