e3 2012

A Night Of Speed-Dating With Kingdom Hearts, Theatrhythm And Heroes Of Ruin

I’m in California this week for the purpose of checking out a bunch of video games that will be shown at E3 next month. I’m a pre-E3 judge*, you see, bouncing from one showcase with a game publisher to another, signing lots of paperwork in which I swear not to tell people about these games for a few weeks.


May 15, 2012
News

Kingdom Hearts 3D Trailer Is So, So Cheesy

Here’s an English-language trailer for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, for the Nintendo 3DS. Throwing Disney and Square Enix is still resulting in pretty much exactly what you’d expect it would.


May 11, 2012
News

When’s Kingdom Hearts 3 Coming Out? Leave That To Your Imagination And Baseball Analogies

It has been over a month since Kingdom Hearts 3D was released, and with no news on Final Fantasy XIII Versus other than the standard “stay tuned”, Weekly Famitsu asked director Tetsuya Nomura in an interview if Kingdom Hearts 3 was on the horizon.


May 9, 2012
News

Sounds Like Kingdom Hearts May Return To Home Consoles

Speaking with Game Informer Magazine, Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura said that while he’s always interested in making Kingdom Hearts games on new systems like the Vita, “It’s about time that Kingdom Hearts should go back to being on a console.”


April 19, 2012
In Real Life

A Look At Some Japanese Video Game Urban Legends

The gaming world is often full of myths and urban legends. This week, Japanese mag Famitsu covered a few and shed some light on the validity of some, but not all.


April 10, 2012
Nintendo

Jamming To The World Ends With You Remixes In Kingdom Hearts 3D

As Kotaku‘s own Kirk Hamilton pointed out last week, one of the most amazing things in Square Enix’s DS hit, The World Ends With You, was its techno/pop/rap soundtrack. While we aren’t getting a new game in the series anytime soon (if ever), we are getting the next best thing, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.


April 7, 2012
Nintendo

Kingdom Hearts 3D Is Both A Dream And A Nightmare

Kingdom Hearts is one of those series whose quality varies wildly from game to game. Sometimes they are nothing but near pointless filler while others are as solid as the numbered iterations in the series. Much like the “even-number Star Trek films curse”, fans of the series believe those Kingdom Hearts titles released on Nintendo consoles are doomed to be inferior. So does the 3DS’ Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance prove the pattern true once again or drop it like a bad habit instead?


April 4, 2012
In Real Life

One Man’s Tortured History With Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is a polarising series to say the least. People seem to love it or hate it with few standing in between. I am no different except that I fall into both categories. While I am a fan of the series, I am also incredibly critical of it. So with Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance‘s release on the 3DS this last week in Japan, let’s look back over the series as a whole from my personal point of view.


April 3, 2012
Nintendo

Watch Kingdom Hearts 3D’s New Battle Systems In Action

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance plays a lot like past titles in the series, especially Re:coded and Birth by Sleep, however there have been a few major changes.


March 31, 2012
In Real Life

The Cutest Little Final Fantasy Characters

The characters of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy — both ally and enemy — come from across all 13 Final Fantasies. Yet instead of mixing and matching art styles, Square Enix hired the Japanese design studio Monster Octopus to recreate all these Final Fantasy characters in their own cute, doll-like style.