The best lego game to date?
The Bad: not nearly as funny for non-Potter fans, a couple random glitches, some hidden material rather hard to find
I've been a big fan of the Lego games, ever since the original Lego Star Wars came out in 2005. I've even gotten One Hundred percent on every Lego game to date. Since that time I've wanted a Lego Harry Potter game to come out. Being a huge Harry Potter fan and huge Lego game fan, I was understandably very excited when this game came out this July. And I was not disappointed, this game is perhaps the greatest Lego game to date and that is no easy achievement to make.
The story is simply Harry Potter, and if you've seen the four movies that this game is based on- Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Goblet of Fire- you will enjoy the cut-scenes and story of the main game significantly more than if you are not already a fan. That is not to say that the game is only for Potter fans, there is something here for everyone to enjoy.
The game starts off with Hagrid and Harry going through Diagon Alley, but it soon gives you access to the three characters you will mostly be playing as throughout the story: Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They each have abilities that have to do with their roles in the books/movies. Harry is the best broom rider, able to do the most on the broom. Ron has his pet rat Scabbers who can be used to solve puzzles. Hermione has a book which is needed to solve puzzles, referencing her character being the smartest of the three.
Fans of previous Lego games will recognize several familiar elements in the puzzle solving, but there are several additions to the core game puzzle solving that were not in the previous games. During the game, the characters gain access to a rather large arsenal of magical spells. As you go from year to year, you can use more and more of the spells to gain access to more areas in the main hub of Hogwarts, as well as solve more puzzles in the levels. Certain characters have other certain abilities, and fans of previous games will recognize staples like dark magic and digging. Some characters also have the ability to turn into animals, a welcome element that is a reference to the movies/books.
As you go through the game for the first time, the open world of Hogwarts is rather large, but at the beginning you are extremely limited in where you can go. However it can get confusing on where everything is. There is a ghost, however, that helps you find your way to your next destinations. This is "school" so you must go to classes during the course of the school year, in which you learn spells and abilities that open up new areas and can clear new obstacles. When you finish the story for a year, you can than go back to Hogwarts for the next year with all the abilities that you have learned.
Fans of previous games will welcome back Free Play. In Free Play you go through the level once again, without the story element. You gain access, in Free Play, to several different types of characters so that you can solve puzzles to gain various objects throughout the level. For instance, if you are going through a level for the first time, there may be something that you can not solve with the basic characters that you receive in the main story. In Free Play, you gain access to characters that can solve the puzzles. Instead of the Lego canisters you collected in the first game, you'll be collecting four House Crests, a "Student in Peril," and character tokens that can be used to purchase additional characters. Whenever you achieve something, whether it be gaining enough studs in a level, finding a student in peril, completing a house crest, finishing a class, or just solving a hidden puzzle in Hogwarts, you are awarded with a gold brick. Collecting all the gold bricks will give you access to a hidden level. There are several puzzles in the main Hogwarts hub that yield gold bricks and character tokens.
The game looks great on the Wii system, though probably not as great as on the X360 or PS3 systems. The environments will be nostalgic for a Potter fan, as you transverse the magical world of Hogwarts. The sound is fantastic, accentuating the John Williams score at all the right parts.
A few technical errors keep this game from getting a perfect score as well as a bit of difficulty finding everything. There is an error in one of the classrooms that makes you fall into a pit with a dragon. This is apparently a known error that is being worked on. I got an error a couple of times in which the moving stairs would freeze mid movement which made me have to restart the Wii. These are minor grips, though, when compared with the amount of fun to be had from this game.
If you are a Lego fan, you should be playing this game already, or have finished it by now. If you are a newcomer to the Lego games, this just may be a fine one to start with. It is easily the best Harry Potter game to date and possibly the best Lego game to date as well.