Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories On Your PS2

Kingdom Hearts, prior to its release, was often scorned by gamers and thought of as Square selling out with Disney. But, once released, all the negative chatter ended and praise began. Following the first game on Playstation 2 was a Game Boy Advance release called Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories that picked up right where the first game left off. A port of the GBA game was included with Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix for Playstation 2 which was released in Japan last year. Now we in the West are finally going to get our hands on that console version with Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories on December 2.

Since the game has already been ported from GBA to Playstation 2, the only work left to do will be the addition of American voice acting, additional challenges (like new mini-game sequences), and possible tweaks for American gamers.

Square Enix appears to have revived this earlier game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise to advertise the two newest games they have slated for upcoming release: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PSP) and Kingdom Hearts: 352/2 Days (DS).

The second iteration PS3 supported PS2 through its “Graphics Synthesizer” GPU, which was removed from the 40 GB, current 80 GB, and 160 GB models. That’s unfortunate, as bringing in both the PS2 and PS3 for this release would increase sales dramatically.

It is disappointing that Square Enix and Sony did not think to offer Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories as a PSN download as well as a PS2 retail disc. That would have helped warm PS3 owners to the idea of the rumored Kingdom Hearts III while also allowing Square Enix to continue milking one of their lucrative franchises even further.