"Kingdom Hearts" is a bit of a hard game to explain because of its extremely strange style. It's a battle-adventure with elements of role paying games spliced in that's set in multi-dimensional worlds of which some are like the beach societies of "Final Fantasy X" and others realms of Disney movies. That's right: Disney movies.

The game follows the adventures of Sora, your average spiky-haired Squaresoft underdog who lives on an island and dreams of sailing away with his friends. He's haunted by cryptic dreams that indicate that his life is worth much more than it seems to be.

And then Heartless shows up. Heartless is an evil black entity ala Sin from "Final Fantasy X" that is destroying worlds one by one. When Goofy and Donald Duck realize that the universe is threatened they begin a quest to save it with their divinely chosen hero, you guessed it, Sora.

While the story is a bit hard to swallow, it's not just an excuse to jump from one Disney world to another, no pun intended. The story makes sense in that vague earth-energy way that most of the installments "Final Fantasy" series do.

The best part of "Kingdom Hearts" by a light-year is the incredible graphics. Squaresoft has made a name for itself with cutting edge real-time animation in games like "Final Fantasy X" and movies like "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." "Kingdom Hearts" goes a step further and is able to perfectly capture the magic of Disney. The result is a game loaded with gorgeous three-dimensional worlds and almost every Disney character imaginable. Squaresoft stepped up to the challenge of translating 2D animation into 3D characters while preserving their unique movements and charm.

But while "Kingdom Hearts" is breathtaking graphically, it has a number of irritating gameplay problems. Even though the game is meant to be a real-time battle scenario, most of Sora's combat moves amount to mashing the attack button until he automatically destroys his foes. Even as he levels up and learns new combo and abilities, the battle never gets much more challenging than in the beginning.

Furthermore, most of the baddies are unique to each world and respawn infinitely. So after taking on a few and learning their weaknesses actually fighting them gets really boring really quickly. Most gamers will find themselves avoiding battles where possible because they end up being a fool's errand, except for when Sora has to take on a level boss. The level bosses are a lot of fun themselves, but repeatedly fighting Heartless gets old pretty fast.

The addition of non-player characters to Sora's party isn't really helpful either. Though there are a lot of characters who are available to help out, they tend to provide little real assistance than diverting monsters for a minute or two.

Furthermore, in this type of puzzle-solving and graphically stunning game deserves better camera controls. Sometimes it's hard to get the camera to be in the right position to see the action on the screen in places that require a player to move rather slowly through.

"Kingdom Hearts" isn't a role playing game, but it still retains a number of those basic elements like leveling up characters and gaining new abilities. The game is a long quest that is divided into numerous sub quests in each world. After each part is finished, the game treats you to a cut scene or rendered on-the-fly movie sequence.

Unfortunately, these ideas don't translate that well into a battle type game. The game can be tedious at times and because not enough information is given when quests are assigned to complete them without a lot of extra running around, players may get frustrated when they are looking for a checkpoint. Too often the mini-quests are of the find and seek or gather all the shiny object type found in games like "Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy." The concept behind such missions is less interesting than the storyline itself and ends up making players feel like they have obsessive compulsive disorder. Playing "Kingdom Hearts" might end up being Pavlovian response to get to the next movie sequence.

But gameplay issues aside, "Kingdom Hearts" pushes the envelope in most other respects. Not only has Squaresoft perfectly recreated Disney's characters visually, but they've gotten the voices to match too. And with acting heavyweights like "Sixth Sense" star Hally Joel Osmet lending vocal talent to this production, Squaresoft avoids a lot of the jarring translation problems that peek through in other members of their catalogue. The recognizable voices of the likes of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Jiminy Cricket are also captured with wonderful clarity. In fact, after playing this game for a while, it might be fun to try to remember Disney characters that aren't present; it's really tough to find one.

In the end, "Kingdom Hearts" is worth checking out if only for its jaw-dropping graphics. Any Disney fan would certainly get a kick out of this game, but fans looking for a solid action or RPG might be a bit disappointed. Those who are looking for a different style of game may enjoy "Kingdom Hearts," but it's probably a game to rent before you buy.

Contact C. Spencer Beggs at beggs.3@nd.edu

• `Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'
  
• `Kingdom Hearts'