I know this is a civilized community but I was eight years old in 2004 and a victim of the culture thrust upon me so I’m afraid it’s time to talk about Harry Potter games
There are at least* 13 distinct video games based on the first three Harry Potter stories.
The Bottom Line: these games won’t kill you, and may even please you, if you’re a child and have been sucked into Harry Potter. Please disregard if this is not you (but do read on this post is educational)
Philosopher’s Stone (simultaneously released November 2001)
Game Boy Color (Griptonite)
Game Boy Advance (Griptonite)
GameCube / PS2 / Xbox (Warthog Games // December 2003)
PS1 (Argonaut Games)
Windows (KnowWonder)
Chamber of Secrets (November 2002)
Game Boy Color (Griptonite)
Game Boy Advance (Eurocom Developments)
GameCube / PS2 / Xbox (Electronic Arts UK, Eurocom Developments)
PS1 (Argonaut Games)
Windows (KnowWonder)
Prisoner of Azkaban (June 2004)
Game Boy Advance (Griptonite)
GameCube / PS2 / Xbox (Electronic Arts UK)
Windows (KnowWonder)
*others include LEGO Creator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4; Harry Potter and the Quidditch World Cup; and several games playable on 2-disc DVD releases of the films (remember those?)
It’s easiest to group these by developer/format, since each made essentially one kind of game several years in a row.
- Griptonite games are JRPGs (except Philosopher’s Stone GBA)
- the Eurocoms are 3D adventure games in the vein of Ocarina of Time (except Chamber of Secrets GBA)
- KnowWonder made American McGee’s Harry Potter (the same team developed the A Series of Unfortunate Events game for Windows as well)
- did not play the Argonaut PS1 games, myself
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Griptonite RPGs: Besides their format, the main distinction between each version of each of these games is how spells function as a gameplay mechanic. In these handheld RPGs, the player gains new spells in the same way a Final Fantasy character does, i.e. they function only as new attacks during battle, and serve little or no purpose in the overworld. These draw as often on scenes from the books (so I am told) as from the movies for their quest design. Not especially interesting as RPGs, but a decent appropriation of the form. Level design such as it is isn’t able to make the world feel too multifaceted, but they had their own soundtracks which made them feel like distinct experiences from their console counterparts (in addition of course to looking, playing, sounding, feeling completely different).
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Eurocom puzzlers: Spells in these act like items in 3D Zeldas: you enter dungeons as part of class “challenges” and find the spells partway through, à la the big chests in Zelda. HP2 has a reflection spell to play deadly tennis with enchanted statues/boss monsters, an illumination spell to light up dark areas and open hidden passages; HP3 has an ice spell for making a path across pools of water and making blocks of ice, and so on. The most technologically advanced of the adaptations, at least as far as it seemed to me at the time. In home console versions of HP2 it’s not possible to walk all around the outside of the castle, but you can fly wherever you want (kids love this stuff). In HP3 you can run everywhere, and also fly on Buckbeak, or your own hippigriff if you connect to the GameCube version with the Game Boy Advance link cable—how many players even bothered with this, I wonder. HP2 also has GBA connectivity, although the GBA version of HP2 is terrible and I wouldn’t want any kid to play it.
Warthog Games adapted Philosopher’s Stone in this format, which EA published in 2003, a year when no HP film was released (following the first two in 2001 and 2002). “Good” in this broad discussion is a confusing notion to begin with but this game is not on par with the others, at least.
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KnowWonder platformers: In these, spells are handed out at the beginning of class, then used variously in adventure levels as aids for platforming, object manipulation, attacks, and door unlocks. Despite this mechanical inconsistency, HP1 and HP2 for Windows are the best of all the game adaptations, if for no other reason than their environmental design.
When you’re a child playing these the environments feel vast and pretty eerie—there’s a whole hidden world inside this castle beyond your understanding, kiddo. Creepy stuff for British children’s fiction. Go figure: Thief 3 level designer, BioShock 2 director Jordan Thomas designed levels for KnowWonder’s Philosopher’s Stone. Chamber of Secrets is less spooky but inherets enough of Philosopher’s other design ideas.
In HP1 you’re stationary when holding the wand/cast button, but in HP2 you’re able to move while casting—this is the first game I played with WASD bindings as the default. In HP2 and HP3 there are Mario World/Donkey Kong Country etc.-style bonus rooms where you bounce around on trampolines and collect beans.
The most appealing thing about all these games is not that they repackage the plot beats of the movies/books, but that they use those narratives as a launchpad to present a wider world to the player. Ocarina-style dungeons in Eurocom’s games and KnowWonder’s extended platforming levels show you a space in a way a movie or a book cannot: “then, brilliantly, Harry the little wanker launched himself over another gap above a pit, quite dismal it was. His heath bar couldn’t take another fall. Phew. Crikey.”
The Eurocom and KnowWonder productions share soundtracks, which are good. The composer is a scumbag and I won’t name him here, but: the main musical motifs in these games are surprisingly compelling. Williams is rightfully a more decorated composer—to compare the two is ridiculous—but the games present strong, distinct melodies which stick in my mind more clearly than many of the movie tracks.
Never going to get another chance to mention this anywhere in public: listen, it’s Gehrman talking about Harry Potter
Where was I
