Sleeves make everything better. So does Disney. And keyblades. And punch. Man, we love punch.

Thanks ZeroGinc for the tip!

Available for pre-order now, they'll go on sale in April for ¥3800 (USD$40) a piece. There will be three figures to choose from: King Mickey, Christmas Town Sora (so seasonal!) and Cloud/Vincent.

Pre-order info below.

Pre-orders start for Kotobukiya's latest Kingdom Hearts figures [Tomopop]

Nowhere is the realization of flight grander or more satisfying than in video games. When done right, flying in a game can leave a lasting impression on both players and developers that impacts every game they play or make going forward.

Telltale Games designer Mike Stemmle pointed this out while demoing Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3 for me in September. I asked what gameplay inspirations helped him develop for Monkey Island and after a moment's pause he said, "Kingdom Hearts."

"Oh, because it has pirates?" I asked.

"No," he said. "It's the flying." The way the game introduces flying the player -– about halfway through its storyline after you've been running and jumping on the ground the whole time -– was like a revelation in game design for him. "Because once you get [to fly in Never Land], it's like you knew it was coming. It just felt right."

There's a fantasy fulfillment that comes with flying in video games. And even if flying in a game is just another way to get from point A to point B, it's appealing to a part of your senses that you don't use very much in everyday gameplay.

"We live in a very X, Y world," Dark Void Senior Producer Morgan Gray said. A veteran of flight games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, he knows his Z axis and isn't afraid to build his games around it. "If you look at … shooters, when they first came out, everything was flat. [There was] a roof over your head and walls on all sides. It was only really when you got to games … where you had enemies [above or below you] where you had to start exploring the Z axis."

Like Doom players that had to learn to use the mouse to enjoy Quake, your average gamer has to put in effort to master flight. Instead of thinking in only one or two directions, he or she has to think in a 360 degree bubble where enemies can come from any angle. They have to be aware of their character's (or aircraft's) physics so that they don't get lost when trying to execute a turn. Some games make it easier for the player by limiting the range of flight to forward-only like Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon; other games like Dark Void layer on tutorial after tutorial to make absolutely sure you internalize the controls before cutting you loose in the wild blue yonder.

By that same token, developers without Gray's flight-filled background have to work a lot harder to implement flying. Whereas Gray can look back over both his career and his childhood and see Chuck Yeager's face mocking him after Gray had crashed and burned in Advanced Flight Training, some developers only have memories of Star Fox or Wing Commander as their flying inspiration. They don't realize that there's more to flight than getting off the ground.

"Don't get me wrong," says Gray. "[Wing Commander's] level design was great, the ship design was great, progression was great. The actual nuts and bolts of flight? All pretty arcade-y because [it didn't feel] like there was meat to the simulation."

Developers with traditional level-making experience on shooters or adventure games that have the walls on all sides and the roof overhead have new challenges when making an enjoyable flying sequence or full game. They have to relearn how to organize a level around enemy spawn points in spaces with no walls or roofs.

"You really need to use enemies not only as a way of making a challenge for the player, but as defining space because [players] have to have that frame of reference for ‘where am I in the terrain?'" said Gray. "If you get [the timing right], it really gives the [flight] meaning and puts a plot to the [enemy] encounters. It's different than ‘And now we walk you in this room and find the blue key,' because you don't get blue keys in the air."

He compared a perfect flight level to a map called De Dust in Counter-Strike. To him, it was obvious that some developer had sat down with a stopwatch and timed how long it would take enemies to reach players when spawning from two different points on the map. That developer knew exactly where the player would be and what they would be doing when the enemy got to them, and they build the level outward around the player from that point.

Flying levels, Gray said, should be built the exact same way.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the upcoming Avatar for the Wii. A flight level with a giant lizard bird was the centerpiece of a demo given to me by creative director Daniel Bisson and he wasn't shy about telling me it was the hardest level to design. In early efforts, the enemies spawned too fast and the Wii Balance Board was over-responsive to even the slightest shift in weight, causing the lizard bird to pitch wildly and slam into spawning enemies. As the level developed, they added more environmental boundaries like tunnels and trees to define the flying space and confined 360 degree movements to quick time events.

So what began as a flying level instead turned into an arcade-style on-rails experience. Sure, you're up in the sky on the back of a bird. But, there's not much fantasy fulfillment and no raw freedom in having your hand held.

