Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Wii)

Starting off things don’t seem too bad, in fact we’d say it was quite promising. You’re introduced to the most basic spell, levitation, before being shipped off to Hogwarts for another term where things go horribly wrong. The Hogwarts school seems to have been taken wholesale from the previous games with the ever annoying moving staircase and classrooms all present and accounted for. We guess this is done for consistency reasons, which is understandable, but as a world hub it’s still quite uninspired and drab. This is not helped by the murky Wii visuals on display. Okay, the Wii doesn’t have the technical powers of it’s big console cousins, but the problem is we’ve seen far better looking games on the console. It becomes even worse at night when the screen turns into a blue haze making us think one of the wires had come out of the back of our TV.

The main problem is you have this labyrinth of a world to explore with very little that you’d actually want to do. There are classes with potion mixing (which just revolve around choosing the right item then doing a variety of motions with the wii-mote) and duelling (basic one v one fighting), but considering the former is very limited and the latter has some major control problems there’s very little else other than the main story. We suppose if you’re one of those people that like collectables then you’ll be well catered for. Crests are scattered throughout Hogwarts and collecting them unlocks awards such as more health. Making your way through Hogwarts is made much easier with the help of someone doing a John Cleese impression. Pressing a button will bring up Nearly Headless Nick who you just need to follow if you find yourself getting lost (which is going to happen most of the time).

As mentioned controls become a problem in certain parts of the game. Firstly for someone whose supposed to be a teenager Harry often moves at such a laborious pace getting from one place to the other becomes a tiresome exercise. The sprint button doesn’t help as when going full speed ahead you have the turning circle of a jumbo jet. The bigger problem with the controls comes from the fight sequences. You’ll ever fight one enemy at a time and it’s a good job because what at the start becomes a tactical battle of dodging and countering soon turns into waving your arms around like a complete loon. Standard spells at first, soon you’ll need to wave the nunchuk and wii-mote in various directions to perform more complex trickery. There’s too many though, as we noticed when constantly pulling off the wrong spells. Really there’s  no need for a lot of them. The standard attacks and dodge are more than enough to see you through to the end of the game.

We believe the world of Harry Potter is due a great game. A world of magic and wizards is perfect fodder for the medium, but we guess having to be so closely tied to the movie is a bit of a hindrance. But that’s still no excuse for the lack of variety on offer here. The basic game only boiling down to three main areas, potion making, duelling and something we have yet to talk about, the Quidditch matches. Calling them matches wouldn’t be fair. All you do is use the pointer to fly through rings and that’s it. It’s even on rails so you aren’t able to fly around at your own leisure. A shame really because the first moment of broom flying is done quite well with a nice bit of scenery. From there all you do is fly around the Quidditch stadium and if you’re lucky, around the outskirts. At least you get a decent amount of control with the wii-mote.

Despite a decent opening it soon descends into mediocrity that so many licensed games fall into. If you’re looking for something to keep the kids entertained for a few hours (it only took us four hours to complete it) then maybe the world of Harry Potter would be enough. Chances are though there’s far better kid-centric games out there.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver