Sora's Adventure

***Sora's Adventure*** is a video game developed by Animation Magic and released for the Philips CD-i in 1999. A product of a compromise between Disney and Philips due to their failure to release Kingdom Heats on the SNES in 1995, with the help of Square Soft. The games have been subject to much criticism, and Disney and Square Soft do not recognize them as canon to the *Kingdom Hearts* series.

## Story

Sora, the protagonist of the series, complains to King Mickey and Queen Minnie that he is bored now that Kingdom Hearts is safe, to which the King replies that the peace *"Is what all true Keyblade Wielders strive for"*. Yen Sid, Mickey's old master, then visits the King and Sora on the Magic Carpet from Agrabah and tells them that Master Xehanort has taken over the far-off galaxy of worlds of Deep Jungle, Agrabah, Traverse Town and 100 Acre Wood, further explaining that only Sora can stop him. Sora is transported to Deep Jungle and shown by the wizard an island with giant stone statues known as the Keyholes of Evil, which he must locked with the Keyblade.

During Sora's time in Deep Jungle, Kairi is kidnapped by Master Xehanort and is kept in his lair. Later in his journey on Agrabah, Sora is sent to Fortress Tiger to retrieve the Treasure of Love for the Sultan. At the fortress, Sora finds what appears to be a sleeping Kairi. Upon awakening her, however, Kairi transforms into a Darkside Heartless. After defeating the Darkside, Sora retrieves the magic of Reflection, which allows him to reflect curses. Sora then proceeds to Traverse Town and battle and defeat Master Xehanort's minions, which includes another Darkside, a Stealth Sneak, a Guard Armor and Behemoth, from whom the Book of Winnie the Pooh is retrieved. A wizard named Merlin, who can use magic to put Sora into the book, reveals that Master Xehanort plans to destroy the Book itself because it is pure of light. After being teleported inside the book trekking through the now evil 100 Acre Wood, Sora gets to Master Xehanort's Lair, Sora finally reaches Master Xehanort, who attempts to recruit Sora with the promise of great power and the threat of murder if he does not comply, but Sora turns down his offer, leading to a final battle between the two. Sora emerges victorious by using the light. With Master Xehanort in gone once again, Sora finds and awakens Kairi and tells her that he had just defeated Master Xehanort, to which she is skeptical. Yen Sid appears and congratulates Sora on killing Master Xehanort. He shows Sora a vision of the recovering worlds and declares him the hero, as prophesied. Sora proceeds to declare himself to be the victor, but even still, Kairi refuses to kiss him as a reward.

## Gameplay

Sora's Adventure is different from most conventional *Kingdom Hearts* games in that it is played using a side-scrolling view. Stages are accessed from a world map which are selected with a cursor, with more areas becoming available as Sora progresses through the game. Stages consist of several sectioned areas within them, usually with multiple enemies in each section. If Sora loses all of his HP and perishes, a Continue screen with a counter will be displayed, allowing Sora to restart at the entrance of the area he was last in. If Sora however dies three times, he will be sent back to the world map and be forced to start over. Each stage has two Keyhole Maps that serve as exits; one at the beginning and one at the end. In addition to simply reaching the second Keyhole Map in each stage, some stages also have special items and power-ups in them that are necessary to progress through later areas. Sora encounters several NPC characters in certain stages who provide Sora with essential Magic and information, often requiring a specific item in return found somewhere else in the game.

Sora also collects Munny dropped by defeated enemies, which are used to buy extra equipment from Huey, Dewey, and Louie's shop in the Traverse Town area. Some items in the game also require Munny to use, and will use up a certain amount each time they are used.

Character interactions is achieved through the use of full motion video cutscenes, which are activated when Sora approaches a character and touches them with his keyblade. The game explains this by referring to Sora's keyblade as the "Smart Keyblade"; a keyblade Sora uses that cannot hurt friendly characters and instead encourages them to talk. The cutscenes use voice acting to provide Sora with instructions and story. Very little in-game text is encountered otherwise.