Luna Reviews the 'Harry Potter' Video Game Series

by BronyDan

Prisoner of Azkaban

“So we’ve now reached our third game in the ‘Harry Potter’ license games, which is of course, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’. Now I will say that it’s from here on that the series moves away from the child like atmosphere of the first two, and we get more towards a darker, serious tale, with a lot of genuinely terrifying moments. Now, the movie is, hoof on heart, my personal favourite in the series, it introduced one of my all-time favourite characters, Professor Lupin, the direction by Alfonso Cuaron, while quite a drastic change from Chris Columbus, is still really impressive, and it was the first time I literally felt scared while watching a movie. But we’re not here to talk about the movie, let’s take a look at the game based off of it.

I think you’ve got the idea of what I’m going to say, released in 2004, same year as movie, EA published it, let’s get going. First of all, let me just start off by saying, I love the music in this game. Jeremy Soule again composes it, and it’s easily the best sounding music for the games. The score used for the title screen is just beautiful.

I love that use of the choir, giving it real sense of eeriness and foreboding to this already gothic sounding piece. It’s so brilliant; that you would never had guessed it came from something like a ‘Harry Potter’ game.

The graphics in this game are just fantastic. The character designs look a lot closer to their real life counterparts and the voice acting is really well done and they do suit the characters. Hogwarts has a lot of new areas like the clock tower and the stone circle, that were in the movie, which makes it a lot bigger this time, especially with the grounds, which for me, is a bit too big. If you want to walk around the grounds, be my guest, but for me, I’ll stick with flying Buckbeak.

The controls in this game are again similar to the previous instalments, but there are some alterations. The big gimmick for this game is that you can not only play as Harry, but you can also switch between Ron and Hermione as well, using the circle button. So this really unfortunately means you only have two buttons for your spells. Swapping the characters is essential to pass this game, as each character has different abilities, like Harry is the only one who can jump over gaps, Ron can find secret passages, and Hermione can crawl under small gaps.

You this time can get 9 spells, but they are spread out amongst the main three. You all get Flipendo (yay!) and Expelliamus, but Harry is also able to use Carpe Retractum, which can pull certain objects towards you and the Patronus Charm, which shields off Dementors. Ron sadly, only gets one spell, which is Lumos Duo, and he uses that to light up crystal balls and to defeat these creatures called Hinkypunks; however he is able to use other items like Dungbombs and stink pellets. Hermione gets the most spells, which does make sense as she’s the smartest, and these include Glacius, which can freeze water and other forms of liquid, Reparo, which repairs broken objects, Draconifors, which turns statues into dragaons to burn down tapestries, and you can buy the Snufflifors spell from Fred and George’s shop, which can turn attacking books into mice.

Like with the second game, you have spell challenges in the classes, and thankfully they’re not as deadly as the last one and the bosses have certainly improved with creativity. Remember how I said in the last review that the bosses got a bit repetitive, what with using the same gargoyles and using Expelliamus, well here, we get bosses that are suited to the spell that has just been learnt! We get the Glacius spell, we fight a giant fire breathing oven, we learn Carpe Retractum, we fight a rotating knight by pulling his shields off of him, and then his head. Getting Expecto Patronum was easily the creepiest part, because you have to use Carpe Retractum to pull yourself onto these platforms to get to each corner of the room to push a slotted block into its place which will open each of the gateways that lead to the spellbook. But that’s not the worst of it. The worst part is that you are being followed by a Dementor which will attempt to suck you soul out if it gets too close. When I first played this game, I refused to go past this bit, or even play it; I would just do the Crape Retractum part and then finish, because I was just so terrified of that bloody Dementor! I can do it now easily, but I’m just thankful that Dementors really don’t exist in Equestria. Right?

You again have Famous Witches and Wizards Cards to collect, however for some, you have to do a challenge for Fred and George. After you have Ron purchase the Stink Pellets, they will ask you to throw them at these lantern holders and if you can hit five, they will give a rare card. Hit all twenty to get the full set. But you also have something else to collect, which are pages to the Folio Bruti, these will give you information on the different creatures you fight in the game, like Hinkypunks, Red Caps, and Ghouls and so on. The Doxies and Red Caps are the most annoying, because Doxies have a venomous bite, which will drain your health slowly, unless you happen to have an Antidote to Uncommon Poisons on you. And Red Caps are irritating, because they will gang up on you as an army and run at you to give you a good whack. After you get the Crape Retractum spell, they will also get shields which protect them from your spells, so you have to pull them off first, which is easier said than done.

