Yep, it's true. Japanese Goofy sounds like the Swedish Chef. Yes, I laugh every time I hear him speak. It isn't that the seiyuu did a bad job with matching Goofy's voice. He actually nailed how Goofy would sound if he spoke Japanese. It just unfortunately sounds like the Swedish Chef. However, Goofy is supposed to sound funny, so it works, but on a level they probably didn't intend.

I have temporarily forsaken KH2 to play the Final Mix of Chain of Memories. Is not knowing the language annoying? Only in one area because I can't read Japanese. There are quite a few cut-scenes where the characters have rather lengthy conversations that are written instead of spoken. They don't hinder me from the game because I've already played this game before, so I don't need to be able to read them to understand the story. My lack of knowledge of the language doesn't faze me in the slightest during the spoken conversations. I could listen to some of those voices for hours on end, particularly Axel's voice. Sora's voice is nice too. No need to go into Goofy's or Donald's voices.

I really only have one complaint about this game: the camera. They fixed the camera in KH2, so why the camera has gone back to the wonky style of the original game is beyond me. I am constantly adjusting my view. Also, since this game is 3D, not having the top-down view from the 2D original version does make battle slightly more difficult. It's still fun, just a bit more challenging.

Thankfully, the game isn't exactly like the GBA version. They included new map cards (that I need to use to find out what they do... if I could read Japanese it probably would help, but this could still be fun to rush in blindly) and new obstacles in the rooms. For example, in Wonderland (ah, we all know how much I loved this world in the first game), you have to destroy certain flowers to gain access to the doors. Wonderland also has a fun and exciting flower that shoots confusion gas at you. Thank God you can destroy that flower as well. I think it took me ten minutes just to get to a door thanks to that flower having guard duty and superb aim.

CoM has become a fun game to play for an hour, blaze through a floor, and put it away for the next night. (I uh, have a problem that if I play games too closely to bedtime that I will be up all night. Games relax some people; they over-stimulate me.) This will probably be a weekday game and then KH2 will be the weekender as I cannot play that game for one world and stop. It's like Lays potato chips. Or a Toberlone. I had originally put KH2 aside since Shawn wanted to be around when I make it to the Tron world, but as he's about to start a heavy, HEAVY traveling schedule, he'll just have to miss out. By the time he's finished traveling, I'll be playing KH3 on the PS3.

I'm still plodding along in KH2. Last weekend called for me to be social with friends and unfortunately a little hungover the next day, and then my Mom played the Mom-card this past weekend so very little KH2 time since my last report. However, I have played it enough to start unlocking the "missions" *coughcoughannoyingmini-gamescoughcough* in Jiminy's Journal, and I have to ask what is up with the skateboarding mini-games.

I don't care that they are a little fun. My point is that they seem so out of place. Okay, sure, I'll buy skateboarding through Twilight Town when you begin play as Roxas. You have street gangs and nerf bats that knock orbs out of you, so I'll take the skateboarding there. But Sora... skateboarding through Port Royal?? Skateboarding in Santa's workshop?? How does that even fit in with the gameplay in the slightest? At least the mini-games at the Olympus Coliseum fit with the gameplay. I can think of tons of better and better fitting mini-games to sport in Port Royal and in Santa's workshop. (Although I do admit... Sora in Santa's workshop was kind of surreal as well. But it was worth it just to hear Maleficent say "Santa Claus.") I'm afraid to open my strategy guide to see other places that require skateboarding to complete a mini-game. I think I remember seeing a skateboarding game in Agrabah just before I closed my game for the day yesterday. Why a skateboard? Is the flying carpet not good enough?

So I really do wonder if some of the game designers are either skateboarding amateurs, pros, wannabes, or maybe they were very deprived as children and never experienced the joy of rolling down the street on a plankboard and wheels. Or was Tony Hawk one of the developers? That would make sense. Maybe he thought that Disney's Aladdin was incomplete without a good halfpipe.

Item number one:
http://advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=9702

I don't think I need to go into this too much. I think everyone knows that anything Kingdom Hearts is fantabulous in my book. Apparently I'm one of the few people that has actually played Chain of Memories, so of course I'll be buying any KH side-story that is released. I just hope that it doesn't come out on the PS3 until after I have $600 to blow. Or until after Sony gives their precious a precious price cut.

Harry Potter for the Wii
I'm not big on movie-based games. I bought the first Harry Potter game for the PS1 years ago and got bored rather quickly. Of course, that could be because it was my first game to play with an analog controller and I sucked hard at it. Not to mention, it was riddled with mini-games. I don't think I need to delve any further into that. Despite all my misgivings about movie-based games, and that the fifth book is my least favorite, I am stoked about this game for one fact alone: I get to wave the Wii-mote around like a wand. I really don't need any other motivation to purchase this game.

Naruto for the DS
Finally, a handheld Naruto game that isn't for the GBA. From what I can see from the trailer, they've fixed a lot of the little annoyances from the last few Ninja Councils. However, this doesn't excite me as much as Naruto for the Wii. I know that it will be impossible to not look like a dork while performing said ninja-like movements, but if I cared about that, I wouldn't have a Wii in the first place. Or a DDR pad for that matter.