The trick is keeping reality from ruining fantasy. Yes, it's a lot of work to pilot an X-Wing in the Star Wars: Battlefront games; but if you get to blow up a TIE Fighter as a reward for your patience, you don't mind sinking effort into learning how to be a pilot. Likewise, War in the upcoming Darksiders would look silly with a pair of wings sprouting from his burly back; but hijacking a gryphon from an angel for a quick joyride through a ruined city appeals to the fantasy of the character and doesn't last so long that the game needs to bog the player down with real physics.

Above: The lone flying level in Darksiders.

With Crimson Skies and flight sims on side of the spectrum and our Star Foxes and Panzer Dragoons on the other, there are so many ways gamers can fulfill the fantasy of flight. Each new game that introduces a flying segment or builds its entire experience around the thrill of strapping on a jetpack builds on the collective fantasy gamers and developers share of taking to the skies.

The ultimate dream of flight in games, says Gray, is this: "I don't know where I'm at, but I'm having fun."

Image Cred — Kingdom Hearts
Title Image: The Fall of Icarus, Peter Paul Rubens, 1636

Birth By Sleep is an action RPG set ten years before the first Kingdom Hearts game. Be sure to check out our impressions on the game.

Apparently there's a board game-type of mode in Birth By Sleep that breaks up the hack 'n' slash monotony many non-KH fans complain about. The first I've heard of it appears in this magazine scan dug up by fans. According the amatuer translation, the board game mode is called Command Mode and playing the mode rewards you with power ups for your Command attacks in regular gameplay. I can't tell if it's optional like a lot of Final Fantasy grind-reducing mechanisms, or mandatory like the $#&%ing Gummi Ships.

The fan translation goes on to suggest that Board Points control movement on the Command Board and you get them by rolling dice. Landing on event spaces triggers chance cards and special characters will somehow help you during the board game by jacking Board Points from your opponent.

Hm. Didn't Devil May Cry 4 have something like this...?

Oh, also, there's a new character that appears in the scanned page. His name is something like "Master Eraqus" in English and the scuttlebutt is that this is supposed to be "Square" backwards. You know, like Disney's "Yen Sid" character.

New Scan Shows off Apprentice's Master, Land of Departure, Command Board [Kingdom Hearts Insider]

So if you ever wonder what I do when I'm not blogging my little heart out for Kotaku, go check out this massive feature I put together on the history of Kingdom Hearts. And thank your lucky stars you didn't spend three whole weekends replaying all the games back-to-back. Fangirl or not, that's enough to drive anybody insane.

Oh and before you ask me about Kingdom Hearts 3, I have no idea whether or not Square Enix and Disney have anything planned despite my extensive research. I'm still waiting for some kind of announcement out of the Tokyo Game Show about Kingdom Hearts prequel, Birth By Sleep for the PSP.

Keys To The Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far [GamesRadar]

All photos from Kiddy Land, a toy store in Tokyo's Harajuku district.

The July issue of Shounen Gangan features an eight-page preview chapter of the manga which basically re-hashes all the names and some of the neuroses of Organization XIII's members. The new character, Xion, also makes an appearance as the organization's 14th member that you never see or hear about in any of the other Kingdom Hearts games.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is out for the DS on September 29 and if you're lucky enough to be at Comic Con, you can catch a playable demo of it there — like this lucky guy. If you're like me and stuck waiting until September, you'll just have to settle for a fan translation of the manga.

While we're waiting, would anyone like to take a stab at explaining to me how Xion can be Kairi's Nobody when Naminé is already Kairi's Nobody? Is Kairi just so special she has to have two?

Kingdom Hearts - 358/2 Days 0 [One Manga]

Square Enix wanted to make a game starring Mickey Mouse, he tells Japanese game mag Famitsu, and Disney wanted a game starring Donald Duck. "Meanwhile," he says with a laugh, "I wanted neither."

What did Nomura want? "The first weapon I showed Disney was a chainsaw," he explains. He had a rough sketch of one in his first concepts he presented to Disney "Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room. Dead silencer. And I thought, 'No, I guess this wouldn't work, huh?'"

Oh but just think of the possibilities.

Tetsuya Nomura Discusses Kingdom Hearts' Past, Present [1Up]

But where is the one everyone is waiting for, Kingdom Hearts 3?

Kingdom Hearts designer Tetsuya Nomura says he already has ideas for the next installment. "But since Birth by Sleep isn't even out yet, I don't have to think about it until awhile from now," says Nomura.

