"A very addicting game"

Introduction:

Quidditch is easy enough to understand; there are a total of 7 players and each player is as important as the next one. The game is played on broomstick (flying ones to be exact) and one team tries to score with a certain ball (like soccer) the chasers (the main people that score) try to throw there ball through one of the three hoops. There is a keeper (goalie) that tries to defend the hoops while the beaters (players that hit homing balls at the opposing team) try to knock some of the other players off their brooms. Then finally there is the seeker who tries to get the snitch that flies around just trying not to get caught. The point system is that for every ball that goes through a hoop ten points is earned for the team that threw that ball. The game only ends when the seeker catches the snitch, which gains the team, an additional one hundred fifty points and usually is the winner of the match.

The game makes a requirement that you go through a school of basic Quidditch moves and techniques. Once you think you got what this game can through at you the you can shoot for the World Cup and take a specific team to glory. There are so many teams to choose from and each have their own set of players and each team is about as evenly balanced as well as the next team. This game has special moves for you to learn such as individual special moves for one player or a special move for the entire team. You have to try to raise your snitch bar as high as possible before your opponents and your snitch bar combine into one (that's when the snitch catching part begins).

When you start playing real well by doing lots of combos and scoring then your team gets to do more stuff that always benefits you. The thing about this game is that you don't really have to play as Harry Potter, you can play as loads of other people from teams like USA, New England, France and much more teams to choose from that can take you to the Quidditch/World Cup. A great feature in this game is that you have to go through training first before you hit the big league were all the pros are and even in the big league can you change how touch you want your opponents to be.

Gameplay: 9/10

You can't just simply score and hope that when the timer runs out that you win, in this game if you have scored under one hundred and fifty points and your Quidditch bar is not high enough then you have a big chance of losing what could have been an easy game. Doing combos is a great way to raise your Quidditch bar and will give you a much better chance at winning then just plain old shooting.

You and your team have to go up against several teams at Hogwarts such as the home teams. When you are in training your players will explain what to do and how to do that and put you into a small practice match against a practice guy. When you and your team do good you get to do stuff that you wouldn't normally get until after a long way through the match such as the ability to dodge those annoying homing balls or a chance to shoot one of those homing balls at other opposing players.

You can do more then just pass the ball to the other players on your team, you can pass the ball with style and as such is called a combo in this game and is much more effective then just plain passing. You can even charge your shots so that they are really powerful and fast or slow and simple. There are things like interception where an opposing player takes the ball from you during a mid pass or if you let the players get to close to you and they will tackle you.

Tackling is one of the most effective and basic ways into taking a ball from your opponents and is one of the great things that you get to do in this game. Like all sports games, there is nothing (almost) that your opponents can't do that you can do apart from special team moves. When you unlock the special team moves by doing specific things for your team like using a bludger (homing ball) a certain amount of times or scoring a certain amount of times and not catching the snitch and many ways to get the moves.

Dodging is pretty interesting and challenging to pull off at the right time. When someone is right behind you and is within tackling range you get to dodge them and thus making the tackling useless while you get to make a fast getaway. Shooting the homing ball is challenging but once you pull the move off not only does the opposing team lose the ball but also you get to take the ball and make a get away and have no one chasing you for a short time.

When you get to the World Cup you get to choose from a wide variety of teams and this is when the game gets a lot more fast paced. You will be placed based on how much points you get per match, so if you don't do so good then you will be placed in the last place areas and you will have a much harder time winning if you can't get the points needed to get the gold. As you uncover many moves like team special you will find that this game can be quite addicting and you will more then likely enjoy this game.

Story: 8/10

Your job as captain of the Quidditich team is to take a team of your choosing to the big trophy and ultimate wizard glory. There are so many teams to choose from and so many ways to win that the story doesn't end for a long time. You can set the difficulty to several different levels and really put you up to the wizard challenge and get you that gold. From Hogwarts to the many world cup stadiums from around the world you take your team to the best glory that you can get.

Graphics/Sound: 10/10

This game has some of the most realistic sounds that you will probably ever hear on a Gamecube game. The audience has very realistic sound to them and is simply amazing and will stun you at the games realistic sounds. The sound of broom crashing into each other and the sound of the chaser balls flying in every direction and even the sound of the homing ball going past your ear is an amazing thing to experience in this game. Then you have the sound of the commentators going off and they are always right on queue when you pass the ball and the commentators yell out now who has the ball.

The graphics were also done really well, the players all look fairly real and even the audience from a certain degree look real. The field and the stands, everything looks like that a lot of time was spent on this game and is a big step up for this game.

Playtime/Replayability: 9/10

With each different team having their own special moves and so many teams to get the gold cup with this game could take awhile to actually beat. Once you beat the game with one team you probably will be interested if you can do the game with a different team and maybe even set the difficulty up to give you an even greater challenge.

This game is fun for just about everyone and you don't need to be a Harry Potter fan to enjoy this game, the game is fairly addicting so be warned that once you get started you might not want to put the game down.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/05