Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is the GBA sequel to Kingdom Hearts, which features established characters from both the Final Fantasy and Disney franchises alike. The story follows Sora, the master of a weapon known as the key blade, on his quest to find his friends Riku and Kairi. With the help of many familiar faces, including Goofy and Donald, as his main back up, Sora must destroy monsters called the Heartless along the way.

The game begins with a fully 3D movie clip, which looks simply amazing on the GBA, setting the scene for the story. Whilst walking along a path to nowhere, a man in a cloak appears, telling Sora that ahead lies something he desires but to gain it he must lose something dear. Not long after walking up the path, Sora, Goofy and Donald come across a mysterious building called Castle Oblivion and thus the game begins. It's hard to describe what happens in the storyline without spoiling it, but it progresses really well and keeps you hooked for hours on end. The main focus of the whole game is based on cards, which might put a lot of people off but the system is implemented into the game very well so don't stop reading just yet!

The game is set in floors of the castle and as each level finishes, Sora moves up a level. To access a level, you must choose from a range of world cards, chosen from the array of Disney movies accessible in the game. The backgrounds and dungeon-esque worlds are impeccable replicas of the original movies, with level designs that use lots of separate rooms that have the same sort of layout and composition. Rooms and levels open cards and these cards can have different effects on what lies ahead of you. For example, if you were to use a "Calm Bounty" card, the next room would have a treasure chest inside. This system works well and stops each world becoming boring or repetitive. Each level also has a boss and there are lots of different cards to unlock on as you progress.

Like its predecessor, the fighting is action based, using a 3D environment with 2D sprites and with the obvious actions such as jumping, attacking and dodging. However, your attacks are also based on cards. I can tell what you're thinking now, but this is nothing like Yu-Gi-Oh or any other card game! As I said, it is action based. In battle, you use action cards to perform moves; each card has a value and these are used to card break another card. If a card your opponent is using is lower than the card you use, it breaks the attack, obviously this can work both ways and with values from 0-9 (0 can be broken by anything but can also break anything). While you play through the game, you collect action cards that you can add to your deck. These cards represent what you can do in battle and there are several different types of cards - attack, magic, summon, potion and friend.

The cards can be combined to create different actions called sleights and magic cards of the same type can be combined to make a stronger spell with a much higher value. To toggle between your cards in your customised deck you press the shoulder buttons. This takes a while to get used to and can be extremely fiddly at times but it doesn't take anything away from the enjoyment of the battle system as a whole. This system operates like nothing that has been previously used and being unique there are no comparisons to be made with similar games. On the one hand it isn't necessarily quite as much fun as a normal action game but the originality is impressive and still very enjoyable.

Graphically the game is stunning, using well designed character sprites of Disney and Final Fantasy characters, with very creative designs for characters made specifically for Chain of Memories. There are lots of new characters in the game and with the high amount of characters that featured in the first game, you'd think that the designers would have used up all of their ideas already - yet each one is very unique. The Heartless designs are also very well made; there are new monsters on each world, each one looking sinister and fierce, with emphasis on the shadow look they represent, perfectly capturing what any normal being would be without a heart.

Those who have played the original game will recognise all the music straight away; each tune has been ripped straight out of Kingdom Hearts and changed into midis. They have done an excellent job with this, as all the music sounds almost exactly like the original pieces. The only problem with this, like in many RPGs, is that you are wandering around in the same world for awhile and you will hear the battle/boss music quite a lot, so it does tend to get repetitive. Still, at least the tunes are enjoyable to begin with and so it doesn't grate half as much as many other games on the GBA.

I was sceptical when I first heard that Square Enix was releasing a Kingdom Hearts game on GBA, wondering if the brilliance of the original could really be condensed into a handheld format. I must say I am really glad to have had the chance to play this game; it shows brilliant, original ideas mixed together with the quality we all expect from the franchise and in this respect it doesn't disappoint. With a story that lasts about fifteen hours, a versus mode to unlock and also a whole extra story mode to unlock, which also lasts about ten hours, this game will keep you going for a long time and value for money is certainly not an issue here!

Anyone who thinks that the Kingdom Hearts games are childish or too cutesy because they feature Disney characters and stories are missing out on a fantastic game with Chain Of Memories. The story is deep and intriguing, with very enjoyable and addictive gameplay. Even though it may not be the big, illustrious sequel Kingdom Hearts deserves, it is definitely a great title that fills in some storyline but also asks more questions than it answers. A must have for all Kingdom Hearts fans, as well as those who own a GBA, while those who truly despise playing card based games might want to rent the game just to check it out first.

Reviewed by Bill Long for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).