Epic Mickey
Yes, for real. Epic Mickey and its sequel may not have been successes when you look back at them. In fact, they’re the reason that Junction Point closed its doors, which is a shame when you remember that famed designer Warren Spector of Deus Ex fame is behind it. Epic Mickey, without any trace of irony, should be a universe in Kingdom Hearts III.
For those of you who didn’t play the games, Epic Mickey was a Wii-exclusive game from 2010 where players took control of Disney’s famous mascot, Mickey Mouse. He enters Yen Sid’s workshop and discovers a magic paintbrush that Sid used to create a model of a land he was working on. Mickey screws around with the paint and ends up creating an evil Shadow Blot, which escapes into the world of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald grew jealous of Mickey’s success, and thanks to the Blot, became infected and had his realm to turned into the Wasteland. Naturally, Mickey has to put his mess back together with the help of… a magic paintbrush! Mickey of course saves the land and Oswald, which leads to the two working together in Epic Mickey 2. The two of them defeat the Mad Doctor and stop him from taking all the paint in the world, but the Petes of the Wasteland kidnap his henchman Prescott.
Kingdom Hearts III could serve to just lay that particular cliffhanger to rest. One of the big selling points for Epic Mickey at the time was that it would be a darker, scarier Disney. It sounds just about as effective as the contradiction implies, but that doesn’t mean the concept should be written off completely. The Heartless could justifiably come to the Wasteland and corrupt things and characters even further than they already are. Disneyland is an iconic place that everyone associates with being idyllic and wholesome, but how fun would it be to travel through an ugly, monstrous, twisted version of it? Friendship and redemption are big themes of the Kingdom Hearts series, and Epic Mickey certainly has the potential to do those two themes justice.
Wreck-It Ralph
You can travel to multiple worlds in each Kingdom Hearts game, but what if you had an entire world that was just a hub for new lands to explore? What if the game itself offered players a low-scale game inside of it, one where they could just fool around with items and characters taken from the places they’ve already traveled to? Think Disney Infinity, but without the need to pay for the figurines and they’re all already on the disc for you to mess around with? Only one setting would be perfect for this: Wreck-It Ralph.
Wreck-It Ralph ended up being surprising in a lot of ways when it released in 2012. For one thing, it showed that Tangled wasn’t just a fluke and that the House of Mouse could still make animated films that would be able to stand alongside Pixar and Dreamworks films. Second, it showed that a video game movie doesn’t need to be about a specific video game and could just focus on the characters of those worlds hanging out like a bunch of kids at the park one day after school. Wreck-It Ralph wasn’t just a great animated film, it’s the best video game movie in over a decade, and it absolutely deserves to be in Kingdom Hearts III.
To expect the game to pull a Wreck-It and bring together classic gaming icons like Sonic, Zangief from Street Fighter, and the Ghosts from Pac-Man may be asking a bit much, as awesome as that would be. Of course, if each platform had their own specific icons in the game, that’d be great. Someone on the internet has to have imagined Sora and crew armed with Keyblades that look like the Energy Swords from Halo or paling around with Ratchet and Clank.
Wreck-It wasn’t a slouch to “original” games in its own universe, and being able to fight alongside Ralph, Fix-It Felix and Calhoun in the latter’s Hero’s Duty video game would be pretty great. As for the mini-Toy Box mode? The characters could warp to an empty arcade system and use that to test items and weapons gained. If you can think of DmC’s solid white training room where you could practice your moves against a single enemy, you wouldn’t be too far off; you could fight adjustable waves of enemies as practice, or build environments and scenarios to test the strength of you and anyone on your friends’ list. If this game is going to go all out and bring an end to the trilogy, you’re going to need to be at your best.
The Incredibles
One of the universes that fans have been asking to join Kingdom Hearts III is the Marvel Universe. It and Star Wars are the Disney properties everyone wants Square Enix to include in the game. Now that the House of Ideas is owned by Disney, the idea of Sora and Mickey Mouse fighting alongside heavy hitters like Spider-Man and Iron Man is something that’s grown in everyone’s mind. Square Enix hasn’t entirely said it’s impossible, thankfully avoiding crushing the dreams of thousands of fans. But maybe we should save those two for the next game… y’know, in the next twenty years. For the third instalment, before we get Marvel, it would be even better if we got the Incredibles into the game.
The Incredibles is one of those things that you wonder why there hasn’t been more of since it first released in 2004. Its simple story of a family of superheroes rang with audiences all over the world and led to it winning two Academy Awards and intense demand for a sequel, even to this day. Seriously, you can’t talk about Pixar or Disney without someone eventually wondering why they haven’t done an Incredibles 2. Director Brad Bird has already said that it’s in development now that he’s done with Tomorrowland, so it’ll likely be a while before we see Disney’s first superfamily on the big screen. Assuming Kingdom Hearts III isn’t coming out next year (editor’s note: nope, definitely not), and there’s no real evidence to suggest the contrary, the game could include these heroes.
