As fans of Kingdom Hearts await the arrival of the third non-handheld game in the series, Square Enix and Disney Interactive Entertainment have thrown them a bone with 358/2 Days. Whereas the first two games were 3D action role-playing game on the Playstation 2, this shrinks down the action onto the DS, (but remember, good things come in small packages). 358/2 Days slots in after the first Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, but before and at the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts II, and before Kingdom Hearts Coded (so far only released in Japan).

Confused? 358/2 Days is not a game for those uninitiated in the mythology of Kingdom Hearts, a series where Square Enix has created a complex plot inter-weaved through worlds based on Disney films and featuring their many characters, and the odd Square Enix character too. However, if you've gotten over this first hurdle, then a gem of a game awaits you.

There's just not enough ugly characters these days

You play as Roxas, a Nobody (someone who has lost their heart, but not died) with no memory of his past, recruited to the mysterious Organization XIII. Prized by the heads of Organization XIII due to his ability to wield the legendary weapon the Keyblade, which can retrieve hearts, Roxas is swiftly set off on duties, often with other members of Organization XIII, to gather hearts from strange creatures named Heartless (I think something may have been lost in translation here). Organization XIII's goal: to create the mythic Kingdom Hearts. With the addition of the fourteenth member of the Organization, Xion, soon Roxas realises that not everything is as it seems and that he is pawn in a much larger battle of good versus evil.

When you start the game you can choose one of three difficulty settings that you cannot change once you've started. Each day in the game, Roxas has one or several missions, some of which are mandatory and others optional. Later on, Roxas can go back to specific days and redo missions or take on previously unfinished ones from Holo-Missions. A mission usually lands you in a world full of Heartless that you need to dispatch, and an objective that you must carry out to fill the Mission Gauge, eventually gaining Mission Complete and the ability to leave the world. Missions that are not optional will advance the story.