Wizard! (Harry Potter And The Sorceror's Stone (PS))

Member Name: fluffypup

Product:	Harry Potter And The Sorceror's Stone (PS)
Date:	14/01/02 (640 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great role-playing adventure game, Sub-games, challenges and tasks, Great storyline - just like the book & film

Disadvantages: game play can get very linear, graphic rendering is limited on the PS

Welcome Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry! This role-playing-game come platform game is based on the adventures of a young chap called Harry Potter. Your task, if you chose to accept it, is to guide Harry around this magic and mysterious castle of a school. Hogwarts isn't any ordinary school and Harry isn't any ordinary young wizard!

This game (for the Playstation, but is also out for the PC and Gameboy) is heavy based on the best selling book written by JK Rowling. Like the film of the same name, this game religiously is based along the exact story line. Although, the magic of this game is that you can explore the adventure yourself.

Anyone who has been locked under the stairs for the past few years, and doesn't know the storyline, here is a brief synopsis. Harry is an orphan who is dumped on the doorstep of his 'muggle' (non-magical person) Uncle and Aunt Durleys. Harry begins to realise that he is different from other humans through strange events. His past secrets are withheld by the Durleys, who know that Harry is the son of parents of powerful and well-respected wizards who were killed by the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry's realisations come true one day when he gets an invitation to join Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid (a simple giant) rescues Harry from the Durleys and delivers him to Hogwarts for the start of a great adventure and the fight against evil (Lord Voldemort)

The gaming adventure starts as soon as Harry starts Hogwarts School. He is chosen to join the House of Griffindor by the Sorting Hat. Harry's objective is to not only to attend lessons, but also to learn spells, tricks and also gain points towards the House Championship. The House Championship is always a fierce competition between the four Houses. Harry and his friends are determined not to let Slytherin win the House Cup for a seven straight year. Slytherin are well regarded as the 'darkest' (as in m
agic) of the four Houses. Slytherin's main competitor is the nasty and vicious Draco Malfoy! Draco purposely goes out of his way to get Harry and his friends, ginger-headed Ron Weasley and smarter-than-smart Hermione Granger.

The game is role-playing platform adventure game set in a mysterious and magical school of Hogwarts. Harry has to attend lessons, learn how to fly on broomsticks and help out fellow friends. Although, there is a dark character watching Harry's every move! Like the book and film for which it is based, this game is vast! Everything magically about the characterisation of the text and the visualisation of the film is combined within this game.

Lessons are fun, unlike real school as most lessons are practical based. Harry has to collect and/or find magical ingredients. He also has to learn different spell sequences, which has been very well though out on the Playstation. You have to press combinations of triangle, square, circle and cross by following the teacher's wand. There are a number of spells (I can't spell the names so here's my simple interpretation) ? levitation, zapping, transmogrifying, invisibility and flying. Learning the spell might be one thing, but getting to the lesson is another! Each teacher makes getting to class a bit different by setting up a number of tricky tasks. If the tasks are completed in the allotted time the student gains more house points.

There are secret passageways and other tasks to complete. Harry also has to collect four flavours of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Collecting the allocating flavour gains access to password for the various Portriat Rooms, behind which (or witch) is an aid to help in Harry's quest, e.g. Nimbus 2000 broomstick (the Ferrari of the broomstick world) for competing in the Quidditch matches. There are also famous wizard and witches gaming cards to collect for Harry?s album. These cards can be found by completing challenges and a
ssisting friends (e.g. rescuing a kitten from the dungeon).

Quidditch for all you Muggles (human's unable to perform magic) is a great game played by wizards. It is a bit like Gaelic shinty (or hockey for most English people) but on broomsticks. The game isn't played on the ground but in the air. Harry has a huge natural talent for both Quidditch and for flying. Harry is quickly chosen as the 'seeker' for Griffindor. The objective of the seeker is to search out the golden snitch and capture it to win the game (or technically speaking gaining 150 points, which usually wins the game). Flying is superb element in this game. Again the magic of the text and the visuals from the film are marvellous created in this game. Capturing the snitch means flying through a number of hoops created by the movement of the snitch. The more hoops you fly through the closer you get to the snitch in order to try and grab it. Flying is smooth, fast and almost effortless - once you have mastered the technique! Harry also uses his flying skills on a number of challenges. Examples of which (witch) are finding the flying key to the Secret Room and trying to wrestle Draco in a ?Yedi?-esque speeder bike challenge but this time on broomsticks.

