Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

"A good game, Mr. Potter, but you still have a ways to go..."

You know about Harry Potter. I know you do. He has books, movies, and games... And if you don't know, let me fill you in. You're a wizard with a wand and you want to kick butt! But that is one of the problems with this game. Not enough butt kicking. This game isn't combat based, so it isn't for everyone. If you like games, like say, the older Resident Evil games, you may like this. Not so much about fighting, more like finding your way around through puzzle solving... and magic portraits...

Gameplay- Like I said, mostly solving puzzles... you do get in occasional fights, and the fights were actually pretty cool, and would have been awesome if you could move faster. In battles with more than twon people, it looked hectic. Pretty good, but could've been more to it. Puzzle solving is all right. I liked it. Again, not for everyone but some will like it. And plus there are a a few mini games that will offer some entertainment. You could actually play wizard's chess! Too bad your opponent almost always had the intelligence of a stump... But the thing that made this game good was Hogwarts, itself. It is really close to what the real thing could look like. It was still too small to compare, but was still great for size, and even though they didn't say much, the number of students was pretty cool too.

Controls- The Wii's unique motion sensitive shows good promise for this game, and it was actually done all right. But a lot of areas felt kind of weird, often causing you to aim at the wrong thing, or to cast the wrong spell...

Graphics- On the wii, not that great, could've been better. But it isn't ugly either, so you'd probably still like it.

So, this game is worth trying, I think. It will vary for some, but I thought it was pretty good. Good points being the massive castle, the nice spell variation, decent mini games, and a decent battle system. The bad points would be the lack of battles, the somewhat bad controls, and the not too good last level... A seven out of ten for being fun, but having some flaws, and not being for everybody.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/10/07