Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"Very fun, if flawed"

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is based (very loosely) on this summer's smash hit movie and book of the same title. You take the role of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley as you try to get through their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Gameplay: 9/10

This was a very fun game to play. I loved the movies and books' so taking role of not just Harry, but Ron and Hermione was very cool and surprisingly there were no qualms with switching between each of the characters. The targeting system could use a little work, but almost always it worked good. When you are in a battle, it's pretty good. But when you are free-roaming the castle trying to knock beans out of jars, the targeting system makes knocking them out a very frustrating experience. The control though are very easy to use, and better than the previous instalments of the franchise. Since this is aimed to people about eight and under, the difficulty level is very low and so any gamer over thirteen should be able to beat this game in about 6-9 hours.

Story: 6/10

Here's where the game falls short. The story feels very “thrown” together. They should have stuck a lot closer to the book, maybe even the movie. But a lot of the quests in this game are just dumb and serve no logical point in the story other than to fill up space to make the game longer. The ending also feels very rushed. The ending should have been twice as long to fully explain the whole story as told in the book. Plus, you never get to play Quidditch!!! Quidditch is part of Harry's life and they should have included some Quidditch mini-games, but alas, no Quidditch. Still, you're never confused as to what's happening or what to do next, so props for that. Seriously though, they should have stuck closer to the book.

Graphics/Sound: 7:10

The graphics are very average. They're not bad, and they're not amazing. They are just blah. The developers should have taken advantage of the Xbox's graphics power, and not made the graphics the same on all three systems. The sounds though are rich and vibrant. The developers did a good job to capture the sounds I imagined for the Harry Potter world. Plus the voice acting was very well done, even if the actors from the movies didn't do them. Very good sound, but average graphics.

Replayability: 2/10

There is absolutely no replay value, unless you liked the game so much you want to play it again. For the next Harry Potter game they should give you something special for next time you play the game if you beat the game previously, like Van Helsing. At least there are a few mini-games to play.

Final Thoughts:

Unless you're an absolute Harry Potter fan, I would recommend you rent the game, because it has almost no replay value. The game though is very fun as it lasts and I can't wait for “The Goblet of Fire”.

OVERALL RATING: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/04