Good or bad? I vaguely remembering playing the earliest ones, when HP was more 'MAGIC!' than a 'vs Voldemort' story. It had things like exploring the castle, collecting Bertie Bott's Beans for currency, collecting Chocolate Frog cards, learning spells like Alohomora and Expelliarmus from tomes to unlock new areas and complete puzzles, beating the Venomous Tentacula, etc.

But I had the understanding that much like the LOTR video games (where FOTR had an exploration and puzzle-basis, and TTT and ROTK were hack-and-slash button-mashing), there was a shift in tone to the later games, same as the books. So for those who have played them, which did you like and why?

 

Philosopher's stone on the Game Boy Colour. It was actually a decent RPG with a good levelling system and some nice 8-bit music.

Then I had Chamber of Secrets on the GameCube which was pretty shit. The biggest impression that game left on me was the gnome tossing mini game at the Weasley's.

Think I later got Prisoner of Azkaban for PS2 and was disappointed before finally, getting Quidditch World Cup.


Make no mistake, Quidditch World Cup was amazing.

 

I have fond memories of the PC version of Philosopher's Stone. Used to play it with my sister and we had an absolute blast.

The only other Potter game I owned was Order of the Phoenix for the 360 which wasn't half bad but I never could finish it.

 

So one weekend I decided to play through all the PC games and now I shall share what I've learned.

But before that: Philosopher's Stone on GBC was the best, I still have my first save with like 700 hours of play time. Still need 5 cards to complete my collection.

So review of PC games in order:

#1 Philosopher's stone: basic jumping,collecting puzzle game with some really asshole parts, otherwise unless you are a 10 year old, the game has no challenges at all. Graphics wise compared to games at the time is way below what was available. It is true to the story 60% of the time.

#2 Chamber of Secrets: same style, slightly updated graphics otherwise the same game.

#3 Prisoner of Azkaban: first game with somewhat "good" graphics.Its style is an average RPG. The problem with the game are the hitboxes in minigames. Freackin annoying. Also the game is like 45% animation that connects different parts together. This time it is true to the story almost 70% of the time.

#4 Goblet of Fire: first game based on movies. So no robes and lame scenes that has nothing to do with the books. Graphic wise it's quiet nice, but the endlessly repeating maps/quests is really boring. Gave up 1 hour into the game it was so boring.

#5 Order of the Phoenix: I can't tell you much about the game because I got stuck in thee tutorial were I had to follow instruction for a spell with my mouse, but no matter how I did it(for an hour) it wouldn't accept it. Fuck that game.

#6 Half-Blood Prince: The best of the worst. Semi open world with some nice graphics. Fighting(duels) are ridiculously easy, once you find a combination it works 100% of the time. Collecting stuff is quiet annoying but there are some funny things hidden. The Potion minigame is a nightmare.

#7-8 Deathly Hallows: Shittiest of them all. Basically CoD with magic. You just spam spell and then random enemy dies. Barerly has any connection to the books.

 

It was ridiculously fun to run around and explore Hogwarts in order of the phoenix. More so, than in the half blood prince for some reason. Also had some cool mini games like wizard chess and gobstones. Most of the game was spent running around hogwarts during chores and weirdly enough cleaning things up or random tasks like climb the outside of the building to get colin's camera back from some asshole slytherins. Very derpy but fun.

 

Yeah, I enjoyed OoTP more than any since the gameboy PS. Not what I'd describe as a good game by any standards but being able to explore the castle on your own terms was lots of fun.

The actual best games are the LEGO Harry Potter games though.Tons of fun.

 

The only one I played was Goblet of Fire on the DS. I remember it being okay, but not really memorable. I liked the touchscreen spellcasting.

 

Philosopher's Stone on Windows 98 was my first computer game. I was really young and I actually shared playing it with my sister too. We used to take turns using the keyboard for movement or mouse for spells. Lots of fond memories playing that game. Though I'm pretty sure the best parts were more to do with how uncoordinated the two of us were at simultaneously controlling Harry. That and our young age made the final Voldemort duel nearly impossible.

I do remember it being more consistent with the books though, I think. Like the Quidditch games, or the fact that Harry and Ron shut the troll in the girls bathroom without knowing that Hermione was in there. Or the Norbert delivery.

 

I loved the lego Harry Potter games, fun at all times.

 

Another vote for the Lego games. Infinitely superior to the traditional versions. I played Philosophers Stone on PC, although I wasn't very good at it IIRC (didn't have the fine mouse control needed for the spells...), and the rest on PS2. I remember being genuinely impressed with the PoA game - it might have been my first experience with a (sort-of) open world game.

 

Agreed. I still go back and play that game, and it's extremely fun all these years later. I spent whole days playing through that thing as a kid.

 

I recommend playing the PC version, it's very different and much better.

 

Played PS and CoS on PC. Fuck the troll escape with a hot poker (inverted screen=inverted controls, what the actual fuck), got stuck on the first quidditch match (keyboard controls for the broom prevented me from catching that fucking Snitch). In CoS I must have died about a hundred times trying to cut the basilisk to pieces before I figured out that the Sword could shoot magic lazors if you held down the lmb.

Long story short, I didn't enjoy myself. HOMM4 sucked me in after those experiences and I never looked back.

 

The only ones I've played are the Lego games... which I very much enjoyed.