Have you watched the last Smash Bros. Ultimate announcement yet? Yep, Sora is coming to Smash Bros.! And that’s not all, Square Enix still has another surprise up its sleeve. Along with the DLC announcement for the Switch exclusive game, the company has released a teaser trailer for Kingdom Hearts‘ 20th Anniversary Event. Details regarding the event will follow at a later date, however, the trailer highlights several upcoming projects to celebrate the franchise anniversary.
Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece for Cloud collection coming to Nintendo Switch. As you can expect from the name, the game is only playable via online streaming like the Switch port of Hitman 3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Resident Evil 7. If you’ve watched the Super Smash Bros. stream though you probably already heard about it. The bundle contains all Kingdom Hearts games, but you can buy each one separately:
- Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix. Containing:
- Kingdom Hearts FINAL MIX.
- Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories.
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (HD Remastered Cinematics).
- Kingdom Hearts II FINAL MIX.
- Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep FINAL MIX.
- Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded (HD Remastered Cinematics).
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. Containing:
- Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD.
- Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-.
- Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover (movie).
- and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind DLC.
The mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross], which was shut down in June 2021, now has a free offline version where players can watch all the story bits in the app’s Theater Mode. Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, the final chapter to Kingdom Hearts Union χ, will be released this winter. Adding most gameplay features of the online version to the offline app.
And of course, last but not least, a bunch of brand new Kingdom Hearts‘ 20th-anniversary celebration merchandise will also be available for you to buy. The trailer showcased only two items, an exclusive chessboard, and a black-and-white travel suitcase, but many more will come and purchasable items will differ per region.
The Square Enix and Disney action RPG crossover series Kingdom Hearts debuted for the PlayStation 2 on March 28, 2002. Before this rerelease, rhythm spinoff Melody of Memory and the original Dream Drop Distance are the only two playable titles on Nintendo consoles. Despite only having three mainline games, the series is not just notorious for combining the light-hearted Disney stories with wacky hijinks about darkness, light, heart, and everything in between, but also for releasing around nine spin-offs with confusing names that completely overwhelms any newcomers to the series. I mean, how do they come up with subtitles like “358/2 Days” or “0.2” anyway? Thankfully, you will be able to spend dozens of hours trying to decipher to whole Kingdom Hearts saga yourself with the Switch port — or you can read our write-up of the franchise in just a few minutes instead. Stay tuned at The Nerd Stash for more nerd and gaming updates.
