The way Harry grabs the edge of blocks and bookcases and hauls himself up with a grunt is a dead ringer for the anatomically impossible heroine. Much of the game is platform-style, not dissimilar to a certain Ms Croft's escapades. However mouse control is incredibly awkward, so we ended up moving around with the arrow keys - the lack of a strafe only causing occasional annoyance. You can move back and forwards, turn left and right, jump, and use a spell, with the mouse being indicated as the sensible way to look around.

You can even have private tuition with the Quidditch teacher to improve your lacking broomstick skills.Д¬ontrol has been simplified to appeal to all ages, but this leaves you feeling a little bit clumsy.

In fact, it's probably the trickiest part of the game, and certainly the most fun, which is why the title includes a separate Quidditch league where the enlightened player can zoom and swoop to their heart's content to build their way up the league. As the seeker, your task is to zoom around the pitch and pick up the snitch, a tiny golden ball with wings, to clinch the match. Starting with a quick lesson with Zoe Wannamaker (or rather, her digital equivalent), you're quickly spotted as a star Quidditch player, and promoted to the house team! Through this convenient plot device, you're propelled into an all-star match against the other houses. This brings us neatly to the flying broomstick game. We'd give you more info but we missed the secret area in the Quidditch lesson - bah! If you manage to find 24 of the cards, and 250 of the beans through unlocking secret areas, you unlock a special secret wizard card. This will either open the pathway, gain you some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a collectable Wizard Card, one of the challenge stars needed to complete the task or give you a chocolate frog to restore your health. If it's 'spellable', then the spell icon shows up and you can cast upon it. Taking up the spellcasting stance with the press of a button, you can direct your wand to the objects around you. You're only able to succeed if you use your spells correctly, which is simpler than it might sound. Each class contains a challenge that you as Harry are sent on. Once the spell is learnt, you can use it in the game. The house-points are totalled up on your options screen nice teachers give them for success, and according to tradition, nasty professor Snape takes them away in a desultory fashion. You begin with your first lessons during which you learn a number of useful spells by tracing your mouse over a shape onscreen - the more accurate you are, the more points go to your schoolhouse, Gryffindor. The roller-coaster nature of the game's plot development is a bit of a pity, since it's really excellent entertainment, but essentially leads to a rather short game.

You start with your lessons at Hogwarts school for witches and wizards before rocketing straight to the end of the story with a quick stop-off for dragon rescuing in the middle. Our best advice is to settle down and read the lot - we promise you won't regret it. Those who haven't either read the books or seen the film are going to be mightily confused. The title loosely follows the plot of the film and when we say loosely, we really mean it, as the best you get is a brief plot reminder to keep you rolling along. This hasn't stopped them rocketing into the number one slot in the all-format charts in the UK, and in fact, it's not even a matter of concern, because the PC version at least is really very good indeed. The game versions of the best-selling novels certainly have a lot to live up to, not least since they're game adaptations of film adaptations of books - not a genre that has the best pedigree. And that's not even beginning to mention the countless hordes of adults who either pretend to read it to be with their kids, or just admit that they're damn good books. well, a million eager children's piggy banks. Yes indeed, Harry Potter has arrived, and backed by the omnipotent J.K.Rowling has burst on to the gaming market with the force of. For the first time since the 1970s, there has arisen a marketing force terrifying enough in its inertia to rock the house of LucasArts to its core.

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