Probably the best TT Lego game ever.
Like most of the LEGO games before it, LEGO Harry Potter is your typical platformer. Get to the end of the level by doing some tasks first. You first play through story mode, which is intercut with some very funny cutscenes. The free play mode doesn't use the cutscenes, but still uses the same levels. In free play, you are able to play as any one of the characters you acquired in the game in order to fully collect every unlockable item in the game. LEGO Harry Potter has players going through the first four years of Harry Potter's days at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Being that this is the first four years, the next game in the series will most likely include Years 5, 6, and 7 (and seeing how the upcoming film will be split into 2 parts, TT Games will most likely split Year 7 up into two seperate levels).
In keeping with the series, your main weapon in this game in magic. You'll be casting many spells throughout the game including Wingardium Leviosa. To cast such spells, tap the object you want to cast on using the DS stylus. Then, trace the image that appears on the screen. Probably the best part of this is that show the image every time you cast that certain spell so you won't forget it. Besides spells like Incendio and Lumos, there is also a spell for transfiguring (or transforming) objects into other things.
This activates one of the many minigames within the DS version of Lego Harry Potter. They are mainly implemented into the game itself. Most of these are simple like a memory game and a puzzle (the puzzle minigame being the Transfiguration minigame I mentioned earlier).
Like the other LEGO games from TT Games, each character you are able to play as has their own identity. The majority of the characters, as you may have guessed, are able to cast magic. You do have some of the non-Magic characters (or 'Muggles' as we mainly know them as). Those are able to push and pull heavy objects. Teachers and prefects are able to activate these statues within the game which activate the memory minigames. The goblins of Gringotts Bank are able to also activate another type of statue where the goal of the minigame is to get an orb to the end of a series of gears. There are the ghosts (like Moaning Myrtle and James and Lily Potter) who are able to enter rooms guarded by a gate. Finally, there are the parseltounges who are able to talk to snakes and activate snake statues. To do so, hiss into the DS microphone. You also use this for saying a password for a statue in Year Three, but it would've been cooler to use this more often.
However, to acquire them is different from other TT Lego Games. In earlier games, you acquired a couple of new characters to be able to buy in the store after completing either a sublevel or a main level (I actually am unsure about that). But here, in order to unlock the characters, you have to collect Wizard Cards within the levels (2 in each sublevel) to unlock the characters.
This part heads into the next part of this game, the collectibles. As stated, you collect Wizard Cards to unlock new characters. Finding golden hats are basically like getting the minikits in the other games. Getting 10 will get you a new 'trophy' to view. Like the other games, there are the 'True' statuses after getting a certain amount of studs and the red bricks that unlock powerups like invincibility and one-hit defensive spells. However, unlike the other games, the powerups stay on when you activate them. In previous games, you had to always set them up every time you start up the game. To me, that's an advantage for this game because you don't have to worry about constantly turning it on.
In all, the main reason I like this game is because it keeps you playing for a long time. There are a lot of stuff to collect and a lot of things to do. That's the thing with these TT Lego games in that you have a lot of stuff to do, like creating your own characters (a key part of the TT LEGO games since Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy). Seeing how this game is on the DS, you can play it wherever you are.
But while I do like this game, it does have some faults. I saw two in particular I didn't like.
The first was that I don't think this game fully covered each book/film. For Years 1 and 2 it was fine but Year 3 had only 9 levels. That's actually okay, but Year 4 has only 7 levels! So, here are some scenes from the books/films that I think would be a good idea to have in this game.
Year 1: An actual level where you play Quidditch
Year 2: Getting the hairs from Crabbe and Goyle for the Polyjuice Potion
Year 3: This year was actually covered pretty fine
Year 4: A level within the Pensieve
The second problem I had is that it didn't have much of some of the biggest parts of Harry Potter. I already mentioned it lacked Quidditch and the use of passwords while in Hogwarts, but I also would've liked to see more defensive spells. The only one you have is Reducto. It isn't bad, but it would've been cool to have more spells like that. Another thing that should've been improved on are the classes you attend where you learn the spells. The only classes you go to (besides one level (each) of Potions, Transfiguration, and Defense against the Dark Arts) are Charms classes. Relating back to my complaint of a lack of defensive spells, the Defense classes would've been a good thing to have.
But even with those complaints, Lego Harry Potter for the DS is a great game. When I eventually play the next gen console versions of the game, I'll let you know how those work out. But, the DS version is probably the best out of them all.