Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup

"Potter, flying down the field, hot on the Snitch..."

I am a huge fan of Harry Potter and saw this game recently and snatched it up quickly. Here's my review.

Gameplay: 8/10
For those unfamiliar with Harry Potter, Quidditch is a wizard's sport where 7 players on each team mount their flying broomsticks and attempt to score points by either the Chaser throwing the Quaffle (red, wooden ball) through the hoops, guarded by the Keeper, or the Seeker finding and catching the fast-moving Golden Snitch. The game ends once either team has captured the Golden Snitch.
The game begins with a series of training missions which I felt were very much needed. This game has a bit awkward controls, especially to those who haven't played the PC games, but they're easy to master.
Once you've beaten the training missions, you don your broomstick and become one of four Hogwarts house team (Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin, or Hufflepuff) and attempt to win the Hogwarts school cup in a series of matches.
Then, once you do win it, you can advance to the World Cup mode where you play as one of nine international teams and attempt to win the cup.
This game is fun and a very welcome installment to the Harry Potter game library, for the simple fact that the highlight of any of the Harry Potter games has been the Quidditch mode.
The game's length isn't very much, (six or seven hours total), but fun additions like the Wizard Card challenges make up for it, at least a little.
Although it can get boring, you will find yourself replaying previous matches sometimes just because of how fun it is.

Graphics: 6/10
The graphics are nice. A little choppy and fuzzy sometimes, but for a GBA, you can't get too much more than that. The arenas are beautiful, using Mode 7 graphics engine to it's fullest extent.

Sound: 6/10
The music is good, but many people label it annoying. I don't find it annoying, and it's good for a GBA game. I'm totally fine with the sound. But, points off for it's fuzziness.

Replayability: 6/10
Sadly, there's not much to keep playing this game for. The Wizard Cards are nice, but they're not enough motivation to make you want to put extra hours into this title. The game, overall, is fun enough that you'll come back every once and again. And, the multiplayer is fun.

Buy or Rent: Rent
Fans of Harry Potter will probably not like this too much, so I'd play it safe and go for a rent, if you can. Or borrow it from your cousin. One of them has got to have it.

Overall: 6/10
This game is really fun, but it's easily beaten and can get very boring. I enjoyed it, not my favorite game, but it was fun, but the general public won't take this title too well. I can only hope that EA aims to make a sequel to this game and improve it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/03