Sorely disappointing. Only for die hard Kingdom Hearts fans.
Visuals: 5/10. A rather tough score correct? I mean the visuals were great as far as GBA can get. However there was nothing exciting and fresh about the visuals. If you had played the original KH game you will see that the revisits to the worlds are sorely disappointing. The once vast expansive scenery was now replaced by rooms created by cards which generate the same room if you use the same card. These rooms are virtually empty and have the same basic setup, a predetermined number of enemies, and a bunch of random "treasure spots" which are visually boring barrels, lamposts, and other random objects
Sound: 5/10. Again nothing special. With all the same worlds except for 2 the soundtrack is relatively the same with lower quality than the PS2 version. Therefore my score stands firm
Gameplay: 4/10/ Very disappointing. The new and fresh "Card battle system" was just annoying. Not to mention the insane difficulty of even the normal enemies once you get to higher levels of the game. I could go into the long drawn out explanation of the card battle system but I will give you the short version instead. Cards have number 0-9. Higher number stronger card. 0 is strongest (don't ask) play a higher card than your enemy at the same time you stun them. You can run out of cards. Make yourself inactive for a time and press the special card thing to make your deck return but leave yourself open for attack, and yes your keyblade requires cards to be swung. Remember that is the SHORT version of the card battle system.
Story: 4/10. As the story revolves around Sora losing his memory and everyone else losing their memories too your main story is replaying practically everything that happened in KH1 minus one or two worlds. The new elements added to the story are basically covered in the beginning of KH2 and offer nothing in my opinion except for filler. Very little original material is added to the storyline so therefore the story gets a low score.
Final Score: 4.5
Final thoughts: This game is a sloppy remake of the original KH on a system that couldn't handle the responsibility of the KH name. If the insane difficulty doesn't make you want to throw your system against the wall then you might enjoy this game. I say this game is only for those Kingdom Hearts fans who want every game and can look past MAJOR flaws in a game.