According to Nomura, people have recently been asking him what he is planning for KH3. "KH3. Even though I'm currently busy with Final Fantasy versus XIII, I'm also thinking that it's almost time to start thinking about it seriously," he adds. "Though it's entirely possible that the next game in the series won't be KH3."

When pressed about the still-undevelopment-future KH title, he's tight lipped, but does say it will be more "official" than a KH side story. "I actually told the producer this recently, and he said "...what?" It's the mystery KH," Nomura says, laughing. "Of course, I am also thinking about KH3." Of course!

Ultimania Interview [Kingdom Hearts Insider via HEARTSTATION via GoNintendo]

Halo Mongoose
Due out in October, the Mongoose is built to accommodate McFarlane's line of 5-inch Halo 3 figures. It'll ship with a free Spartan, with three to choose from: an orange one, a "cyan" one and a "crimson & steel" guy that's exclusive to Diamond and Toys R Us.

Kingdom Hearts Statues
The third line of Square Enix's Formation Arts series of Kingdom hearts statues depicts six characters: Minnie Mouse, Captain Jack Sparrow, Sora, Pete, Axel & Ursula.

While they were released in Japan last year, you can now get them in the US from a number of outlets, including Square's official online store, where they're going for $17 a pop.

Metroid Statue (Custom)
If you can remember back to 2007, you'll probably remember the amazing custom Metroid figure by red3183 that put pretty much every officially-licensed Nintendo figure ever released to shame.

Well, the guy's continuing his love affair with Samus, and is putting the finishing touches to this custom bronze sculpt of the galactic heroine. Standing 11 1/2" and crafted out of solid bronze, it weighs a whopping 20 pounds, and would look perfect on your desk if you had some kind of important job with a corner office and a telephone with lots of blinking red lights.

The 2GB MP3 player is now available for sale at the Video Games Live online store, and will also be making appearances at the merchandising tables at Video Game Live concert events and eventually retail outlets. It a pretty standard player, though the VGL design on it is rather snazzy. The main selling point will be the 10 tracks of previously unreleased live recordings, with Halo, Kingdom Hearts, Warcraft, Castlevania, Myst, Mass Effect, Civilization IV, Tron, Earthworm Jim and Advent Rising tunes available exclusively on the device. Enticing, but is it $50 worth of enticing?

This probably would have been a very attractive deal a few years ago, but now that everything I own plays MP3s, I'm not seeing this flying off the merchandise table.

VIDEO GAMES LIVE PRE-LOADED MP3 PLAYER $50.00 [Video Games Live Store]

In honor of Mother's Day, we celebrate moms in gaming – from the bit parts to the big players. Some are examples of the best parenting you could imagine; and some are so evil, they're unfit to be called "Mom." Join us now as we separate the June Cleavers from the Joan Crawfords of video game mothers.

Mothers in… Role-Playing Games
Role-playing games have the highest number of moms of any video game genre. This is because RPGs have huge, sprawling plots with huge, sprawling towns and a huge, sprawling casts of characters who you may or may not encounter depending on how you play the game. In most RPGs, you see moms as non-playable characters in towns, in flashbacks depicting the hero's reason for revenge. Some RPGs even have them as playable characters or main villains. Sadly, RPGs are also the number one "mom dies" offender, as nearly every RPG features a plucky youth out to avenge a destroyed village that usually has within it a dead mother – or at least one that's been turned into a monster.

There are way more mothers in RPGs than we could count – especially if you're going through side quests, all PC RPGs, all Japanese RPGs that were never released in the US, Final Fantasy X-2 and every single optional flashback for every possible playable character. So we've populated this list with moms who 1) had the most impact on the game's main plot or that 2) appear in the game beyond a single expository cut scene. This leaves us mostly with moms who appear in Japanese RPGs; but be sure to apologize to your dead mother in Fallout 3 for us.

Mada, Dragon Quest V – Mother of the main character: Mada gets kidnapped and becomes the subject of his quest.

Matriarch Benezia, Mass Effect – Mother of Liara T'Soni: Benezia is enslaved and later killed by Shepard in battle, but she makes up with Liara right before dying.

Polka's Mom, Eternal Sonata — Mother of Polka: this country lady is very well adjusted to time loops and apparently never taught her daughter not to talk to strange 19th Century composers she might meet while wandering around at night.

