Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Flipendo this!"

Ah, about darn time we had Harry Potter as a sprite at your control. Overall a pretty good game, but hey, few games are prefect or we wouldn't have our classic favourites. HPTSS doesn't really have the best features to make it that golden favourite, unfortunately, save that it is another piece of merchandise off an already large merchandising bandwagon.

Graphics: 8/10
Y'know, the graphics aren't actually that bad. The features of the character, especially Mdm Hooch resemble that of the movie. Not bad if you liked the movie, too bad if you thought the movie sucked. The backgrounds are quite colourful and it's an added bonus because of the changing portraits. The movies are nice and the illustrations in the storybook sequences are better than that of the average HP merchandise.

Sound: 6/10
Pretty good. Best sound goes to the opening of the treasure chest and finding a wizard card. Other than that, the dialogue between the characters is mediocre. Hearing Harry say ''flipendo'' too many times brainwashes the player. Music is nice and easy on the ears. The music played when fighting Voldemort sets the mood.

Gameplay: 3/10
If you thought the gameply in this one was hard, do not on any account try the PS version. Auto jump makes everything too easy, and catching the snitch in Quidditch takes a grand total of 4 minutes max. On the other hand, we have the terribly irksome light platforms activated by 'lumos'. This sucks because it's hard to gauge where it starts and stops. All in all, it's a super easy version of Legend of Zelda where even the mechanisms you use are preprogrammed. It's helpful that they tell you what you can get in all the sections before they start, but it does make it quite frustrating when you can't find that last secret area and wizard card. The way you learn spells is interesting if a little pre-school.

Story: 5/10
It follows the book quite accurately, which was a nice surprise. Small indiscrepancies can hardly be avoided but it definitely made the game more fun, ie. the troll chase. The teachers have an unfortunate propensity to send you off on life threatening quests, and even Hagrid asks you to look for 'fireseeds'. What on earth? It's a bit linear

Others:
Still, finding the wizard cards are challenging. Challenging and pointless. Collecting beans can get obssessive (BEANS!!!) but it is hardly worth the effort. Completing the lessons is fun but pointless as well -- as a requirement of the story, Slytherin will always be in the lead for House points.

Buy it for a lark if you can spare the money. Then turn on the debug mode and play your favourite chapters over and over again.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/02, Updated 02/16/02