Other exciting challenges, or mini-games, include trying to capture Knuts, Sickles and Galleons (wizard money) in Gringotts bank. Also you have to defeat trolls and haunted suits of armour; play a deadly game of chess; race Peeves the slightly mad but psycho ghost across the school rafter beams; rescue cute fluffy kittens; enchant the three headed monster dog called fluffy to sleep; and ultimately defeat the evil Lord Voldemort.

This game follows the book/film religiously, maybe a bit too linearly though! If you are a Harry Potter fan then this is a MUST HAVE GAME! Warner Bros made a pretty good interpretation of the film and Electronic Arts (who are well known for producing great games - e.g. Command & Conquer Re
d Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge) have made an excellent recreation of both Harry Potter and the Hogwarts School for this game. The game play is fun, exciting and challenging. It's aimed more for children around the ages of 7 to 14. This game isn't one of the hardest games out, but it makes up with it in so many ways. EA had such a great story line to follow, plus having the visuals from the film, should have made this game so easy to develop - AND THEY HAVE! It took me around 8 hours in solid game play to complete the game. However the fun of the mini challenges and the flying will allow me to play this game again. Potter fan's, like my daughter, love this game. She is struggling a bit with some of the challenges but since Christmas is around the 35% mark of completion.

The technique used to first learn and then use the spells are excellently carried out. I don't think I've seen a better use of the joypad on any game for the Playstation. The movement and animation of characters is also superb. It was a blessing not to have a jump button, as jump is automatic whenever you need to jump. I just wish other game makers would follow EA's example! It makes playing so much more enjoyable, as us parents usually end up jumping at the wrong time and dying horribly.

The music and sound effects add tremendously to the atmosphere. Like all John Williams films (Star Wars, Jaws etc) the music is always Oscar material and his scores are borrowed for this game. You even get commentary from one of the Hogwarts' upstarts during the Quidditch matches! The voices for the main characters have also been pinched from the film, although they don't come from the main actors but from a voice coping firm (as seen acknowledged on the credits once the game has been completed).

The animation sequences are great, although you don't get movie clips. The graphics for the complete Hogwarts School, Grounds and Harry are really good. Howeve
r, the limitations of the graphics for the Playstation come into effect, as the rendering of the polygons on characters is a bit dodgy. This however doesn't spoil the game. The only other problem is that the game can get very linear. It follows the storyline religiously. It would be great to go exploring and redo some of the challenges again rather than locking the doors once a challenge or spell class has been completed.

The idea of having mini-games within the main adventure game is great. The gaming area of Hogwarts is huge! The learning of spells and the ultimate challenge at the end of trying to defeat Lord Voldemort makes this a great game. It includes magically scenes from both the book and film. If you?ve read and enjoyed the book buy the game! If you love role-playing platform adventure games buy this game - YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!

Hopefully some helpful hints for completing the game:

· Collect the chocolate frogs to gain energy.
· Drink or mix the potions to restore your full energy.
· Check every bookcase for a secret passageway.
· When flying after the golden snitch, you don't have to go through every hoop to be able to grab it.
· Cast your spell at Voldemort when he is next to the pillars, as these topple down on top of him.
· When rushing to lessons try to get all the beans in those rooms within the time period, as if you don't you, won't have enough to get the passwords.
· When playing chess, note that all the pieces move directly towards you. The first two games go forwards and then backwards. On the third game go out diagonally left and then fall back towards the bottom left hand corner.
· When rescuing the kitten make sure it follows you! It's little legs can't cope with you running.
· Pick up any fallen objects for simple gains in house points.

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