PC POA: Another Year For Harry, Another Year of Improved Graphics, Another Year of...Where did the GamePlay Go?
Harry, Hermione and Ron are back for more jelly beans, wizard cards, chocolate frogs, secret rooms and death defying magical adventures for their third year at Hogwarts.
The Harry Potter games, including the Prisoner of Azkaban, are wonderful family games. They are not games for the hardcore gamer, but games that children can play assuming the roles of their heroes as they attend classes in the hopes of one day becoming good wizards and witches, combating evil in whatever form they find it. Young wizards and witches sometimes will need a little help from Mom, Dad, and even Grandpa as they navigate through the magical world of Hogwarts. Mom, Dad, and Grandpa have then been known to start their own Harry Potter game, as Moms, Dads, and Grandpas are often known to do.
Fans of the game series will be pleasantly surprised at the advance in technology, specifically the graphics, and the ease of getting from one place to another, within the magical fortress, to explore their surroundings and find surprises (compared to the previous games). The opportunity to play all three characters, each at different stages of the game, is also an advance for the series, and for the first time in gaming at Hogwarts, a girl gets to play as a girl.
There were minor hitches in the game controls. Buckbeak flew into invisible walls and became near impossible to steer on the fifth round of bat rings, The problem was solved by lowering the World Detail to its lowest setting. Jumping sometimes was hard to gage because solid structures often ended before solid footing.
With all the improvements and all the added fun of sliding and gliding and grand champion bean room prizes...No one in my family has wanted to play it more than twice.
The first Potter game, Sorcerer's Stone, is played again and again by the eleven year old. Hootch's flying class takes considerable practice and took me at least 20,000 tries (with a joystick) before I made it through both sets of challenge rings, and the only way any of us can beat Voldemort is to cheat and play in debug mode.
The eleven year old still thinks the Chamber of Secret's is too hard for him because of the timed challenges, but plays it until he fails too many spells with the directional keys. I've played Chamber at least four times over the year, and I always, accidentally, find something new. The last time I played, I found 20 jelly beans on a balcony. I was embarrassingly thrilled.
Prisoner of Azkaban is very enjoyable for what it is. A delightful pastime that requires a little skill, but not too much thinking. The entire family enjoyed playing it, it s just that no one wants to play it more than twice.