The Addictive Fun of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Video Game (Xbox 360)

Being a Star Wars fan, I was quite excited to hear that there was going to be Lego Star Wars and I couldn't believe how they re-imagined the Star Wars series. With the success of the building block line, it was soon followed up by the Warner Brothers owned video game company, Traveller's Tales, to create a rather cute, but mind numbingly addictive game full of puzzles, humor and based around the concept that you could re-live your favorite moments from your favorite movies. With the success of Lego Star Wars came various re-launches and sequels of the game, the similarly enjoyable Lego Indiana Jones, the extremely frustrating and disappointing Lego Batman and now the billions of Potter fans around the world are treated to Lego Harry Potter.

Features: I find that the family orientated and challenging fun that Lego Star Wars did for the Star Wars fans, is going to the same for the Harry Potter fans. This isn't Harry's first venture into video games, which I myself haven't played any of the generally poor reviewed adventures, but now there has been widespread excitement from fan's who explain how much fun it is to run around Hogwart's, learn spells, brew potions, fly a broom and re-live all of the other elements of the Potter series. You can find this game on a variety of systems ranging from Nintendo DS (which has some unique spell casting abilities with the DS interface), the Wii, the PSP, the PC but if you want some fun co-op playtime, you need to go for the PS3 or the Xbox 360. I personally got it for the 360 (for about fifty dollars) due to the fact that I love playing video games to increase my Xbox live gamer score and work towards small obtainable goals, such as running people over with my broomstick.

Plot: Lego Harry Potter boasts that this game features the largest constructed environment in a Lego video game. In fact, the massive and intricately detailed and interactive environment of Hogwart's is so vast, that you need a ghost like Headless Nick to escort you around. There are several objects within the numerous levels of the game that require you to basically smash everything with your Patronus charm or you can levitate and build pieces with your hover charm. As the game progresses, you go through adventures with the Harry heroes, you will learn new spells as they do and you are faced with numerous puzzles that require teamwork and problem solving in order to make it on to the next level. In between your adventures, Traveller's Tales has HILARIOUS cut scenes that are somewhat parodies of the films, but they are even funnier as no character has dialogue, just all hums, mums and gestures.

Graphics / Audio: I find that the graphics in the game are rather smooth and it is always enjoyable to see how Traveller's Tales can take very rigid block characters and make them jump and move and be so lively with a sense of comedic style and presence that makes them even cuddlier. The music is straight out of the films and provides great backdrops to the levels, but you have options where you can drop out the background music and sound effects so that you can play whatever you want.

Gameplay: The gameplay is very addictive, I find myself having a hard time putting down the controller, as so many of the levels involve exploration, solving puzzles and interacting with everything while collecting every possible Lego stud that you can get your cupped yellow hands on. A nice touch to this game is now you can wander off from your partner as far as you like as the screen will split, but it will not always split in the most convenient of spots. Unfortunately, if you are on a smaller map, the screen will not split and you will be begging your partner to come closer so that you can investigate some goodies in a corner of Hogwart's. Another thing that I am not too crazy about the gameplay is the limited camera movement and a hard time deciphering a depth of field. The most challenging thing of all of the Lego games is that there isn't much feeling of depth or space, which can be extremely frustrating for a game in the platformer genre. Some players may also get frustrated with the repetitive, mindless and redundant levels of running around to collect studs or find a missing piece to complete a potion and not be able to find it, but the hunting of pieces and completing puzzles is one of the core concepts of this game.

Playability: I think the re-playability is even higher in this game compared to the other Lego games due to the Bonus Levels and Free Play options. With other Lego games, once you complete a level the Free Play option will be available so that the gamer can go back in and complete the level with all of the characters available. With Lego Harry, you must scour the grounds and complete plenty of puzzles in order to unlock the one hundred playable characters that you will need to accomplish the puzzles within the Bonus Levels at Gringott's bank. IN FACT, you can't even open the bonus levels to Gringott's bank until you have completed enough levels and collected enough goldbricks (which are your reward for completing a level or other accomplishments). Once you have met those requirements, you will be opened up to a Bonus Level, but I would HIGHLY recommend that you unlock and purchase as many characters that you can prior to accessing these levels or you will go through a lot of frustrating puzzles and then not be able to complete the level because you never purchased Malfoy when you had the chance. The hardcore gamers will also find themselves trying to obtain every different variation of a costume until they have acquired every playable character but they will find missions as extremely frustrating until these character tasks are accomplished.

Overall, I would have to say if you are a Harry Potter fan, you will enjoy this game due to the fact that you will get to re-live your favorite moments from the first four Potter films and I can almost guarantee that you will find the parodied cut scenes as hilarious. If you are a Lego fan, you probably enjoyed the previous Lego video games, and you will see numerous fun filled, puzzle solving and addictive levels where you need to smash and build your way through as well. If this is your first venture into Harry Potter or a Lego game, I can assure you as far as a video game goes, I find that it is adequately priced, has some great levels and puzzles, excellent co-op play, entertaining cut scenes, easily obtainable goals but with addictive challenges to build and destroy that will make you keep coming back for more.

Resource: http://games.kidswb.com/official-site/lego-harry-potter/ visit the official Lego Harry Potter web site