You get to collect ingredients for Potions in this game, which may have been something they had brought over from the PC versions of the first two games. The ingredients aren’t difficult to find, but some just seem unnecessary, like the Graphorn Horn. You’d think that we would have to fight this strange creature and pull its horn off right? But no, Ron nicks it off Malfoy OFFSCREEN!! The potions themselves are semi-useful, like I said, you’re going to be drinking that Antidote to Uncommon Poisons a lot throughout this game, and I don’t think I ever used the Girding Potion once.

Also, in this game, you get to upgrade your spells for the first time to make them more powerful. This is part of another challenge set by Fred and George, where they send you around Hogwarts to look for nine statues, and every three you find, you’re allowed to read one of the chapters of ‘The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection’.

The stealth sections are back, but this time they’re not as great as in the last one. Instead of prefects patrolling the corridors, you now have to navigate your way around stationary suits of armour with purple laser vision coming out of their helmets. Now many have complained that that was a mistake, however for this game it makes some sense. I mean, if you’ve got a mass murderer on the loose and he manages to get into the school, having laser knights seems like a better option for security rather than a student in my opinion. The prefects are still there, but they don’t take points off you if you’re caught this time. They just shake their… ‘fingers’, is that right?... at you, and put their hands on their hips. That was what the made the last game so intense, that you were afraid to lose something if you were caught, but in this game, there is no way to lose points, so you are guaranteed to always win the house cup. There is one stealth section that is well done, and that’s the troll stealth. This was something that was taken from the book; after Sirius Black gets into Gryffindor Tower and escapes again, they put up security trolls to guard the seventh floor, and here, you have to go through the seventh floor reading room, as Ron, and throw Dungbombs near the trolls and while they get distracted, you run for it, until you get to the next troll, but that’s really it, they don’t attack you if they see you, they just roar and beat their chests. Not going to catch Black that way boys.

Also the end, is a little disappointing. In the book and in the movie, Harry and Hermione travel back in time to save Buckbeak the Hippogriff and Sirius from the Dementors. Now anyone playing this game would think that you would have to avoid your past selves as you travel down to Hagrid’s to save Buckbeak from the execution, but they skip that whole thing and cut straight to when you need to conjure the Patronus at the Dementors in order to save Sirius. WHAT?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING EA, NOT HAVING A LEVEL BASED AROUND THAT, YOU COULD HAVE HAD ANOTHER STEALTH SECTION, BUT NO, YOU HAD TO CONDENSE THE BLOODY STORY, I MEAN IF YOU COULD DO IT ON THE SODDING GAMEBOY, WHY NOT HERE ON THE CONSOLES?! ANSWER ME, DAMN YOU, ANSWER ME!!!

So with all the complaints I’ve made, you’ll probably think this game really isn't worth your time and that you should just stick to 'Chamber of Secrets'. However, it’s still a great game. Yes, it’s not as good as ‘Chamber of Secrets’ but that was a hard act to follow. While the stealth sections are toned down to the point where there isn’t much of a challenge, and yeah, the ending is a bit of a copout, but it’s still an enjoyable game nonetheless. The controls work well enough, you can fly Buckbeak across the grounds whenever you like, so you don’t have to walk everywhere. Music, graphics and voice work are an improvement, and the mini challenges can still be fun. So overall, this is still a game any ‘Harry Potter’ will enjoy. Not perfect, but far from terrible.

Well then, so far we’ve had three moderately good license games, despite the flaws that have been pointed out, but then again, no game is perfect. Will we get a game that will break this chain?”

“BUCK!!”

Comments

[Starlight Shadow]

My favorite movies were the first and second ones, all the others were way too poorly lit for me.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

3823971 That was a problem with "Order of the Phoneix" and "Half Blood Prince", they had weird lighting. But they were still good movies, a shame that the movie adaptation of "Order of the Phoneix" cut out the Qudditch sub plot, but it doesn't make much sense for Ron to gain confidence and then backpedal from it in "Half Blood Prince".

Also, I believe that "Goblet of Fire" was the video game where they brought over the movie actors.

And I'll always love Remius Lupin. I particularly like how the movie version had it so that it wasn't Snape that was responsible for the last few plot points. Because with the motive we're given it makes him see like a villan, even though in the end he's not.

[Changeling-Drone]

Will she do the Lego set?

[The derpman]

YAY!!!Your going to eat out the 4th that was my first ps2 game and I couldn't pick up the controller for a long time and went back to pc Im just glad I found ratchet and clank.

[OneFluzzyPuppy]

One more, then the best one!