The Experiment

The Experiment is an artificial being created by Dr. Finkelstein, and is found in Kingdom Hearts II. It is one of the bosses at Halloween Town. Like the Guard Armor, the individual pieces of the Experiment's body are able to act on their own.

Although it is not technically a Heartless, the information given when the game is paused says to defeat Doctor Finkelstein's experimental Heartless. The Experiment, along with the Hostile Program, are the only boss characters in the Kingdom Hearts games who are not Disney characters, Final Fantasy characters, major original characters of the Kingdom Hearts setting, Heartless, Unversed, Nobodies or Dream Eaters. Rather, the Experiment is a character within the Nightmare Before Christmas setting who did not appear in the movie but clearly shares the distinctive art style of that film's characters. It is identified in Jiminy's Journal with a red background on its panel, symbolizing its role as an antagonist.

Kingdom Hearts II
To get Lock, Shock, and Barrel to leave him in peace, Dr. Finkelstein began making the Experiment as a playmate for them. He can be seen working on it during the first episode in Halloween Town.

After seeing that Lock, Shock, and Barrel continuously drop the parts they are meant to bring him, and after many attempts to bring the creation to life, Finkelstein believes the Experiment to be a failure and scraps the idea. But, just as he turns around to start new designs, the creation comes to life and attacks the doctor. Leaving Finklestein unconscious in his laboratory, the Experiment wanders out into the woods and into Christmas Town, where it stole Christmas presents from Santa Claus's workshop.

When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive in Halloween Town the second time, they are greeted with the sight of Jack collecting an armful of Christmas presents from the ground. Since he is still wearing his "Santa Claus" outfit, they assume that he had stolen the presents to try Christmas once again. Santa believes that too, when Jack comes to return the presents, and he proposes that the only way to prove his own innocence is to track down the remaining presents and catch the real thief.

After retrieving most of the presents from Guillotine Square in Halloween Town, the group thinks up a plan to lure the thief into a trap by planting a large load of presents in Christmas Tree Plaza, with themselves inside the largest box. Jumping out of the box when they hear it coming, they are shocked to see Finkelstein's experiment, whom they believed to be stolen, standing there, attempting to steal the presents. After a difficult battle, the group subdue the Experiment and bring it back to the doctor.

Santa Claus, after hearing about the Experiment, theorizes that the machine was probably looking for a heart. Dr. Finkelstein agrees, stating that he did not give the creature a heart of its own, as he did with Sally. The creature was just hunting one down, believing that the joy of the presents would be enough to give it a heart. Fitting with the theme of the game, the Experiment seems to be an artificial Nobody, not having a heart but constantly hunting one down to become "whole."

Design
The Experiment is a large, mechanized being similar to the Chimera in that it is made up of a wide mixture of objects. Its body is large, funnel-shaped, and head three curled spikes lining its outer edge. Its lower body is much smaller and is apparently made of an upside-down skull, with the eye sockets acting as its hip joints. Its legs are relatively thin and short and end in feet comprised of two small wheels, each with two white spikes on their sides. Its left shoulder is decorated by a faded green spiral and the arm is a bellowed tube that ends in a spiky clamp. Its right arm in bulkier and ends in a massive, elaborate, three-pronged claw. Its neck is long and thin and its head is long and capsule-shaped. Its eyes are black with very small, faded green pupils, its mouth is filled with sharp teeth, and there are several twisted pieces of metal resembling "hair". Because it is made entirely out of various pieces of metal, it is predominantly colored in dark, faded shades of grey, white, and silver.

The Experiment is referred to as "Dr. Finkelstein's experiment" throughout the entire story, hence its name in Jiminy's Journal.

Strategy
The Experiment acts similarly to Guard Armor and Opposite Armor in battle. While at first being one large enemy with a variety of attacks, it eventually separates into smaller enemies composed of different combinations of its parts. Little damage can be done to the parts individually, but the use of carefully timed Reaction Commands can bring it back together, and it can be defeated in this way.

The Experiment has a large variety of items from The Nightmare Before Christmas, such as its left arm being the vent Lock, Shock, and Barrel used to send bugs to Oogie Boogie and its right arm being the device Oogie was about to torture Santa Claus with. In conjunction with these, it uses combinations of laser and shockwave attacks against Sora, and uses wind-based attacks to knock back Sora, keep him airborne, or prevent him from attacking. The Kickspring Reaction command counters the Experiment's attacks and is the only way to bring it back together to defeat it.

Trivia

 * The Bradygames "Jiminy's Journal", released with the Kingdom Hearts II guide, states that The Experiment first appeared in The Nightmare Before Christmas, although its pieces only appeared as background props.