Nerd Mentality

Shark Jumping and Kingdom Hearts

Posted November 19th 2009 by Jordan Mammo.

Bob Mackey over at 1up.com is dismayed because he thinks that Kingdom Hearts' appeal is shrinking because it takes itself and its story too seriously. In a kind and rational world, this series' appeal would have shrunk soon after the original title was released and people realized it was a hackeneyed piece of trash, but alas, people actually bought it in droves. So, that leaves us here: living in a world where despite not having released a home console sequel in four years or so, Square-Enix continues to move impressive amounts of copies of the franchise's spin-offs.

Any shock over this franchise's consistent descent into the deeper levels of dreck is actually kind of strange to me, because this was probably the least surprising trajectory for the series to take. If the soil of Kingdom Hearts was ripe for anything it was for fetishism and for taking itself too seriously. Nevermind that fundamentally the game was a mess and executed almost nothing well (I swear I make sense even though in hindsight I sound like a raging maniac). Sure, it could have realized that it was about a kid running around Disney World with furry animals that talk and big yellow clown shoes and a giant key which is used for a sword, but come on. This is an industry that took Sonic the Hedgehog and gave us this and this.

For some inexplicable reason, videogame fandom has pressured more and more developers to take their projects into more "serious" directions, which usually means that we end up with schlock. Kingdom Hearts was already guilty of this before its sequels, and since Sonic the Hedgehog became a safe haven for furry fantasies it has done the same. It doesn't stop there, though, because we need Super Mario and Zelda to have deep, substantive stories as well. What's interesting is that most of these titles had better and more powerful narratives before strange cut-scenes involving large cartoon hedgehogs interacting with realistically-rendered humans got thrown into the mix. Fanbases began clamoring for things like "depth" and saying things like "Game X was cool but I hope they take it in a darker direction next time!" People seem to care more about referencing an archetypal trope than if that reference is actually executed well. I don't know if some people are just scared to be seen playing a colorful videogame that doesn't involve some kind of existential breakdown or what, but if some of this stems from a need for this hobby to be validated in the eyes of the wider public, I don't really think this is the way to do it.

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