Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

"Harry Potter in Deep Water."

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire… What more can I say?

Graphics >>[8/10]
One of the most beautiful graphics I've ever seen on GBA. This installment of Harry Potter features lucid 3D graphic, awesome particle effects for magic and all that stuff, surprisingly detailed environment, and some hand-drawn cut scenes and cards.

Anyway, almost 90% of the graphic faithfully follow the movie, which is rather good. The characters, enemies, environment, and even small thing like the Goblet of Fire resemble what they look like in the movie. Impressive.

Sound >>[4/10]
All right. While other reviewers may say that the sound is okay, good, great, and all that, I say that the sound is crap. It could have been very good, since the music in Harry Potter always have that classical feeling. But somehow in this game, the music and other sound effects have low quality.

If you just heard it for a minute or two, then you will think that the sound is pretty good. After some time playing, you'll notice a lot of jerky sound in it. The most noticeable of this jerky sound is in the voice clips of character. It's like their mouth is full of bubble gums when they shout and stuff.

And don't get me started on the background music in the game. Not only to mention it is jerky and crappy, but it is very repetitive that it becomes heavenly annoying for that matter. After some time I just can't stand it anymore cause it goes round and round in my head and I can't help but to switch off the sound.

So why the 4? Well, the sound can use a lot more work. It's like you have a very low quality version of the music when you can have the better.

Story >>[2/10]
Crap. Total crap. Wait, I'm not talking about the Harry Potter's story. I'm talking about the pitiful story in the game. What you call story in this game is a line or two, with a rather nice cut scene, telling you about the main plot of the original story.

It could have used much more work onto it. Hell, I know it could. Simply put, this game doesn't tell anything about the story. This game (or whoever makes it) assumes that we are smart enough to watch the movie first or read the book before playing this game. Totally. If you haven't done these things I mentioned above, you won't understand the story at all. Or not that well.

This is simply pathetic since the great point of Harry Potter is the story to begin with. So if you're buying this game and hoping to know the story from playing it, don't.

Oh, and I forget to mention that the story is taken from the movie, not from the book (not a very bright thing to do) namely the part when the dragon chase Harry all the way through the forest. For your information, it's not in the book. And other stuffs like that.

Gameplay >>[6/10]
Unlike the previous installments, this is an action oriented game (while the other 3 games are RPGs). Is it bad? Well, no. Not at all. You should give it a try.

Anyway, in this game, we control Harry or Ron or Hermione (yes, you can choose characters although sometimes you must play as Harry) as they travel through the fantasy realms. You will be able to cast spells in real time, beat enemies while moving around -hoping you will not get hit by a nasty redcap-, as well as move things and solve puzzles.

At first it looks promising and I really enjoy it. But after sometime, you realize that the gameplay and puzzles are rather repetitive in some way, bringing the score down to 9.

Although each character has different stats, they don't seem to do much in the game. And to make thing worse, after you play for sometime, your friend just stand around doing nothing in the game. I remember when I face an erkling and I was having a hard time, and my friends just stand there (what kind of friends are them?). As it isn't enough, I have to call them using the L button for help. And that is freaking stupid! Help me, damnit! I got a fire crab shooting fireballs at me. Do I have to call you every time for help?! This, in my opinion brings the score down to 8.

While they are like, totally stupid when it comes to a helping hand, they are somehow smart enough to collect every Beans and Chocolate Frogs they can find. Damn. At least they shoot accurately when it comes to it.

There are special stages in the game, namely the TWT, where you do things that you usually don't. For example, riding on your broomstick. I won't tell much, play it yourself.

There are cards to collect in the game. They can give you big bonuses as well as making enemies a lot easier. You can find them in game or buy it. Now this is cost a lot of beans, so you better stock up. While interesting, this is, like, a cheap attempt to make the game last longer. We're expected to go from stages to stages again & again to collect beans, which is rather time consuming. This brings down the score to 7.

And finally the very down point of the game. Some levels use puzzle and enemies in a very repetitive way that I swear it's a sooo pathetic attempt by the developers to annoy us and make the game last longer (which is still short, around 5 hours of playing). I remember in the early forbidden forest level, we have to solve a lot of puzzle (which is repetitive in some way), breaks a lot of stone, put off a lot of fires, and beating a lot of enemies (in a very repetitive way).

Picture this, we solve a puzzle, open some chest, and move into another area. There we confront the salamander, that we got to shoot 5 times or so. That's done. We move on, put off some fire, open some chest, and to our surprise there's another salamander waiting for us. We shoot it 5 times, drop it into the water, and it's dead. We move on, and we make acquaintance with another salamander. I swear, without these annoying enemies who we meet as often as we blink an eye, the game wouldn't last for 3 hours. Brings down the score to 6.

To sum it, the gameplay is new, interesting, and after sometime it becomes dull, repetitive, and annoying.

Controls >>[N/A]
You can shoot spells with A button, cast supportive spells with B button, and call your friends with L button (freaking stupid) and stuffs. It's simple. Nothing bad about the controls.

Replay Ability >>[2/10]
As I told you before, this game has a sorry way to make us play it over and over again. Collecting beans, buy new card. Bah. And even if you find the right motivation to do it, it would only last for another 2 hours or so. Pathetic. There's not much of a replay here.

Overall >>[4/10]
It's kind of different from the previous Harry games on GBA, and it's welcomed. The graphics is nice and the music is crap. It totally can use much more work and it could have been waaay better. It has no story and a sorry way to make the game last longer. All in all, this is a total disappointment from what is expected of a Harry Potter game.

Buy or Rent?
Why would you want to buy it? Well, if you're a total fan, then get it. If you haven't watch the movie or read the book there's really no reason to get this game as it have no story at all. This is not much of an action games so Action gamers keep out of it. If you're still curious then rent it. I really advise against buying since you'll be better off buying the book than this game.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/20/06, Updated 03/16/07