Kingdom Hearts for the PS2 is a spectacular crossover title that proved Disney could be extremely cool when combined with Final Fantasy characters. With the sequel months away, Square Enix is graciously giving us Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance to tide us over. It's a fantastic-looking adventure title that features many of the first game's beloved characters but incorporates new twists to the gameplay, and from the looks of it, the game's nothing short of amazing.

Chain of Memories picks up right after the original. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Pluto are celebrating victory, but still miss their friends. Suddenly, a mysterious figure appears and informs Sora that "ahead lies something you need, but to claim it you'll have to lose something dear." Curious as well as confused, the party is led to Castle Oblivion, and once inside, Donald and Goofy are transformed into cards and Sora loses his memories, including all of this skills and magic attacks. To reclaim them, he must explore every room of the strange castle.

Chain of Memories covers a lot of familiar territory while incorporating a new gameplay system into the mix to keep things fresh. The castle rooms are based on locales from the original Kingdom Hearts, so you'll definitely feel a bit of deja vu as you encounter enemies that you vanquished in the last game, but you won't simply beat them to a pulp with your giant key. While the game is sort of a platform adventure title, its battle system is card based. At the outset you're given a deck of cards, each one containing a numerical value from 0 to 9. While fighting against an enemy, the one who plays the card with the highest numerical values strikes first. As you progress, you'll gain new cards, and it's possible to combine cards to unleash destructive combos or use them to access certain areas. Some cards may be fire or ice attacks, while others will let you summon popular Disney and SquareEnix characters (the Genie from Aladdin, for example) that'll do extreme amounts of damage. Others will allow you put enemies to sleep or cause them to disappear entirely. You'll gain more cards from opening treasure chests and defeating enemies, and it may be possible to use powers from defeated creatures against new foes.

Kingdom Hearts' visuals are simply outstanding. The game's played from an isometric perspective, and its 2D character sprites are exquisitely detailed and the same goes for the environments. The areas based on Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Alice in Wonderland, and Hercules are expertly crafted and look fantastic, though they aren't the only fantasy worlds you'll visit, and SquareEnix has promised that there will be a few surprises along the way. There are even anime clips, though their level of quality is unknown.

Nintendo fans have been clamoring for more Square Enix love and Chain of Memories is a divine gift from the RPG gods. It's gorgeous and has a gameplay system that sets it apart from its predecessor. Also, it's good to know that this is an extension of Sora's adventure instead of some ridiculously unrelated title like Crystal Chronicles. Charge up your GBAs and prepare to immerse yourself in a rich and detailed world full of mystery and intrigue when Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories releases December 7, 2004.