Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"Not bad for a Harry Potter game, but could have been a lot better"

As one would expect from a movie tie-in game, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is not a great game - it's fun to play, but there were many things in this game that could have been better and made the game a much more magical experience. It's the first Harry Potter game that I've actually played until the end. It has all the features that one will expect of a Harry Potter game, and a few new features too. Here's what I think of the game :

I'm not going to nitpick on J.K. Rowling's novel. We all know that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a great book - but what they actually put into the game is brutally cut short. There were many things that they left out in the game - too many, really. There's no more Quidditch (it's reduced to just a cutscene), you don't get even a glimpse of Professor Trelawney the Divination teacher, you can't visit Hogsmeade and where the heck is Snape? You don't see him anywhere! Only get this game if you have read the book or at least watched the movie or you won't understand what the heck is going on at all.

Now on to the game itself. There's the traditional free-roaming style found in previous Harry Potter games, so that part of the game hasn't been changed - and that's the way it should be. Hogwarts and its grounds are yours to explore. As usual there are a lot of secrets, puzzles and optional tasks that you can do. But the classes in the game are very few. The number of spells in the game are too little to be fun - you only have the usual spells like Lumos, Spongify, Depulso and Rictusempra, but you only learn FOUR spells in class - Draconifors, Lapifors, Glacius and Carpe Retractum. And you hardly ever use them outside of your lessons and exams. The final exams in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban provide a good amount of challenge in my opinion, and there's the usual puzzles to solve and shields to collect. If you collect all the shields (in a lesson or exam) you get to go to the Bean Bonus Room, which is a candy-lover's heaven, chock-full of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes. You only have a few minutes to get as many as you can, so make the most of it!

Then there's the usual features - Fred and George's Shop, where you can trade your sweets for Portrait Passwords which lead to secret areas with more rewards, or buy Trading Cards - but this time when you look at them there's a voice-over that reads out what the card says, which is good. Some of the students have Trading Cards to trade. When you talk to people, sometimes you can even learn a good tidbit or two. Make sure you cast your wand around for anything to cast on, wherever you go - because there are a lot of things you can work your magic on and get yourself some extra rewards.

You can ride Hagrid's Hippogriff, Buckbeak, and earn Trading Cards if you manage to complete it well. It's not easy and can get frustrating, but there's no other way for you to earn those Trading Cards. You can now play as Ron and Hermione too, but you can't switch them anytime you want, the game will do that for you. Sometimes you will need all three of them to cast a spell on something, but it takes a bit before the other two realize that you need your help. The Marauders Map is really no different from a regular map and doesn't work as the book describes it.

The graphics have improved a lot from the previous games the characters look more like their real selves and less blocky. The music is pretty good too, and pleasant to the ears. You use the arrow keys to move and the mouse button to cast spells and select things. The load times in the game are moderately long, but while waiting you're shown a screenshot and a tip, so it's not that bad.

But honestly there's a lot of things that they could have added to make Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban a whole lot better. They could have added the option to visit Hogsmeade which means more places to explore, they could have added Potions and Divination lessons, and they could have left Quidditch there and not reduce it to just a scene.

Fact is they didn't add those features so I guess there's no use lamenting about it. It's a fun game with all the traditional features of a Harry Potter game, and you might still enjoy it, so go ahead and play it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/08

Game Release: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (US, 05/25/04)