Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (GBA)

2001 will be remembered as a poor year for games in general and given the fact that I have reviewed some terrible titles in the last 12 months, how ironic that one of my last of the year is no different. I hope things improve greatly in 2002 to say the least. Harry Potter is a worldwide phenomenon, something no one has escaped and guaranteed huge sales on the name alone and it's on this basis that EA have operated. Hollywood blockbuster and the EA production line is a match made in heaven for both companies however for the gamer or relative shelling out hard earned cash the opposite is true.

With the Christmas rush now upon us it comes as no surprise that this turkey has appeared on the shelves just in time for dinner. As expected the game contains all the characters (over twenty in total including Hermione Grangerä and Ron Weasleyä and Hogwarts professors, Dumbledore and Snape) and settings that have made the books such a huge success. Yet with the odd exception you are mostly limited to wandering around various floors of the school. You take the role of the hero, Harry Potter, and enrol at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The aim while studying at school is to hone your magical skills and progress through three terms during the first year at Hogwarts. Every term will provide new challenges and a number of objectives, such as collecting and mixing potions with Professor Snape, learning magic spells or piloting a flying broom through the Forbidden Forest in search of Neville Longbottom's (oh god the names) Remembrall. To pass the first year of study, you must complete more than twenty-nine different objectives, whilst avoiding frightful enemies and bland obstacles. Yet when you consider the fact how straightforward and plain boring these tasks are, the game soon becomes a chore of epic proportions. How many times can one pull, push or locate a switch? Even the most hardened fan will find this tough going like the rest of us.

Whilst the author has created a novel world full of characters, the developer has taken the straightforward approach to minimise development costs and increase profits. To put it mildly more work and creativity has gone into the first level of Super Mario Advance than the whole of this game no doubt in an attempt to get it out before Christmas. The aim of the game is to find the Sorcerer's Stone and once achieved you will have no reason to return to the game. The sound and graphics are average at best, given the GBA hardware I would have expected something a little bit better from the developers but an isometric 2D graphical world is what we have.

As the game was developed alongside the Game Boy Colour version I wonder just how different each is, the code with the odd exception must be fairly similar as this could probably run on the outdated portable. The developer may counter with the argument that the license restricted what they could do within the Harry Potter world. This may be the case but I would have expected a little more effort in the graphical and presentation departments. It's titles like this that give the industry a bad reputation and something that we should have left behind in the 1980's and 90's.

I haven't yet seen the film but will do so shortly given its favourable reviews in the press however this version lets the side down badly. I cannot put into words how devoid of ideas and creativity Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone really is. Buy it if you really must but do keep a hold of that receipt just in case.

Rating: 2 / 10

Words by Jason Julier