Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

"Another RPG, or maybe not..."

Another year, another Harry Potter movie released. This time, it will be the "Goblet of Fire" one, in which Harry, Ron and Hermione (but mainly Harry) will be facing not only the appearance of an old "friend" but also the Triwizard Tournament, which was going to be held at Hogwarts. The Goblet of Fire, which should pick the participants for the tournament, picked 4 entrants instead of the usual 3, being the last one Harry Potter. What happened? Why did the Goblet of Fire also picked Harry? Who will win the Triwizard Tournament? All these answers can now be found in interactive format, by playing either this particular game or its release on the other consoles.

But back to the game itself, unlike the previous versions of the game this one won't be a RPG. Across the more than 10 levels of the game you will be able to pick one of the three heroes (obviously Harry, Ron and Hermione), but there are some in which you will be only able to play as Harry. Each of the three characters have unique stats, but in the end it doesn't really seem to matter who you pick. Also, levels may be split into 3 different categories:

Triwizard Tournament levels, where the controls will be given before each task and you will be always facing different types of levels.

Key-pressing levels, where a set of keys will be seen going from the right to the left of the screen and you have to press them when they are in the middle of the screen in order to achieve the task of that level.

Basic levels, where you can hang around with the character that you picked and cast spells. While advancing in your adventure you will win new spells, but they are always performed exactly the same way, I mean, by pressing A (or B, depending on the spell) when near to a certain object/enemy the spell will be automatically picked, which makes the game a lot less interesting.

In this last type you will sometimes be given lots of small-time tasks (like reaching a certain part of the scenario, among others) which most of the times are really easy, so each level may even have more than 10. Also, across them you may find quite a few different types of enemies, each having a specific way to be defeated. These "battles" are held in real time, with your character being able to do anything it takes to win.

As a final note, I would say that in this type of level you will be controlling one of the characters but the other two will be following you, and by pressing a certain key they will join you to back up your attack, an action that you will have to use quite often during the game.

In all these you will notice the scenario and characters to be quite well drawn, I have to admit they are among the best I've seen in this console, as they are quite detailed, the powers look great and you will probably never find a single pixel out of their specific place. However, some of the cut scenes (the ones you get to see before and after each level) aren't very well drawn, as they seem way too much 2D and look like a paper-like figure in an amazing scenario, which isn't very nice, as you may suppose.

The sound is generally good, it fits not only the game but also the kind of environment people usually imagine based on the book, but I can't testify if they are true to the movie or not, since I didn't have the opportunity to see it yet.

I gotta say that it is quite easy to finish the game in just a couple hours (I did it in less than 5), but concerning replay value this game has a lot, since you have to collect shields and cards, which are used to unlock new things, and in order to do so you may have to return to a specific level after unlocking a certain thing.

There are also a lot of new things to unlock in one of the levels, but those may require even more skill from the player to achieve. Don't get the wrong, the game is quite easy (and no, there are no harder difficulty levels to pick from) but some of the levels require some more skill from the player.

Before ending this review, I gotta admit that not everything is good about this game. Apart from the things already specified, sometimes the health bar seems to disappear (which isn't very nice, as you may be killed without even knowing how low your health was) until you complete that area, but a player may also become annoyed when the game becomes suddenly slower, which fortunately doesn't seem to occur very often.

So, who should get this game? Most people should probably just rent it, but Harry Potter fans may like it, as it captures the adventure of the book it was based in.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/05