Side-scrolling is a gameplay mode that appears in Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, during segments of Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion II.
Story[]
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded[]
With the help of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Data-Sora manages to find and enter Traverse Town's Keyhole, seeking to destroy the source of the world's Bug Blox. An energy spike limits Data-Sora's abilities, forcing him into a side-scrolling area. Data-Sora eventually manages to destroy the Guard Armor, the source of the bugs and energy spike.
Later, when Maleficent attempts to trap Data-Sora within Data-Riku's personal datascape, Data-Sora is forced to evacuate back to Hollow Bastion through a side-scrolling area, at the end of which he finds and defeats Maleficent in dragon form.
Controls[]
All regular deck commands are disabled and are replaced with overlay commands, which are obtained by picking up the diamond-shaped power-ups peppered throughout each stage.
Strategy[]
Side-scrolling stages are viewed from a 2D, side perspective and are split up into several stages. The map on the touch screen shows the length of each stage. Data-Sora can only run, jump, glide, block, dodge roll and attack with the Keyblade.
Bug Blox block Data-Sora's path, and occasionally Blox fall from above. If he falls into a pit, Data-Sora takes damage and then respawns after a few seconds. Heartless also appear throughout both areas.
The Traverse Town side-scrolling sequence consists of three stages. During two of said stages, the screen is constantly scrolling forward, pushing Data-Sora ahead if he lags behind and restricting him from going too far. Data-Sora can be crushed between a block and the rear of the moving screen, dealing damage to him and causing him to respawn near to his last standing location. At some points, the screen will cease to move entirely, requiring Data-Sora to defeat certain enemies or traverse to a particular location on the screen in order to progress. During the third stage, the screen remains stationary. Shadow, Soldier, Large Body, and Red Nocturne Heartless appear to inhibit Data-Sora's progress in this stage. The Guard Armor also appears as the final boss of this portion of the mini-game.
In Hollow Bastion II, the screen follows Data-Sora as he progresses; however, there is a time limit to completing this stage. In addition, Bug Blox are replaced by colored boxes. Yellow boxes are the equivalent of regular Blox and red boxes are substitutes to Danger Blox. Blue boxes are unique, in that they summon moving platforms of unbreakable blocks when broken, and also cause already-moving platforms to change direction. Soldier and Angel Star Heartless are also present in this stage.