Yohn, Suikoden Tactics — Mother of Kyril: Yohn is a mute demon trapped in the wrong world who sticks around to care for her son, even though he doesn't know who she is for pretty much the whole game.

Gina , Chrono Trigger — Mother of Chrono: In one of the game's endings, Gina accidentally goes into the time portal, thus restarting the whole plot from the beginning.

Jenova, Final Fantasy VII — Mother of Sephiroth (sorta): Jenova is... an alien? We're not even sure she's a she, but "she" spends a lot of time in a jar and looks creepy.

Angeal's Mother, Crisis Core — Mother of Angeal: This small-town lady is very nice to all of her son's friends from the army, even the ones that turn evil and cause her matricide.

Queen Brahne, Final Fantasy IX — Mother of the real Princess Garnet and foster mother to her lookalike of the same name: Brahne gets fat, turns evil, tries to kill her adoptive daughter and later repents and dies in Garnet's arms.

Sarah Sisulart, Lost Odyssey – Mother of Liram: Sarah goes a little crazy and turns herself into an old woman when she thinks her daughter's been killed, but turns back into a hot nerdy chick when she finds out she has grandkids.

Seth Balmore, Lost Odyssey – Mother of Sed: Seth is immortal, but her son isn't, which is sort of weird for both of them. But they're both pirates, so there's some common ground at least.

Best Mom: Yohn… because she's selfless as only a mother can be.

Worst Mom: Jenova… because she's emotionally unavailable. And responsible for Sephiroth.

Mothers in… Fighting Games
Fighting games have a fair few mothers among their playable characters. The plot structure (or lack thereof) leaves room for all kinds of people to enter whatever world championship fighting tournament of the week is going on for various reasons that don't necessarily make any sense. So if you can have a panda, a geisha, a cyborg and whatever the hell Voldo is supposed to be enter a tournament for personal gain, a mother doesn't seem like such a weird contender. Here's a list of a few prominent mommies:

Sophitia, Soulcalibur series – Mother of Patroklos and Pyrrha: Sophitia is an Athenian who fights on behalf of the Greek God, Hephaestus, to regain Soul Edge. The sword entwines itself with her daughter's spirit, forcing Sophitia to spend eternity defending Soul Edge from anyone who tries to claim it. She's protecting her daughter.

Michelle Chang, Tekken series – Mother of Julia: Michelle fights in one of the Iron Fist tournaments to rescue her kidnapped mother and then adopts an abandoned baby named Julia. Then Julia goes on to fight in an Iron Fist tournament to save Michelle when Michelle gets kidnapped. Circle of life.

Dural, Virtua Fighter – Mother of Kage: Dural probably started out as a good mom when she was human, but then she got kidnapped and turned into an evil cyborg. That knocks her out of the Mom of the Year running.

Jun Kazama, Tekken series – Mother of Jin Kazama: Jun is the Chosen One, a wildlife activist, and a single mom. Over the course of four games, she somehow found time to save pandas, birth a son, thrash a bunch of her extended family and possibly fake her own death or perhaps dies for real when her house burned down.

Nina Williams, Tekken series – Mother of Steve Fox via in-vitro fertilization: Nina is a world class assassin who gives birth to a son while in cryogenic sleep. Though it appears she couldn't care less that she has offspring, she does neglect to assassinate him. That counts as maternal instinct, right?

Maria, Dead or Alive series – Mother of Helena: Maria is a world class opera singer who had an affair with the head of a sinister corporation. She later took a bullet for her bastard daughter onstage in the middle of an aria… what a way to go.

Crimson Viper, Street Fighter IV – Mother of Lauren: C. Viper is a working mother in the spy profession. Her life's goal is destroying the weapons produced by a sinister corporation, but somehow she made room in her busy schedule to have a daughter.

Justice, Guilty Gear – Mother of Dizzy: No one's really sure how it happened – least of all Dizzy, who was found abandoned at age 3.

Best Mom: Maria… because nothing says "Mommy loves you" like taking a sniper's bullet to the heart.

