Classic crime noir author Raymond Chandler once wrote that a character should be "the best man in his world, and a good enough man for any world." Well, if you substitute the word "man" with "boy", then you'd have a picture perfect definition of Sora, the world hopping protagonist from the unique Square Enix/Disney collaboration, Kingdom Hearts. While most young kids would be content to simply meet their favorite Disney heroes, Sora finds himself smack in the middle of an epic tale that puts him the role of hero to all those animated adventure stars.

Sora's story started back in 2002 when he was introduced in the first Kingdom Hearts game for the PS2. When we met up with Sora, he was sitting back on the beaches of Destiny Islands and staring at the stars with his friends Riku and Kairi. The trio dreams of one day taking off from their home and living out grand adventures in faraway lands. If there's one thing I've learned from all those fairy tales of my youth, though, it's that you've gotta be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

Sora and his friends are separated after an attack by a group of strange creatures called "Heartless", leaving our hero stranded on a strange new world, confused and alone. Soon, Sora stumbles upon Donald Duck and Goofy, who are also on a mission to find their missing king, Mickey Mouse. Armed with a mysterious sword-like weapon called a "Keyblade", Sora decided to team up with Donald and Goofy so that the trio could work together and reunite with their missing friends while uncovering the origins of the Heartless. Ultimately, Sora is able to save the tapestry of worlds from collapse, but is forced to as Mickey and Riku are sealed away in the darkness. This is far from the "Happily Ever After" you'd expect from a Disney tale, so Sora and his crew resolve to take off once again to rescue those they left behind.

In the eight years and six games that have passed since Sora's debut, the poor kid has been through a lot. His memories were stolen from him and he was put into suspended animation for a year to try and recover what was taken from him. Sora's been pulled apart, put together, and even digitized to be thrown into a virtual world. He's seen his closest friends fall to the darkness in their hearts and fought to bring them back from the brink of oblivion. Meanwhile, the "Nobody" he left behind after the events of the first game was manipulated by the clandestine Organization XIII into putting the worlds in jeopardy once again. Despite all of this, somehow at the end of the day, Sora has managed to come out on top with a little help from his friends.

So what does the future hold for this Keyblade wielder in his role as the "key that connects everything"? Well, fans who finished up the recent Kingdom Hearts prequel Birth by Sleep, got a little taste of things to come in its secret ending. While Birth by Sleep may have set the stage for the events that have shaped Sora's life, it also left the game's three protagonists separated from each other and stranded in their own sort of Limbo. Loose threads finally start to come together as we discover that Sora now knows of the fates of Ventus, Aqua, and Terra, and has decided to once again take up the role of hero and rescue the ones who first set things in motion.

Without a doubt, there's still a lot more of Sora's story left to tell. Sora and his friends will once again visit the wonderful worlds of Disney, this time in a way they've never been seen before. That's right, the next chapter in Sora's epic tale will come to gamers in three dimensions, courtesy of Kingdom Hearts 3D, currently in development for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld console. While there's no word yet on just when this next chapter will be available, for fans it can't come soon enough. It may be a small world after all, but it's one that gamers are more than willing to share with a certain young boy and all his animated friends.