Whizz Wizard

Life

1 April 2005

You’ve read the book, seen the movie and probably, depending on your or your little darlings’ level of fanaticism, shelled out for the schoolbag, pencil case and heaven knows what else. 

Harry Potter, the computer game, is part of the most pervasive children’s movie franchising exercise since Toy Story in 1995.

The peer pressure to feel part of the all conquering Potter bandwagon is like the playground pressure on children to become Manchester United supporters, but I have to admit, just like Man U, the Harry Potter game is good at what it sets out to do.

The plot of the adventure game, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is based very closely on the recently released film of the same name, which was itself a close representation of the first in the series of Harry Potter books. All the familiar characters are here: the bespectacled and bescarred Potter, the prim and proper Hermione Granger, the gentle giant Hagrid and the throughly odious Draco Malfoy, to name but four. 

Their appearances and voices in the game bear very close resemblance to the characters as they were portrayed in the movie. If you were in any doubt that the ghostly opaque figure calling itself Nearly Headless Nick was played by John Cleese, then the unmistakable hectoring tones of Basil Fawlty teaching you how to save a game in progress will provide assurance. 

Players have to pass first through a series of lessons on wizardry and witchcraft given by the teachers at Hogwarts School attended by Harry and his chums. Once instructed as to how a spell works and what it can be expected to achieve, you have to guide Harry through a series of challenges as he wands his way through the plot gathering Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans (now available at your local sweet shop) and Wizard Magic Cards.

Along the way, Harry has to cross swords with his arch rival Draco Malfoy and his oafish minders. The highlight of the game for me is the broomstick chase through and around the grounds of the school where Harry has to unseat Malfoy from his broomstick to recover a prized possession filched from one of his friends. 

The minimum requirements for the game are a 266MHz PC running any version of Windows since Windows 95 (apart from NT which is not supported), a four-speed CD-ROM drive, 32Mbyte of RAM, 4Mbyte of Video Memory and 400Mbyte of disk space. 

A marked improvement in graphics performance was noted when I switched from a machine with 64Mbyte of RAM to a PC with 128Mbyte. A 3D Graphics accelerator is also recommended, but is not required. 

The game provides an engrossing mixture of visual effects, keyboard and mouse skills and general good humour that should keep the average Potter nut quiet for several days at least. 

The only bugbears I have is that the unavoidable opening scene is too lengthy and that the restricted save options are user unfriendly. You can only save a game at preset points and, once you save a game, you overwrite the last save you made. This lack of multiple saves really restricts your ability to explore all that is available on each level. It is also intensely frustrating when you fall to your death from the last in a series of moving stepping stones, to find that you must return to the very start of a level before you can negotiate the moving stones again. (I really never want to hear the word ‘Flipendo’ ever again). 

All in all though, this is an engrossing and warm hearted game, suitable for Potter fans of all ages.

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