Worst Mom: Crimson Viper… because she's a workaholic. Did she even call her kid after fights? No!**

Mothers in… Action/Adventure and Survival Horror Games
Here's where the role of the mother in video games become complicated. Because these types of games usually have a more focused plot than fighting or role playing games, adding a mother usually means casting her in a narrow role that doesn't include speaking parts. Occasionally, these moms even wind up as antagonists by default. However small their part, though, these mothers sometimes make an appearance worth mentioning. Here are a few notable examples:

The Queen, Ico – Mother of Yorda: She basically had a daughter so she could sacrifice the kid and live a bit longer. I guess some species do eat their own young, but jeez…

Annette Birkin, Resident Evil 2 – Mother of Sherry Birkin: Depending on how you play the game, Annette either hid the G-Virus in her daughter's locket or cures her daughter of the T-Virus. Either way, she did abandon her kid during a zombie apocalypse. Poor form, Mom.

Amelia Croft, Tomb Raider series – Mother of Lara Croft: Like her daughter, Mrs. Croft has issues with touching ancient artifacts she probably shouldn't. Luckily, Lara learns from her mommy's mistakes and everybody's happy… until Lara has to shoot zombie Amelia when they meet up in Underworld.

Mrs. Sanderson, Chibi Robo – Mother of Jenny: Mrs. Sanderson has real marital problems that cause her to lock herself in a bathroom and threaten divorce, leaving all the housework to Jenny and her toy robot.

Ex-Mrs. Hopkins, Bully – Mother of Jimmy Hopkins: This woman lacks both fashion sense and parental priorities. She ditches her kid at a boarding school to run off on a honeymoon with a new husband and then sends Jimmy a fugly sweater at Christmas.

Maggie Monday, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse – Mother of Andrew Monday: Like Jimmy Hopkins' mom, Maggie could use some priority adjustment. She lets her son's city get sacked by zombies and then becomes a zombie herself so she can marry Stubbs. This basically leaves Andrew with a wrecked city and a zombie for a stepfather. Thanks, Mom!

Ma Cipriani, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories – Mother of Toni: Toni never called his Ma while he was in hiding. Given that she dates guys who are into paraphilic infantilism, I can see why. Ma puts a hit out on her son and then calls it off in a fit of maternal pride when Tony finally becomes a made man.

Best Mom: Amelia Croft… because not even good moms get it right all of the time and how was she supposed to know that sword would teleport her, her husband would die and her daughter would be left an orphan?

Worst Mom: The Queen… because what she did to Yorda is way worse than what Joan Crawford did to her daughter. You think being hit with wire hangers is bad? Try being turned to stone.

Mothers in… Shooters
Here's where you barely see any moms at all. The shooter genre is reserved for masculine things like guns and aliens and spies and other stuff that doesn't leave much room for maternal influences. You'll find a lot of dads in shooters, though – but Father's Day isn't for another month, so sit tight.

*SPOILER WARNING: BioShock, F.E.A.R. 2, Metal Gear Solid 4*

Jasmine Jolene, BioShock – Mother of Jack: Jasmine was Andrew Ryan's mistress and a "dancer" which is 60s code for "prostitute." Even if she didn't accept money for sexual favors, she was certainly in a hurry to accept money for her freshly-conceived embryo. That's worse than the fairy tales where parents trade firstborn sons for magical enchantments.

Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum, BioShock and BioShock 2 – Mother of all the Little Sisters and the Big Sister: Tenenbaum didn't give birth to any of the poor darlings, but her research created them. She eventually stepped in to foster them and shower them with toys and secondhand cigarette smoke to make up for the brainwashing.

Eva, Metal Gear Solid 4 – Mother of Liquid and Solid Snake (kinda): Eva would have gladly had Naked Snake's babies the ol' fashioned way, but the Patriots had other plans. She eventually serves as surrogate mother to the clone babies Liquid and Solid and starts calling herself Big Mamma to compensate for having nothing to do with mothering them.

The Boss, Metal Gear Solid 3 – Mother of Revolver Ocelot and the US Special Forces (which one do you think she's more proud of?): The Boss probably had no business leading the Battle of Normandy while nine months pregnant. But despite being a bad mom to Ocelot, The Boss wins major motherhood recognition as a Mother Goddess figure to at least half the cast of the Metal Gear Solid series.

Alma Wade, F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin – Mother of Paxton Fettel, Point Man and countless telepathic clone soldiers: Alma became a mother at the tender age of 15 against her will. It's hard to tell if she harbors any feeling for her offspring conceived in captivity – bloodlust sort of obscures any tender intent. However, in Project Origin, Alma's grown up a bit and appears to have invested in being mother to the protagonist's baby, which she deliberately conceives.

Best Mom: The Boss… because out of this sorry lot, she's easily the best role model.

