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// BONUS: Quidditch World Cup 
// Story: Luna Reviews the 'Harry Potter' Video Game Series 
// by BronyDan 
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“Well, it has been a while my subjects. Now I know I said I would not review this game, but due to so many requests and ponies insisting on what I think of this game, I have decided to give in, and review it. So by popular demand, let’s review ‘Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup’ for the PlayStation 2.”

“Now, as a ‘Harry Potter’ fan, I love Quidditch! I know all the rules off by heart, I have read all the tactics and manoeuvres, and I have always dreamed of being able to play this sport, but I guess this will have to do. Now you did get to play Quidditch in the previous games, like ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, ‘Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘Half-Blood Prince’, but that was only as Harry, you never got the chance to play as a Chaser, Beater or Keeper, well this game finally gives you the ability to do that. This was released in 2003, in between ‘Chamber of Secrets’ and Prisoner of Azkaban’, and it does show. It uses the same body builds and textures from ‘Chamber of Secrets’ and yet, Harry’s voice is slightly deeper, like it was in ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’. You start out at Hogwarts, where you have to choose what house you want to play as, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Each house has a representative, Harry is obviously for Gryffindor, Malfoy is Slytherin, and what’s quite interesting is who represents Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw; Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang. That’s a nice touch from the books. Everypony’s first decision is to obviously go for Gryffindor, although I will say that Ravenclaw do have the best Special Move, but you know what, I’m going with Hufflepuff, they always got the short end of the stick in the games, so they deserve some fame.”

“Once you’ve chosen your house, you have to go through a series of House Challenges, such as Passing, Tackle and Shoot, Seeker, Beaters and Bludgers, Special Moves and Combos. These are all things you need to learn if you’re to win the Quidditch Cup, but only the first three are available when you start, you unlock Beaters and Bludgers and Special Moves after the first match, and then finally, Combos after the second one. In each challenge, you have the chance to win a Quidditch Card for beating the Team, House and School Records, and these are used to unlock special moves that can be used in a match. And apparently, the pitch has its own ghost. You have to tackle a ghost called Edgar Cloggs during the Tackle and Special Moves challenges, how does that work? Surely the Quaffle would just fall out of his grip.”

“I suppose now I better talk about the matches themselves. The first one is dead easy, mainly because you’ve just learnt the basics. It’s really split up into two sections, first you play as the Chasers as you have to score with the Quaffle through the hoops, and each one gets you ten points. Each pass raises your bar at the top of the screen, and when the two halves of the Snitch come together, you then become the Seeker as you follow the gold slipstream of the Snitch, and catching it guarantees your team getting 150 points. I don’t know why I need to explain this, every fan knows these rules, but I would have liked if they followed all the rules, like look here for example:”



“I’ve got two players in the scoring range, why aren’t I getting a penalty? I’m clearly Stooging!”

“Anyway, if your selected team wins the Quidditch Cup, you are then able to unlock the World Cup, and go on to play internationally.  You can choose up to nine teams, such as England, USA, Japan and so on. You can even get Bulgaria and that does mean you get Viktor Krum, but you need 65 cards in order to get him. I always choose Japan every time I play this, but today, I think I’ll go with… France. All female team by the looks of it. Like at Hogwarts, you have to play the whole league as your team in order to win, and because there are 18 matches, you will have to face each team twice, once on your own pitch, and again on theirs. The difficulty level is determined on what model broomstick you choose, like a Comet 260 is the easiest, while the Firebolt is the most difficult. Who would choose a Comet 260 for the World Cup? You’d be outstripped easily, and if you can’t get the Firbolt, you choose the Nimbus range. For me, it has to be the Nimbus 2000 over the Nimbus 2001, because as Harry once said, ‘I’m not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good’.”

“The commentaries are probably the best part of the match, because you get to learn all the names of the players, and their special moves. At Hogwarts, you of course, have Lee Jordan, it’s not Quidditch without him, but during the World Cup, you have Ludo Bagman. Yes, you heard me; Ludo Bagman, making his first appearance outside of the books. Honestly, I can never understand why they felt the need to not include him in the movie? He was a vitally important character!”

“Well, that’s really all that needs to be said about this game, it’s just your basic sports game, but it’s still fun. There is also a bonus you can unlock after you’ve won the World Cup, which is Queerditch. It’s not the gay version of Quidditch, you just play a game at Queerditch Marsh, where the game originated! And so finally, we have played ‘Quidditch World Cup’. I have debated for ages whether to review this, because it doesn’t have a plot as such, so there isn’t a lot to talk about, but still, it’s a good time waster. I wouldn’t recommend playing the whole thing in one sitting, as it is rather repetitive, and you could get more fun out of Multiplayer, but as an add-on to the ‘Harry Potter’ game series, it’s a welcome addition. Not the best, but far from the being the worst.”

“This game does make you wish that Quidditch was real, and that you could actually go and play a proper match, with real Bludgers and Snitches, scoring with a real Quaffle on a proper pitch, with hundreds of ponies watching and cheering you on as you near… victory. Excuse me, I do believe an idea is coming to me.”