Square Enix's 2002 smash hit action RPG Kingdom Hearts was one of those titles that critics were quick to point out just would not work. The blending of the Disney license with the company's celebrated Final Fantasy franchise at the time seemed preposterous and in danger of degenerating into a wishy-washy and wimpy piece of software. However, as you're probably aware, the rest was history. Square Enix successfully pulled it off despite a few technical issues, and the game has gone on to sell over a million copies. Last year Square Enix struck again with the enjoyable Game Boy Advance entry Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and now its developers are busy crafting the much anticipated PS2 sequel, Kingdom Hearts 2, and if its E3 showing was any indication, this one will become yet another runaway success.

Kingdom Hearts 2 takes place one year after Chain of Memories and opens in a place called Twilight Town. Sora is still searching for his lost friend, and his companions, Donald and Goofy, are trying to learn the whereabouts of King Mickey, who eventually shows up as a dark-robed figure that apparently joins Sora's party and fights alongside him. There are a lot of familiar faces in this game, which includes some of the more famous Disney and Square Enix characters such as Hercules, Arial, Peter Pan, Aladdin, Belle, the Beast, Mulan, and Auron from Final Fantasy X. However, as the saying goes, you've got to take the good with the bad, and with that being said there are a host of enemies that are going to pop up and make the lives of the good hearted particularly difficult. Not only do our heroes need to worry about a dark and mummified menace that's looking to wreck havoc upon their worlds, but the Heartless have also returned as well as a plethora of evil Disney characters such as Hades, Cerberus, and new to this game, a gigantic fire-breathing dragon boss that is encountered in Mulan's levels.

With evil threatening to destroy him, there's only one thing Sora can do, which is grab his key blade and come out swinging. Just like in the original game, defeated Heartless leave behind glowing orbs and other goodies that can be used to replenish Sora's health and manna, and while there are other features about Kingdom Hearts 2 that have no doubt been carried over from the previous titles, there are some new additions to the gameplay, most notably reaction commands and what's being referred to as drive mode.

Reaction commands enable Sora to deliver super powerful attacks on lowly enemies as well as titanic bosses or just evade a creature's special maneuver. This is achieved by tapping a button when a green triangle appears on an enemy. Take for example the gigantic dragon boss that you'll face in Mulan's world. This beast's twists and turns through the air and blankets the ground with fire. It's quite an impressive sight, but don't get caught looking for too long or the majority of Sora's health will be lost. However, as it swoops in to take a bite out of our hero you can evade this attack by executing a reaction command, then using a wind spot (these are located around the environment) to leap atop the dragon and bash away at its horns, which are the source of its power.

The same goes for the Cerberus, the three-headed pooch that would probably eat Shigeru Myamoto's Nintendogs as an appetizer. You can take advantage of a reaction command that enables you to deliver the big hurt on their heads and then whack away at them.