Worst Mom: Jasmine… because she sold her only son to his father's enemy before the son was even born. That's like the opposite of mother-like behavior.

(Dis)Honorable Mentions
Sora's Mom, Kingdom Hearts — She has one line and the whole first part of the game is about her son trying to build a raft to run away from home. Clearly the parenting thing isn't working out.
Mother Brain, Metroid — "She," if that's what that thing in the jar can be called, is an alien with no maternal feelings whatsoever.
You, Fable II, The Sims games and Harvest Moon games — Even if you play as an upstanding paragon of parental vigilance, you're going to be guilty of neglect at least half of the time in these games.

At this point, you're probably wondering why Cooking Mama isn't anywhere on this list. Apart from the lack of a convenient genre into which to cram the game, there's no evidence that Cooking Mama is even a mother. Do you see her kids at any point in the game? For all the player knows, she's just calling herself "Mama" so she doesn't have to call herself a chef, the poor self-hating hash slinger.

That's all we've got for the best and worst mothers in video games. Think we missed somebody important? Drop a line in the comments. And don't forget to call your mom on Mother's Day!

**CORRECTION: C. Viper occasionally does call her daughter after fights. But the workaholic ruling still stands.

And no, they don't mean The World Ends With You. The three biggest (at least in terms of units sold) are Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts, and when you combine every game ever released in those franchises, you get the following (lifted straight from the presentation):

So, yes, if you ever find yourself wondering to the night sky why Square Enix insist on milking these franchises - particularly Final Fantasy - to within an inch of their lives, that's why.

As for the Dragon Quest numbers, we'd say in some ways they're even more impressive, given the series' limited popularity in the West.

KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days is the latest entry in the Disney-meets-Square-Enix series of RPGs. A special KINGDOM HEARTS DSi (pictured) will also go on sale when 358/2 launches.

First up is “Characters you never knew had the same voiceover” from GamesRadar. Charlie Barrat lays out 21 examples of voice actors doubling up dubbing duties. Most of them I knew about – Princess Peach & Cortana, Marcus Fenix & Bender, etc. – but a few of them really surprised me. Like Princess Daphne and Smurfette being voiced by the lady that plays evil stepsister Anastasia in in Disney’s Cinderella. Who’d’ve thunk?

Charlie’s piece points out a similar feature run by Gameplayer, which lists the voices behind a ton of video game characters. “70 Great Game Characters Unmasked” makes for heavy reading at six pages of lists a pop, but I’m pretty sure it covers every video game voice I’ve ever heard in my life. Not counting games that let you play with the original Japanese audio.

My all-time favorite voice-over actor, though, has got to be Cam Clarke. Trite, I know – but he was both Leonardo the Ninja Turtle and He-Man Kaneda in the original Akira dub, very huge heroes of my childhood. When I hear his voice, it fills me with love even when he’s playing Solid Snake’s evil twin brother.

ETA: Whoops, wrong He-Man. John Erwin was the He-Man from my childhood. Cheers to James for pointing that out, and please don't ask me why I was watching Akira when I was six.

Characters you never knew had the same voice actor

70 Great Game Characters Unmasked

It's a bit on the minimalistic side as far as holiday cards go, but as any giant, squealing, and possibly hairy Kingdom Hearts fan will tell you, all you need is Sora dressed up in a Santa costume and your holiday wishes will all come true. Well now I have Sora in a Santa costume, and in three days - a pony.

Let's just open up this baby to see what surprises await us on the inside of Square Enix's holiday heart.

Aw, from our hearts to yours! Okay sure, that's just three signatures there, but those three signatures represent Square Enix's specially-bred caring squad. Those three people have enough caring in them to represent an entire international operation and still have some caring leftover in case some sort of emergency comes up.

Also, they combine to form a giant robot named Careotron. He fights for justice. That's just how Square Enix rolls.

The game details, per Square Enix Official Jump Festa 2009 site:

• Demyx and Luxord have been made playable in the demo
• Luxord: scatters cards around as an attack, high magic stats but low mobility, low jump
• The Heartless have an attack that freezes you from attacking back for a moment.

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - Delay Confirmation [Go Nintendo]

Normally, you'd have to wait in line or for some special Square Enix event — or purchase some outrageously priced import DVD — to see whatever Square Enix product you want to see. But, thanks to the internet, you can see Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for the PSP in action right now — with actual gameplay too! It's a wonderful time to be alive. More video action after the break.