Kingdom Hearts turns 20 years old in March 2022, and it is every bit as beloved to fans as it was when it launched for the PlayStation 2. In celebration, the 3 main games will be coming digitally to the Nintendo Switch, so fans are going to be brushing up on their favorite adventures.
Kingdom Hearts has seen many Disney-themed worlds throughout its various installments. While these worlds gave fans the opportunity to explore the lands from their favorite Disney movies, they also presented different challenges. Some were fun and exciting every step of the way, while others left players just desperately trying to make it through so they can finally move on to the next world.
Best Worlds
5. Olympus Coliseum
The Olympus Coliseum is the Hercules world and a place where you can go to be turned from zero to hero. Phil is there to give you different challenges to complete and enemies to fight, allowing you to stay brushed up on your skills.
The Coliseum is simply a lot of fun. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from what you really should be doing and make your way through some challenges. You can also battle a lot of cool Square characters, like Cloud and Sephiroth himself. While Kingdom Hearts 3 saw Olympus turned into a more traditional style world, fans couldn't help but miss the original Coliseum.
4. Neverland (Birth by Sleep)
In Birth by Sleep, you can visit Neverland as Ventus, Aqua, and Terra. Each way, exploring the island is a lot of fun. Unlike in Kingdom Hearts 1 where you only see Captain Hook's Ship, the whole island is available to explore, with visually striking forests and waterfalls.
The Captain Hook Boss battle was good as well. Hook may be a little dopey, but he is challenging to beat. The only thing that would have improved the fight would have been the ability to fly. However, Neverland is still, overall, a very enjoyable world.
3. Pride Lands
Lion King was a favorite Disney movie for many, so the idea of being able to run around as a lion cub version of Sora sounded extremely satisfying for many fans. The mechanics of the world are a little different, with Sora holding the keyblade in his mouth, but it isn't horrible to get used to and gamers particularly liked the change of pace.
The battle with heartless Scar, a villain fans love to hate, was a lot of fun as well. The story went very similarly to the movie, but the added touch of Scar pulling himself back up the cliff for the boss battle is pretty thrilling.
2. Corona
Between the release of the last two games, there were a great number of new Disney movies fans wanted to see appear as new worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3. One that fans were hoping for the most was the world of Tangled, and they were not disappointed.
The Kingdom of Corona was breathtaking. Between the forest scenery and within the kingdom walls, the vibes of this world are just plain good. Players enjoy the boss battle as well, with Mother Gothel transforming into a giant heartless at her secret forest tower.
1. Timeless River
In Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora travels to Timeless River; a world that is all in the classic Disney art style from the 1920s. Each Disney character in the game has a Timeless River counterpart. So when Sora faces off against Pete, it is with the help of Captain Pete from the past.
Gamers can really tell that the creators had a lot of fun with this world. Sora's design in Timeless River is really neat, and everything being in black and white was a really cool touch. Overall, it's hard not to enjoy this clever world.
Worst Worlds
5. Port Royal
With The Pirates of The Caribbean movies being so popular, a lot of fans were excited to see that Port Royal would be included in Kingdom Hearts 2 and that Captain Jack Sparrow, one of the best Disney character portrayals in the game, would be joining Sora, Goofy, and Donald. However, this world stopped being fun very quickly.
Sora's Port Royal design is pretty cool, and the scenery is as striking as you would expect a Caribbean island to be, but the amount of work that it takes to kill the Black Pearl's pirates ruins all the fun. They can only be killed in skeleton form, which means getting them into the moonlight, a task much more difficult than it would seem. Ultimately, gamers grow sick of this world a little too quickly.
4. Arendelle
Frozen was another favorite Disney movie that was released between the 2nd and 3rd Kingdom Hearts games. With all the opportunities that snow and ice have in regards to gaming, fans were intrigued. However, Arendelle really didn't hold up to its potential.
Gamers found that in this world, they were climbing a mountain more times than they wanted, and essentially just watching the Frozen movie again. Sora, Donald, and Goofy felt totally out of place and really didn't contribute to the story much. This world's only redemption is Hans's heartless form, which was a giant ice wolf and one of the hardest boss battles in Kingdom Hearts 3, but other than that this world didn't offer much.
3. Deep Jungle
There were plenty of pros and cons to Tarzan's world in Kingdom Hearts 1. Surfing along branches was good fun, and fighting Clayton on a giant chameleon wasn't the worst, but what really did it for this world is the frustrating sequence where Sora has to jump from vine to vine in order to get where he needs to go.
Players have to jump in just the right way while trying to keep a conducive camera angle, and it essentially leaves them ready to burn the whole jungle down. As only the second world in the game series, the games get considerably more enjoyable after this world is completed.
2. Wonderland
Wonderland was just as trippy as you would expect from an Alice in Wonderland world, but that makes the world generally confusing. Trying to get anywhere quickly turns into a nightmare. As the first world, it seems as if it should have been as user-friendly as possible to help ease players in, but really it is one of the harder worlds in the game.
This is all mostly due to the boss, a giant monster made of playing cards, that players had to fight in a room with a tiny door. When a player still isn't used to the game mechanics, trying to beat this boss is frustrating and makes it hard to want to continue.
1. Atlantica
Atlantica is another would that really should be a lot of fun, but is pretty universally considered to be the worst world of all the games. In Kingdom Hearts 1, The Little Mermaid world's water and swimming mechanics make movement so sluggish and difficult, that getting around and fighting feels like running through mud.
In Kingdom Hearts 2, the swimming problem was resolved, as the game turns into a DDR-with-a-controller sort of game. This isn't as bad as the swimming but still doesn't match the potential that this world could have had.