"Harry Potter - Why wait for death?"

Urgh. Yes. It's Harry Potter. As happens in most ways of entertainment today, games are quickly rushed to adjoin great films. Most of these games are unwanted, being platformers with bad graphics. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (I'm British) just manages to squeeze in this slot (on some platforms).

The thing is, if EA games had combined the two handheld Harry Potter games together, people may rejoice in the fact that it had both good graphics and good gameplay. The Gameboy-Colour version has great gameplay, but bad graphics. The Gameboy Advance has great graphics, but poor gameplay; I'll show you just how bad the gameplay is now.

Gameplay 4/10
Don't get me wrong, the game can be fun to play . . . for a little while. Right, to help Gameboy games to survive, the companies came up with a new standard for games. Tired of platforms, the bad, bad companies stole the jump button, and kicked the camera to above the player. Most people call this 'top-down'. Yeah, people may tell you that that's because it's a RPG, but I've never seen a RPG without some form of level upgrades in it and one as short as this. I haven't completed the game yet, but I've read the whole of what happens through a FAQ. Unfortunately, this game's gameplay takes you to whole new levels of falling asleep at your Gameboy. Simply walk about, use your newly learned spell (of 5 that can be learned) in some situation and reap the ''benefits''. As some sort of consollation, you can collect some cards from Chocolate Frogs which only tell you when the said wizard on the card lived (which they have often omitted for some strange reason). But wait, there's more! I have to shamefully admit, I quite enjoyed the Quidditch! Fly towards the Snitch and stay around it, whilst diving past Bludgers (to the crowd's awe). Once you've touched it, you have to follow the Snitch and fly through it's rings that it leaves behind. After doing that for a little while, you have to catch the Snitch! Phew, quite long, eh? A bar appears, your hand is at one end, and the Snitch zooms back and forth across it while the time ticks. Guess what? Press A or B to close your hand when the Snitch is in it and catch it! Unfortunately, this mild pleasure doesn't make up for the boringness that the gameplay gives you, hence the synopsis.

Story 8/10
Ahh . . . that's the evil part of the review over. Now . . . the nice part!! Well...the story follows closely to the book, however, not enough happens! Did it really take only 1 night to get to Hallowe'en from September the 1st? Only 5 spells learned in a whole school year? I'd rip up my contract with Hogwarts and go to Beauxbatons! Why did Hermione gain some sort of humour during this game (think Flobberworms)? I never thought of her a joker.

Audio/Music 7/10
Nice tunes. Nothing from the film, but nice tunes that capture the moment for most of the game. I jumped for the first time when Harry screamed a spell. Only one version of each spell being spoken though, which is a shame as I laughed at when Harry first of all said ''Flipendo.'' on the PC, then a few times later screams ''FLIIIIIIIPENNNNNNDOO!!!''. Hilarious. Honest. Precious little else in the way of sounds to go by. I must admit though, the sound of those Doxies scares me. They remind me of bees. Beware the Doxies, they'll get you too!!

Graphics 8/10
My god! Graphics!! Amazing, I must put it! Sparkles abound when spells are cast! Colours flowing out onto the screen! This game uses graphics which are quite like the graphics used on THPS2 for the people, but backgrounds and objects are sprites. As usual, the darkness really puts a dampener on the graphics. But as I've said before, the gameplay counts, and even these graphics can't make up for it. It's like having Pong with the world's best graphics. No-one would buy it just for graphics.

Replay Value 2/10
Well...how can I put it? Don't. Maybe you might want to collect all the cards in true Pokemon fashion, I know I didn't. After playing the game, only Quidditch may make you play the game again. It was a waste of £34.99 for me.

To Buy or to Rent
I urge you to rent this, something is far more deserving of your cash. Even the Gameboy Colour version will keep you ''hooked'' for longer, with it's cheery spells, level upgrades and monsters for you to fight repetitively. Renting will seriously improve your karma, whether you pay £3.35 or £34.99, you will get the same expreience. Unfortunately, the cartridge, being so small, doesn't have as many chips for you to steal should you break it open. Unlike a certain Tennis game for the Gameboy...

Pros
+ Harry Potter, kids love 'im!
+ Those graphics..

Cons
- The electric chair is far more a humane way to die.
- Bad gameplay, far too repetitive.

Overall 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/02, Updated 04/21/03