Review by: Toni Schwartz

Harry Potter is one of those franchises practically tailor-made to be a LEGO game. You’ve got the fantasy setting, tons of characters and locations, and a multitude of events that can be easily translated as missions or quests. I’m surprised that it took this long for Traveler’s Tales to develop it. However, after finishing the game in a mere ten hours (this included exploring every nook and cranny, and destroying every breakable item to collect LEGO studs), I feel somewhat unfulfilled. It was just way too easy.

The gameplay hasn’t changed much from previous LEGO games. You run around -- usually able to control more than one character -- solving puzzles, killing enemies, and collecting items. You move by either using the D-pad or the stylus. However, this time I noticed that unlike say, LEGO Batman and Robin, the focus is more on exploration and quest completion rather than straight up combat. You still encounter a good deal of enemies, but at least during the first two years, you spend most of your time solving puzzles and doing quests given by various NPCs.

Puzzle solving is mostly in the form of casting spells. For example, if you see a mass of broken LEGO pieces you can use the ‘Reparo’ spell to put them together. If a chest is locked, use ‘Alohamora.’ All non-attack spells are dealt by copying a pattern on the screen using the stylus. Some spells include a mini-game: for example, the Transfiguration spell includes a mini-game in which you assemble pieces together to form a shape. If you play as Cedric Diggory, you can cast a spell that involves a “match the pieces” mini-game.

As mentioned earlier, you often play as more than one character throughout LEGO Harry Potter, just like other LEGO games. For example, in the hedge maze section of The Goblet of Fire, you can switch back and forth between Harry and the ill-fated Cedric, or as Harry and Ron during the spiders segment in the Chamber of Secrets. In fact, in some cases you need a particular character to do a certain task. For example, Hagrid or Dudley can move heavy objects, while Harry can speak Parseltongue. And in other cases there are sections of the map that you can’t access at all until you unlock a particular character.

Many familiar elements in the Harry Potter universe are in the game. There are levels in which you ride a broomstick, and times when you need to collect ingredients to make a potion (e.g. the polyjuice potion from The Chamber of Secrets). Naturally, Quidditch is included (albeit briefly), as are the familiar-pets in that they can help you uncover hidden items. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 retains the quirky sense of humor found in previous LEGO games. The cutscenes are adorable and funny. I laughed when one early cutscene in The Sorcerer’s Stone saw Dudley stuffing his face at the dinner table. Furthermore, you can learn some special spells that allow you to say, inflate an NPC’s head like a balloon, or cause them to dance around like crazy.

Like its predecessors, LEGO Harry Potter is primarily aimed at younger players. That being said, I found that the game is too simple -- even for its intended audience. You practically sleepwalk through The Sorcerer’s Stone, leaving you to question if the whole book is the tutorial. There’s just very little to no challenge. LEGO Indiana Jones and even Star Wars had some puzzles that could even stump adults, but I never felt that way with Harry Potter.

One major example is the spell system. When you touch an object with the stylus that’s meant to be interacted with, the appropriate pattern appears on the screen. All you have to do is copy it to activate the spell. It would have been nice if we had to determine which spells to use for which situations, rather than the game literally drawing a picture of the solution.

Traveller’s Tales have sure struck a gold mine with the LEGO series. Their earlier block-themed games have been charmingly cute and amusing, and Harry Potter is no exception. You can’t blame them for sticking to a winning formula, as Potter and LEGO fans will likely flock to play this game. However, older children and adults may feel that the game is way too short and unchallenging as they breeze right through it.