OK, so Harry Potter has now taken over everything from books to movies to stickers and now he's moving into video games. But maybe the books would have been fine on their own... The high point: The graphics. They're fairly well done, but not anything special as we've seen games take much greater advantage of the GBA's two-inch screen. The sound is okay, but certainly not a high point (for GBA; for Harry Potter it may well be the best). The songs are all very similar, if not exactly the same, and the familiar Harry Potter theme is nowhere to be seen (heard?). Gameplay is none too good for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The standard view of Harry is done in an isometric style so that the D-Pad doesn't match up. You'll understand when (if) you choose to play Harry Potter: It's set up so that the screen is on a diagonal, like in typical Sim games (Sim City, for example) and Harry will move on the diagonals so that when you press D-down it makes him move diagonally down and to the left or right to run most quickly. Depending on how the settings are adjusted, you may have to press down both down and right, for instance, to go straight down. After a while of play my hands really (!) hurt and I had to switch to my GameBoy Player to spare my thumbs. There's a few aspects to gameplay: Normal running around (and often sneaking), Quidditch (very hard), and fighting. The battles aren't set up in an RPG fashion, it's more action based so that you have to hit enemies with the spells. This system is made difficult by the isometric (diagonal) screen set up. Quidditch is VERY hard and a waste of time, so it's good you only have one match (which I lost) and a training session (which is difficult and mandatory). Normally, though, you're running around in the field and learning spells (there's only about five; what variety!) and very often you're going to be sneaking: past Flich, the librarians, Percy, you name it. It gets repetitive as you'll have to go back and do it again since you'll probably get caught a lot. The gameplay is very non-explanatory. There's a few aspects that don't get discussed at all (health meter--stolen from Zelda, for example) and they get annoying. There's stuff to do even when you beat it like getting the jelly beans and chocolate frogs, but they are all rather annoying to do and tough to locate (actually, there's really only those two things). There are no cinematics, but a few slide-show type cutscenes which remind me of MS Powerpoint. After the final boss (the basilisk, surprise) there is no ending of any substance which I can remember. The game took me probably less than ten hours to beat: Not worth buying. That's over two dollars an hour for a boring game. Altogether this game is pretty awful. EA, you've really outdone yourself here.
Other Helpful Reviews for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
This game is not what I expected it to be. I finished the game in exactly two days and I had no trouble throughout the game whatsoever. Harry Potter should stick to the movies and the books, 'cause this video game isn't ... Read Full Review
This HP game is actually pretty good for the GBA. It is a strait forward game, were you learn spells along the way and you must use them to figure out puzzels. The places were you can go are pretty basic, but still pret... Read Full Review
