Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban The Game Review Harry Potter Is a much loved movie and book series, as I am a fan of both, but the games just fail to impress me. Though order of the phoenix game is one I'm interested in due to its graphics and game play. But the last four, well to me they sucked. Azkaban how ever, was different. First story time. I got the game for the xbox and I liked it at first, the graphics were amazing! But the game mechanics were pretty much crap. Oh the voice acting was terrible, for those that remember dragon's lair and it's voice acting, imagine it in times where GOOD voice acting is not that hard to find. It sounds like people with no voice experience did it after new years in a hang over. The plot is the same as book and movie. The difficulty is really a pity, If you've played harder games like me, this will seem like guitar hero on easy in practice mode on the SLOWEST speed, for those that can't picture that, imagine a line to the ladies room. The only thing to me that was GOOD and stood out was the ability to ride a hippogriff. In short another half assed game based on a good movie, which was based on a kick ass book. Book and movie good. Game HORRIBLE! If you bought it used, and after beating it in 1 day, you'll see why you only paid $5 for it. The game scores a 2 out of 5. Don't even rent it, even for a cheap price!

In one word, I found the game to be boring. I played it on Gamecube and while the challenges to find spells was fairly good, the rest needed a lot of work. For as much ground as there is to explore, there should be more things to find. It ends up feeling like a waste of time to run around all over the grounds and not hardly find anything. It's also extremely annoying to constantly listen to the other two characters tagging along constantly gripe and complain about wanting to go to bed or it being too hot outside. They need only once say that there's nothing else required for the day, but they don't have to continue nagging on about it as though I'm going to forget while I search the game for other hidden items. Another annoyance is in the entrance hall - what looks like there should be entrances but they are stoned in. What's the point of making them look like they should be entrances somewhere if they aren't?

And to move away from the story of Harry Potter - the use of trolls as guards on the seventh floor at night is hardly believable concerning there was such a fuss in The Sorcerer's Stone about one being let loose in the school. Yet here in this game they are being used as guards in the school. The game also felt as though it moved slow and was a bit sluggish. The ending was also too fast and not very conclusive. Overall, it felt like someone threw this game together in a hurry and did a terrible job.

I played this game once and hated it. The only good thing about it was Stephen fry's voice over. Everything else poor very poor. My advice to you would be not to play this game unless you are a Stephen fry fan or a 6- 9 year old kid. Though now-a-days kids get bored very easily so I suggest you don't bother at all and also the graphics leave something to be desired they are not worth the money I spent on them. In fact I sent the game back because it was so poorly planned out and designed sorry If I have offended you in any way with these comments but I feel I must forewarn you of the poor quality of this game love peace and stephen fry

There's no need to be the world's best videogamer or a big fan of the Harry Potter series to like this game. Highly addictive, quite amusing and some good voice-acting and soundtracks in this game only enhance it further. 3-Character scrolling (You could switch from Harry to Ron to Hermione) was very well done. Overall Rating: 3 - 4 *'s

RATING SCALE:5 *'s = Superb 4*'s = Excellent 3's = Pretty Good 2 *'s So-So 1 * = Bleh!! :( -1 * = Sucked like a bucket of ticks

Graphics: Most of the characters were modeled very closely to their movie counterparts, with a couple of exceptions because the 3-D thing just didn't pan out very well with their "look". The landscaping of the castle and grounds was nice. 3 *'s

Ease of Gameplay: Since I rented it & it was only a 3 day rental, I was hoping that the controls would be fairly easy to pick up. (I am not the best gameplayer and cannot usually beat a game within 3 days.) Surprisingly, I had NO problem whatsoever in playing; very nice, no mad button-mashing skills required. Even a beginner videogamer could get the hang of this. 5 *'s

Plot line & Flow of Gameplay: Loved the book, the movie was quite well done, and so going in with the hopes that the video game was just as well done as the latter, all I can say is that my hopes were not dashed. The gameplay was nice and smooth, flowy and at a relaxed pace. The cut scenes were excellently done. 4*'s

Re-Play Value: If you played it once, you will probably want to play it again. I myself found it highly amusing and addictive (I put off studying for all my exams to play the game for all the days that I had it) and since I have returned the game to the rental outlet, I am going to buy myself a personal copy. Therefore, the re-play value would be pretty high.

Disappointments: The only thing that I felt a little bit miffed about was how the game resolved the conflict. Maybe a little bit more of a real RPG-style should have been granted to some pieces. (IE- Exploring Hogsmeade & the Shrieking Shack since there was practically nothing to do with them.)

It's true: this game is like a shopping (or chores) list: Harry must find X, collect Y and pass Z. This is not what I ask to a video game: I want to play a story, that's all! So, absolutely not motivated to run after all the crap to get a 100% finished game, I just downloaded a saved game instead to reach the end.

In addition, if the gameplay is easy, the final exams for Hermione are just impossible: They put a timer with a unlikely flying dragon so I haven't no more fun. But I uses my grey matter and here's the tip: just put the "Ghost" mode and as Hermione, pass through the walls to reach for the shields! In less than one minute, you get it easily!

Now that the bad things have been said about this game, I must say that the graphics are more and more brilliant. It's always the same platform game trough Hoggwarts but there are nice levels with the train or the dementors and it's cool to play with the three characters!