Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Will amuse you for a while but the gameplay's too simple to enjoy"

Storyline 9
You are Harry Potter and your coming to Hogwarts for your first year. When you start a new game it shows Dumbledore telling you the story so far which good is for people who haven't read the book or seen the film. There are a few lessons in class to do as there usually is in all the Harry Potter books. When they show the rememberall scene in the film the way they've made it into a game type story is very good. I won't spoil the ending but they've made it very enjoyable. Overall, the game follows the book quite well with the main events but there are some things to point out that don't seem to fit in very well; it's mainly when there's a quidditch match. You come out of one lesson and there's a quidditch match straight after. Okay, it's not such a big deal you need to grumble about it too much but it just seems a bit weird.

Gameplay 7
When you do your first challenge, learning the spell is quite easy and most of the level you have to face is too. Many of the enemies can be really annoying as during the later stages of the game you can be doing really well but your low on health and to you misfortunes an enemy comes up; this can especially happen with the gnomes. To round the whole game off it's not really that challenging at all. The originality of the game is quite average. The quidditch is original only because the book that it was based on was. If you were to round this off it would be written as basic and unoriginal gameplay. If you were to pick out a part of the game where there was a challenge to complete, all you're basically doing is going around killing enemies with the spells you learn and activating switches to get you to other areas. It may not be that simple but that's what it was based around. On the other hand, there is quite a bit of the game to complete. There are many spells that need to be learnt, each getting harder as you progress, to use on different enemies and switches. There are other kinds of levels where you do different things such as, playing a flute to control a Flobberworm and aiming to defeat a giant troll. There are many kinds of different things other than switches and enemies you can use your spells on. There are objects such as chests where you hit them with a certain spell to unlock them; inside could be a collectable item like a chocolate frog or some handy health you needed. In some of the levels there are thorn bushes which you need to fire a spell at a few times to get to the next area. There are also pots to smash and bookcases to search; there are many things you can interact with during the game. Over all the game should take you a while to complete, depending on if you find it really easy or in the middle.

Graphics 6
If you want to quickly know about the graphics look at the score or read the overall statement; the graphics would scrape over the halfway marks on it's knees. The pictures of the faces when people are saying something and you're reading it are well animatedly detailed. The parts at the beginning of the game and the end of the game (which I won't spoil) are good too. The big thing that lets this section of the review down is the quality of the graphics when you're playing the game. This can make it very difficult to see what's going on if you're playing on a Gameboy Advance and not an SP or television. If you play the game on any machine it won't make the graphics any better. I was in Hagrid's hut once and it was quite difficult to tell one thing from another due to the poor quality of the graphics. Overall the graphics are only okay in little parts but I'm being kind to let it scrape half marks.

Sound 3
I'm not sure if I've heard a character actually talk once during the game at all. All I've seen when somebody's talking are words appear up across the bottom of the screen telling you what they're saying. There's probably only a bit of music in the game either and that's just music to listen to while you're playing. To be honest with you, you don't really notice it much and when you do they're at unexpected times. When you do notice it, it tends to annoy you rather than make you listen along to it while you're playing. However there is different music for the different locations you get to in Hogwarts so it really depends on where you are. Overall, the sound was bound not to score well as there isn't much of it. However, what there is of it isn't very good.

Controls 9
The one good thing about getting this game is if you buy it, the controls are easy enough to pick up. I recently hadn't played the game for ages so I went on, played for a while and it took me about two minutes the get back to the feeling of them you get with most games. Even if you are new to the game they are easy enough to pick up. It can help when you're in a hard position at times and you shouldn't once have to look at your controls, once you know them, to check you've got the right button. However the controls aren't all that good. It can be quite annoying at times, if you're used to playing on a control stick and not a four arrow pad, when you're trying to get in a position going diagonal to cast a spell or walk diagonally over a thin bridge; it's not that easy if you are using a control stick on the Gamecube's Gameboy television player either. In early parts of the game when your following your friends, Ron and Hermione to classes or other places and you loose track of them because they go too fast for you; you never go their speed in the game once. Apart from that, overall the controls are probably one of the best things about the game as their isn't really a big thing to grumble at about them.

Should you buy: No
I wouldn't buy the game because it isn't original mostly. If you want to play quidditch which is original you're better off getting the quidditch world cup. Going back to Harry Potter it may be long but it's unoriginal and the gameplay's too simple. You're better off trying out the Chamber of Secrets or Prisoner of Azkaban when it comes out. Overall, the game's too unoriginal and basic to be considered worth buying.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/04