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Harry Potter Fans Rejoice!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: November 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

At first I was skeptical of whether quidditch could be captured in a video game. Truth be told, I have not been blown away by the movie versions of the game. Even so, being a HP fanatic, and knowing that I have enjoyed the Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets XBOX game, I went and bought Qudditch World Cup the day it was released. What a pleasant surprise! The graphics are incredible--ok, they are not like Halo or Prince of Persia, but they are VERY impressive--and the gameplay is easy to pick up but challanging to perfect. It IS ridiculously easy to win the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup, but when you get to the World cup, you can choose the level of difficulty. If you choose to play on a Comet broomstick, the gameplay remains very similiar to that at Hogwarts. If you opt for a Nimbus 2000, the gameplay is much faster and much more difficult! As you progress through the game, you have the oppurtunity to unlock a Nimbus 2001 and, of course, the coveted Firebolt. I was amazed at the number of teams offered, and the different quidditch stadiums are a blast! Voice Acting is excellent. The music can be kind of annoying--it is way too dramatic--just imagine the mission impossible music, and you have a pretty good idea! They should at least have stuck with the music from the movies. Just don't expect anything like in the Lord of the Rings games, where the music is as much of a pleasure to listen to as the game is fun to play. Overall, an extremely entertaining game, and a must have for any Harry Potter fan. However, if you have any doubts, I recommend renting it first, as even the best game is not for everyone. ENJOY!

Where do I start?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: March 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay, if you know the basics of Quidditch, I don't need to explain. To the review:
Graphics:
Definetly the game's strongest point. The players, the stadiums, everything looks beautiful. I love playing in the Japanese Quidditch stadium, because there's a big pond with a cool little bridge that just looks wicked. The little movies are fun to watch because everything looks fantastic.
Sound:
Also a strong point, but it really starts getting repetitive when you play your 5th match. Still, it at least sounds pretty acurate.
Gamplay:
THIS is the game's weakest point. For one, it's just way too easy to swamp the other team 360 points to nothing. When you're playing for the World Cup, it can get kinda boring.
Also, the idea of Quidditch seems too simplified. You can't fly wherever you wish, you don't have any vertical control...
It's still pretty fun, and you can get really wraped up in the game and forget it has anyting to do with 'harry potter' but it's almost just a kid game, which kinda ruins it.
The 2-Player match can help this, because if you play with someone who's just as good as you, then it gets real challenging and real fun.
So, it's all right for a kid's game, but rent it before you buy it.

Innovative gameplay, beautiful graphics.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: June 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As a fan of the books, I was determined to try to keep an unbiased view of the game before I played it, and I was pleasantly surprised at how unnecessary that was.

I was worried how the gameplay would work; it seemed impossible to program a fair computer Seeker, and since the difference between Chasers and Beaters were so big (Beaters don't even touch the ball) I was baffled as to how they'd keep a game with such separate elements cohesive and fair.

The game revolves primarily around the chasers, with the gameplay having the feel of a 3 on 3 hockey game. With features like "combos" you can even do what would be the equivalent of a slapshot. The shooting and passing are pretty intuitive.

What's very interesting is that you're rewarded for the complexity of your gameplay. "Combos" (kind of a long chain of assists), normal goals, and other touches you add to your style of play affect the "snitch" bar, which is how much boost your seeker gets. The way it works is, once two halves of the snitch bar meet, the game goes into "seeker" mode, which is a race between the two seekers to get the snitch. This race is affected by aforementioned boost, and some kind of snitch "slipstream" which makes you go faster. So, just like in "real" Quidditch, a deficit of 140 points can change with the catch of the snitch, but because of the way the game is designed, it's harder to catch the snitch if the other team has scored better or has more goals than you to begin with.

I was disappointed that you can't play as Ireland, which is one of the major teams in the book. Why this is, I have no idea. You can play as the one of the four houses at Hogwarts to win the house cup, and then win tickets to "attend" the World Cup, where you choose a World Cup team and play as them. The World cup mode is pretty exhausting, however, as it's 18 games long. What is also pretty cool is that your points are cumulative, so if you completely demolish one team (I beat Australia 400 to 0) it affects your rankings, and conversely, if you only lose by a little (say, 160 to 130), you don't go down in ranking as badly if you had been completely shut out.

There are some hangups with the game: the celebratory cut scenes and seeker catches have the same animations for each team, so after awhile you'll get tired of them. So far, I haven't found a way to change players, which is silly, but this oddly doesn't matter as much in the long run, as it changes them automatically based on ball proximity.

The graphics are great, the stadiums incredible, and you'll find yourself wishing you could watch a couple rounds of Quidditch on ESPN.

