Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

"Decent game, could have been much better"

I am a big Harry Potter fan, and I bought this game expecting it to be my favorite GameBoy game. I was, unfortunately, mistaken. There are many good things about this game, but also many annoying things. With a little tweaking, this game could have been great fun, but instead it seems boring.

The controls for this game were pretty good. Being a GBC game, they were nothing fancy, but everything made sense and it was easy to move Harry around and interact with the world.

The graphics were not bad either. Harry moves smoothly, there are lots of different characters and you can usually tell them apart. The spells you cast have nice animations, especially the later ones. The only strange thing was that the monsters were all just blue blobs on the road until you touched them and went into battle. It would have been nice to see who you are fighting first.

Sound in this game was mediocre. The little tune at the end of every battle was very annoying, especially since it never changed throughout all the battles in the entire game. The music was not Harry Potter music, but just cave music and "spooky" tunes that didn't improve the game and just gave me a headache. It would be better to save money on batteries and aspirin, and just turn the sound off.

The story was disappointing. The major events of the books occur, but they seem unconnected and it seems to me that much of what Harry does throughout the game would not make sense. The story is set as well, so nothing you do or don't do will change what happens in the end.

The gameplay was unique, but the new features didn't make it any better than any other game. You collect magic cards from Chocolate Frog packs, and can use them to help you in battle. However, most cards are destroyed in the process, and the majority of the effects of the cards do not really help that much. The card combos do not have detailed descriptions of what they will do, and it can be very frustrating to waste a turn making yourself weaker and wasting cards you bought in the process. Cards and other goodies are hidden in almost every wall, and it gets tedious pressing A in front of everything you see, knowing you'll get a card. Many of the tasks you have to do are not explained, and they can be very difficult. These tasks have nothing to do with the books, so there is no hint there on how to do them either. You fight using spells in a turn-based battle, which is the same as many games. The only items are healers. Sometimes you run out of magic points, and then you are forced to do a really weak spell through the rest of the battle, which is annoying and doesn't make sense. Why should a wizard run out of magic?

Replayability? There is none. This game is difficult to beat the first time, but only because you don't know where stuff is. The second time through, you would have no difficulty at all. There are minigames you can unlock, but they aren't really fun and I just ignore them. There is no reason to play this game twice.

My recommendation is for you to rent this game if you like Harry Potter, and use an FAQ if you get stuck on one of the stupid scavenger hunts. It's not worth it to guess for days on where stuff is. If you don't like Harry Potter, then there are better RPGs for you to play.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/12/04