Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"A fun game; a step in the right direction."

Well to start I should mention that I am a fan of the books and movies. I've played the other two Harry Potter games and have been overly upset about how each were done. While the other two games were lacking I found that even though I only rented HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, it was twenty times better than the other two.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics here are pretty basic. The graphics are at the very least better than the other two previous installments, but they're nonetheless a letdown. The graphics have ups and downs in this game. While most of the gameplay graphics are highly tolerable, must smaller portions in the game have weak graphics. It's as if they stopped caring after all the important graphics were created. However, even with less than perfect graphics the game is fine. Also, the graphics fit in fine, most of the time.

Storyline: 7/10
I rather enjoyed this portion of the game, being a rather loyal fan to the books. I expected the game to be less like the actual story than it was. There wasn't really changes to the original story, just add-ons and such. Much of the additional story was just to add to the gameplay and considering this is a game and I want to play it, I found this to be fine. They did a very good job of not ruining the story and they didn't try too hard to add-on too unbelievable of situations.

Gameplay: 9/10
I really enjoyed the gameplay in this game. It's entirely new to the series (game-wise) and it's much more compelling to play. The game plays very much like your everyday RPG, but with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. There's puzzles around, which are rather basic and simple. The puzzles aren't the strong point of the gameplay, however. The strong point is the battling and spell system. The enemies are wandering around, not random...so it's a tad more fun than just random battles (Which I've always liked more, but I feel in this game it wouldn't of worked as well.) You get a rather nice variety of spells to use in battle, which I very much enjoyed. There's your average damage spells, affliction-based spells, and the works. Spells level up, work better on some enemies than others ... and then there's a spell for finding "info" about enemies (also used before battles to identify enemies.) I found the use of spells from the books in this game as to be very entertaining, also the way spells work and battles went, it was very fun to play through.

Controls: 8/10
The controls are very simple and easy. The learning curve for the controls is literally about 15 minutes. Much nicer than some games were you have to get used to dramatic changes or odd placement. I also enjoyed being able to cast spells more freely in this game, which is why the controls gets an 8 for this one.

Music: 8/10
Like most RPGs for the GBA the music is done well and works perfectly for most situations. Also, like most RPGs the music tends to become bland and overdone, and ofttimes I found myself turning the sound off. I did enjoy much of the music in different battles and locations, and I thought some of the sound effects fit very well.

Replay Value: 3/10
Not much to say here, the game is very short and it's not really needed to play through more than once. It's weak in this area, but it's a GBA game and I rented it so I personally don't mind that.

Even though I rented the game I think it's a buy for any fans of Harry Potter. But if you're not a fan I would say just rent it, which it is at least worth that. It's a fun game and it's a pretty decent RPG considering the restraints that lie around making a game based on a book.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/04