Also, I'd like to note that on this Amazon page, a lot of people gave favorable reviews then gave no stars. If you're interested in buying it I'd recommend it, but if the fact that it has a low ranking is bothering you, go through the reviews and see for yourself that the ranking should be higher.

dissapointing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: November 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

To me this game is kind of missleading. It says you can be every position on the team, technically you can but you are mainly the chasers (chasers score goals), by doing combo passes you get power ups. One of the power ups is the beater and you hold down X the computer hits the bludger and you controll where the bludger goes for a short period of time. you cant be the keeper (keeper block the ball from going through the hoops). The game is way to easy to beat. I only rented the game and I beat it. you cant choose wheather to go higher in the air or lower. I would rent this game before you buy to save youreself some money.

pros: good graphics
great stadiums
good sound

cons: mainly the chasers
way to easy
cant be the keeper
cant really be the beaters

wonderful

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a brilliant game featuring harry and others playing Quidditch.
If you win the world cup you can play in queerditch march where quidditch was first played.
Lively game with great commentating in the world cup from Ludo Bagman and his special guest.
There are special moves for every team.

A fun spin on Quidditch

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

While I enjoy Quidditch World Cup, I must say that it falls short in some respects. As an EA sports game, I was expecting you would have a bit more control over changing dynamics in the game. There is no opportunity for substitutions, no injury, no changing the roster, no detailed player statistics, no variation of player performance. In short, this does not excel as a sports game.

It does excel at capturing the feel of a frantic Quidditch match, for the most part. The game is divided in two parts. One takes part at Hogwarts, the other on the World Cup stage with different stadiums. I found the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup a bit too easy to win and unchallenging. There are also some training exercises you can go through, as taught by the roster of whichever team you choose: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. One note to fans of the book: Despite this coming out after Order of Phoenix (which introduced a lot of new Quidditch players like Zacharias Smith), none of these new players are available. My best guess is that the rosters are those at the time of Prisoner of Azkhaban. Especially given the presence of a certain, achem, extinct character. I enjoyed finding the designers' takes on the largely unexplored Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff team rosters.

The Quidditch World Cup kicks things up a notch. The stadiums are absolutely fabulous and culturally spot-on. There is the stately Versailles-esque French stadium, the Outbackish Australian grounds, the mosaic-roofed Moorish Spanish stadium, and other similar treats. I feel the designers did an awesome job capturing the feel of the competitor countries with the stadiums and the team costumes. I was a bit disappointed at the limit of countries available: USA, Japan, England, Spain, France, Bulgaria, Australia, Germany and the Nordic Team. I'm thinking they could have included more countries, and at least a token team from South America and Africa. And no Ireland (the most significant national team from the books)! Also a pity is the tournament format of the World Cup. It is a rather exhausting 18 game round robin. We know from the books that, at least at the later stages, a knockout draw takes effect.

I have not exhausted the game yet, but I've found a few pleasant treats so far after my first World Cup win. Overall, a pleasant game, but I feel the limited number of teams and the exhausting tournament format really hold the game back.

Since I am a big HP fan, I must say I'm glad I own it.

they need to make another game with some improvements

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

GREAT GAME!!!
Needs more teams; the ability to play with linked gamecube/ps2/xbox so you can play with 14 players (each player controls one person.);
more than needs the real names of all the players; it should be more like ea sports games for injuries, stats, and substitutions; there should be a franchise mode and the ability to sign players coming from Hogwarts or other schools; there should also be a professional league containing chudley cannons, puddlemere united, etc.;

Good graphics, great gameplay

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

My boyfriend and I played the first Harry Potter video game for the PC and really disliked it. It was obviously made for children, extremely simple, and the graphics were not very good (despite the fact it used the Unreal engine). I was a bit skeptical of Quidditch World Cup, but bought it anyways.

And am I glad I did. The game is not overly simplified, but does take you through training very slowly so even beginning gamers can get the hang of it. I have a problem where 3D first-person or third-person games generally make me nauseous after playing a little while. This game provides a good perspective that doesn't have this effect, which is great.

The graphics are pretty good, but could be a little better. Given that this is for the Xbox, some use of pixel shaders or bump mapping would've been nice. Also, the victory moves after making a goal aren't very plentiful and you'll quickly tire of seeing them.

View from a Mom with Boys

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

We gave it as a gift to a 9 year old, who has really enjoyed it. He was able to pick up how to play it very quickly. The 12 year old 'beat' the game the first time through, but thoroughly enjoyed himself, and will play it again. He described it as similar to the Sports video games, but with less options in selecting teams. Our 6 year old was playing it proficiently within about 10 minutes. It can be played against the computer, or against another opponent. For myself, the scenes whirl past too quickly, and I get dizzy. But, it doesn't bother the boys, and they seem to enjoy it. They all said that competition against the computer was minimal...the best is against another human player. I suspect it will not be one of the long term favorites, but a good one to pull out when a friend comes over.

Nice!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 21
Date: June 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is going to be so cool! I have seen the trailer, played the demo, and this is going to be sweet. If you played any Harry Potter game you will love this. It's like playing one of the games but with more quidditch features, new characters, new equipment, new teams, etc. Trust me, it's going to be good!

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