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Best Potter and many spells!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Overall this game super but there is just one small flaw when you talk to someone they say hi then it goes back to the gamplay so guickly, but sort of funny. Anyway there's many things to do in the game and the castle is so much bigger than all the other games. The one thing that's really fun to do is cast a spell on the Slyterin people and get in a fight, by the way there are 12 spells. I deffinatly hope you by this game because it is very fun to flick the Wii Remote

Great family fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Harry Potter game that I purchased for my Grandson's new Wii is working great and they love playing it and so do their parents.

[...].
Nick

Great Game, but has issues

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: July 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love the Potter series, but if I was incharge of a brand this big, I would make sure it was perfect before releasing it. I understand they have to release it before the movie comes out, won't make sense if they delay it to spend more time in production. But it would of helped.

The game is beautiful, graphics, sound and game play is great. The biggest complaint is the cutscenes. Even when you interact or talk to another player, the cutscene is so fast and choppy is kills the feeling in you. (one example is when you talk to a girl, she turns around and says hi, then turns back around so fast all you see is a blur during the whole scene).

Also all the cutscenes between the different parts of the game are so fast, choppy and poorly done i actually thought my Wii was skipping! or i had a damaged game.. (I don't know...maybe i do?? has anybody else experienced this?

Wonderful presentation, but ...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: July 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I so wanted to really like this game. Really.

The production values are, overall, excellent; obviously, a great deal of care has gone into the experience and presentation. Finally, we have a Harry Potter game that does a decent job (not perfect) of capturing the 'feel' presented through the movies.

Unfortunately, this care didn't extend to the actual game itself.

Don't get me wrong; the game is decent, if a bit short (I could probably have finished the core storyline in under eight hours; as it is, I've breezed through it in under 20, even with extensive exploration [over 80% completion]).

Unfortunately, though the book is clearly targeted at older children, the game is still firmly set within the province of younger gamers; experienced gamers will not likely find this one challenging at all, and the plotlines are reduced to almost absurd simplicity.

Visually, however, it is magnificent; the sheer scope of it all makes the whole experience actually feel authentic, and the fact that you can move from one end of Hogwarts to the other with no load screens or other delays only improves the immersiveness of it all.

Controls are acceptable, although a little finicky in places. One tip I can offer: to target an item for a spell, hover the on-screen pointer over the item (until the remote vibrates briefly to indicate a 'lock') and tap the B-button. This is often quicker than tapping the B-button to cycle between available 'targets'. Items that cannot be interacted with, or which you have performed all possible interactions (many times, you can interact with a given item more than once, in different ways) will no longer 'lock'.

All in all, this is a wonderful addition for any die-hard Potter fan, but it is likely to disappoint the serious gamer. It feels less like a real game and more like a set piece.

This is especially noticable after the main story is finished, yet all the students are still reacting as if it is all still going on ("Umbridge is wonderful; I hope they sack Dumbledore soon!").

The silver lining to all this is simple:

Now that they've done such a good job on the presentation, maybe the next game can use it as a base so they can focus on the actual game itself.

Further technical details:

On startup, the game appears to insist on activating all available remotes registered to the console, even though this is, as far as I know, strictly a single-player game. Additionally, if a second remote is activated, be careful about turning it off; the game does NOT properly handle this, and instead turns off the console. This is a usability oversight which is seriously disappointing (I've tried several first-party titles which only permit the P1 controller to actually turn off the console; this is MUCH better).

It's also a minor frustration that it does not automatically detect the presence of the nunchuck attachment; instead, it puts up a screen advising "You must attach the nunchuck to play this game" on every startup. Granted, I've yet to see a third-party title handle this correctly, so it's not an unexpected nitpick, especially given the relative youth of the Wii.

Great entertainment!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is alot of fun and follows the movie and book fairly well. Some of the wand movements are a little hard to perform. Wish it could be multi player- didn't know that before purchasing. Overall, fun and keeps you going for a long time.

Harry Potter WII game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Any person playing this game has to be familiar with the Harry Potter story, otherwise the idea of the game can be confusing..But if you do know the stories the game is great! The graphics are terrific, and the magic is great fun..

Totally immersion

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I borrowed my friend's Wii for a month when he went away and I bought this game because I felt that the Wii controllers would be fantastic for all the spell making. I was not disappointed! Exploring the grounds of Hogwarts was amazing and the the graphics were extremely detailed. It totally brought the story to life. Bear in mind that most of my gaming experience has been with the old NES and SNES so perhaps the graphics would not be so impressive to gamers today. My only complaint is that sometimes the controller would get a bit confused about my movements when casting spells, but apart from that I absolutely loved it!

Good game but instructions leave a lot to be desired.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I think I respresent the target audience that Nintendo is going after with the Wii. I have not liked video games much even though I am technically savy (programmer)--though I was fond of pong!

I just purchased the Wii and this is my first game purchase (other than Wii Play). Overall I enjoyed the game--largely due to the fact that there was very little time sensitive actions (like fighting and whatnot). It is mostly about puzzles and exploring.

I have two major gripes about this game--and I suspect they are probably universal for most video games.

1. The instructions are not complete. As an example the most used spell in this game is Wingardiam Leviosa. Executing it is simple--but moving an object in 3d space with only a 2d view (TV) is something that takes a lot of practice. I was toward the end of the main portion of the game when I discovered that when using the WL spell if you get an object close to where it is supposed to be and hit the A button it will be placed correctly and the spell will be completed.

This is not mentioned in the instructions. I suspect this is because this type of functionality is something that gamers just know to look for. Since the Wii is marketed differently I suggest that those who develop for the Wii rethink there approach to documentation.

One final clarification point, I am not suggesting that the documentaion reveal clues or solutions to puzzles, but simply explain the controls and how to use them -- COMPLETELY.

2. Point number two is related. Including a practice mode that allows the user to interact with the game to develop the feel for the controls used with real time feedback before immersion into the actual gameplay would be helpful for the rest of us who may not want to go through story lines 10-15 times to get a feel for gestures, controls, etc... Providing useful feedback would also be helpful. One example of poor feedback is that when casting spells with the Wii the gestures used do not correspond to the movements of the characters on screen--I assume that this is so the character movements can be uniform across platforms. Whatever the reason it is very distracting and made the learning curve steeper than it should be.

Hogwarts accurately recreated in video game form... but terrible game play

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: August 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The only interesting thing about this game is that it you can explore Hogwarts and the grounds. It seemed very realistic to me and the graphics are pretty cool.

But as far as game play goes - it's absolutely the worst game I have ever played. 90% of the game is performing menial tasks. The rest is just swinging the wii remote around. It felt like it was telling the story while finding random things you could do to try to tie you into the story. For example - how can you put occlumency into a video game? It just doesn't work... yet they decide to do it. Also they randomly switch you to a different character for a few "scenes"... like you get to be Dumbledore in the big Voldemort/Dumbledore battle where you just wiggle the wii remote randomly and wait boredly for it to end.

Also I thought it would be really cool to be able to use the wii remote as a wand but I found it frustrating to get the wii remote to respond correctly to the spells I was trying ot do. This may be a limit of the wii system itself more than this particular game.

Harry on the Wii

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My sons are looking forward to the other Harry Potter games coming to Wii, they have them for Gamecube, but would like the Wii version. the only thing my son complains about is that this is for one player and he wanted to duel with my other son taking on the role of another character. With the Wii remote acting as a wand, it gives the kids the REAL feel of Harry Potter, it should be multiple player.

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