One of the big issues about superheroes and them crossing over into different universes (and that happens way more often than you’d think) is how that fits in with whatever the heroes are currently going through. The general rule of those is “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and that mentality would stick here with the Incredibles. Sora and crew showing up in their world could easily be waved off with an “ah, it’s just whenever, don’t worry about it”.
Sora’s specialty would also change which weapons or items he gains while in the Incredibles’ world. If he’s good with strength, maybe he’ll get gauntlets like Mr. Incredible’s fists, or an Elasti-Girl style whip that he can use in special attacks or bring enemies closer to him. Defense would let him use Dash’s super speed to dodge and counter enemies, while Violet’s invisible shields would be a perfect last minute save. Jack-Jack’s abilities would have to be magic, since he’s got about four or five different abilities. And of course, you gotta have Frozone in the game. Hopefully he’s got his supersuit this time.
Inside Out
What if all the emotions you felt were personified constructs? What if these constructs lived inside your head, watching what you see and providing running commentary on what you do? What if they were the reason your mind brought up embarrassing thoughts or pleasing memories of the past? And if your current feeling was because of whatever they were going through in your head? Happiness, fear, sadness, disgust, and anger; these are the five constructs that inhabit everyone’s noggin. At least, according to Pixar’s newest film Inside Out.
Is it a bit suspect to recommend this film to be a part of Kingdom Hearts III when the film is out and making a ton of cash? Okay, yes, but that doesn’t discount the fact that Disney is making a push for the Pixar film to be in more things. It’s already got a prime spot in the lineup of Disney Infinity 3.0, and you can bet things won’t stop there. The buzz for the film is already overwhelmingly positive, and it’s a safe bet that this’ll be something everyone’s talking about for months to come. It’s more than likely this’ll be the Frozen for the year. Just, y’know, without the annoying snowman.
Because of how cerebral the characters of Inside Out are, the story would require Sora, Donald, and Goofy to travel inside the head of either himself or one of his friends. The Unversed from Birth by Sleep and Dream Eaters from Dream Drop Distance could make a return here, manipulating Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness to bolster their strength inside this person’s mind. Sora and crew would have to find Joy to help find a way to rid the Dream Eaters and Unversed of this person’s mind. Joy in particular would get her time to shine here, her happiness manifesting in the form of buffs and special attacks that “purify” areas. Once you get to the source of both enemies, you’re able to help Joy do her thing and rally the other emotions together to banish them from the mind.
Big Hero 6 (God, PLEASE Be in Kingdom Hearts III)
When we said in the Incredibles page that Disney’s superfamily should arrive in Kingdom Hearts before Marvel, that wasn’t entirely true. The Incredibles absolutely should be in the game, make no mistake about that. But the most recent entry from Disney should get top spot in the submission pool. This isn’t to say that Big Hero 6 is way better than The Incredibles, but right now, these guys are to the young children of today what Incredibles was to our generation, and for good reason.
Big Hero 6, for those who haven’t managed to see it since its release last year, is the first collaboration between Marvel in Disney since the Mouse House bought them in 2012. In the broadest terms, they’re a multicultural group of science kids turned that repurpose their different science skills to become superheroes. Since its release last year, critical and commercial success, and Academy Award success, fans have been wondering if more Big Hero 6 would come down the line. That’s currently up in the air, and were this the 90s, it would’ve at least lived on in a cartoon series. Hiro Hamada and Baymax from the film have already made appearances in Disney Infinity and LittleBigPlanet 3, but there definitely needs to be more of it, and Kingdom Hearts III is in a prime position for this.
The team’s resident city of San Fransokyo would be probably the most modern environment they’ve lifted from a Disney property to date, and it’d certainly be a change of pace from what fans are accustomed to. This is a city that basically looks like it was taken over by Nintendo, with large air balloons and the sky, perfectly ideal for some aerial combat where you fly on Baymax’s back or use Sora’s train attack.
Each member of the Big Hero 6 — Hiro, Wasabi, Gogo Tamago, Honey Lemon, Fred, and Baymax — could give Sora, Donald, and Goofy items based on their weapons. Gogo’s roller discs and Honey Lemon’s bag of chemistry balls would be perfect for Goofy’s defense and special attacks while Baymax could provide him with an excellent shield; Hiro’s genius mind and Wasabi’s plasma blades would be ideal for anyone with a specialty in strength; and Fred’s fire breath and super jump could suit Donald’s magic powers perfectly in battle. Plus, c’mon and admit it: it’d be super adorable watching Baymax pet Sora’s hair and ask the trio if they were satisfied with their care, wouldn’t it?
Got any other films you think should join Kingdom Hearts III? Think our list is just wrong? Tell us in the comments below.
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