Kingdom Heartshas been uniquely spread across platforms. The series started with a PS2 game, then began releasing installments on handhelds immediately after - games that were too relevant to the ongoing plot to be dismissed as spin-offs. Thus beganKingdom Hearts' bizarre history of releasing one or two games on a platform and then moving on to a different one. The handheld games have finally become widely available thanks to the release ofKingdom Heartscollections on console and PC, but for a while it was hard to approach any game in the franchise.
Kingdom Heartshas done its best to hold some presence in every console generationsince the PS2. Seeing as how most modern handhelds are made by Nintendo,Kingdom Heartshas spent a fair amount of its history on Nintendo hardware like the 3DS. Recently, cloud versions of the entireKingdom Heartsfranchise were released on Switch under the titleKingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece. Even if these aren’t the ideal versions of the games, it still feels right to haveKingdom Heartsbe collected on the latest Nintendo handheld.
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Kingdom Hearts' History With Nintendo Consoles
Kingdom Hearts 1started its life on the PS2 in 2002, and in 2004Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memorieswas released on the Game Boy Advance.Kingdom Hearts 2returned to the PS2in 2005, andRe:Chain of Memorieswould finish the series' tenure on PS2 in 2007. The next five years would contain the bulk ofKingdom Heartshandheld games. Things started weakly withKingdom Hearts Coded, an episodic phone game only released in Japan. Then 2009 would pick things up with the release ofKingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, a Nintendo DS exclusive where players got to control the members of Organization 13. This was quickly followed up in 2010 byKingdom Hearts Birth by Sleepon the PlayStation Portable, as well asKingdom Hearts Re:Codedon the DS.
Things came to an end afterKingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distanceon the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. The seven years between it and 2019’sKingdom Hearts 3were filled with collections that ported every majorKingdom Heartstitle to PlayStation, and later Xbox, platforms - alongside the release of themobileKingdom Hearts Crossseries. It took untilKingdom Hearts: Melody of Memoryin 2020 for the franchise to return to a Nintendo system, and by that pointKingdom Heartsgames were finally all available on multiple platforms.
Kingdom Hearts Is Finally Available Everywhere
The trend of Nintendo consoles receiving exclusiveKingdom Heartstitles does not need to continue, especially now that the series is entering a new era. It’s better for games furthering the plot to come to all consoles. Square Enix seemingly reached that same conclusion afterDream Drop Distance, which is why there was a five-year push to getthe entireKingdom Heartsseries remasteredon PS3 and PS4. With the three collections further grouped into one complete collection, Xbox consoles and PC finally got the games as well. Amid all of this, it seemed strange that the Switch was not being prioritized despite several games having originally released on Nintendo hardware.
Now the cloud versions of all remasteredKingdom Heartsgames andKingdom Hearts 3have come to Nintendo Switch. These cloud ports are far from ideal, as fans have been reporting a litany of issues with them. Still, this means that the fullKingdom Heartsfranchise is available on every platform for the first time in its life. This level of parity is something that fans likely never thought possible from the disjointed releases of the series. Hopefullythe nextKingdom Heartstitlewill also be available on multiple consoles at launch, and either the Switch or the next Nintendo system will have better ports by then.
Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpieceis available now for Nintendo Switch.
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