Kandih's Full Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for Game Boy...
My son got this game for his birthday last month, and it quickly addicted both him and his father, who happens to be a Gameboy neophyte. Poor dad, he never knew what he was in for. Not me, though. I played three versions of Pokemon (Gold, Crystal and Yellow, plus both versions of Stadium) for the same reason I played this game -- so I could help my sons when they got stuck. (Now, the fact that I got as obsessed with the games as they did is completely beside the point, and don't you go telling my husband any different!) Although I've said up front its easy for adults, especially if you've read the first book, it's hard enough for children and interesting enough in its conception to keep them coming back for hours.
On it's surface, it's basically the book in game form. Most of the things that happen in the book happen in some way in this game. You shop at Diagon Alley. You get money from Gringotts. You ride the Hogwarts express. You get on Hagrid's good side, get Sorted, take classes, and explore Hogwarts in your invisibility cloak. But that's just the framework for what turned out to be a very good RPG for kids.
The first thing you do is buy your wand, and use it to battle rats that run off rather than die after your encounter. The battles become tougher and tougher through the game, and all the enemies are magical beasts (besides the rats and bats) introduced in the books. You'll fight trolls, ghost knights, garden gnomes, fairies, etc. to level up Harry. You can also buy things like belts, boots, and cloaks that make him tougher to knock out. I say knock out because no matter how many times you lose, the worst that happens is that Harry is sent back to the beginning of the maze or quest. Harry never dies, and you don't lose your money (silver sickles in the game) or items. Like the Pokemon games, the battles are turn based, and different spells have more or less effectiveness depending on the enemy. You acquire more magic and health points each level in typical RPG style, and can win power up items like potions or pumpkin pasties after battle, along with sickles and experience points. Up to three enemies may attack at once, and there are only a couple of spells that will attack them all at once. This means you need to choose which enemy to fight first, which is part of the strategy.
The two most interesting and fun parts of the game are potion making and card collecting. You can make potions only after attending both the potions and herbology classes, and you must have the right combination of ingredients and cauldron. Once you have them though, it's all about mixing them up and collecting the ingredients, which are free. You can also sell them to the Weasley twins, or buy potions, food, clothing and cauldrons from them. You can also buy Chocolate frogs, which contain -- you guessed it -- Famous Witches and Wizards Cards. Although you can find these cards lying about just about everywhere, you really need to buy a substantial number of frogs to be able to keep enough cards to use for battles. "Common" cards, and who knows what they are as this is not explained at all in the game, and barely in the documentation, burn up after one use. That means you need a steady supply. You need a combination of three cards to use the effect, such as "Protect" or "Deflect", and people in the game will give you combinations, or you can "earn" them by accomplishing your quest goals. Of course, then you have to go to the card collectors club (run by the Weasley twins, of course) to get them. One of the disappointing things about the cards is that you have to try the combo to know what it will do. For example, Malfoy will give you "Dire Strength", which to my chagrin (should've known, considering the source) gives strength to your enemy, not you. There's no way to control what cards you get unless you trade with someone, again like Pokemon, through a link cable. You can't collect all the cards without trading, but I didn't bother trying. It's completely unnecessary for winning the game, and in fact, my son got through half the game without collecting any cards but the ones given to Harry at the very beginning of the game. Plus, when you open your frogs, they just disappear all at once, which was a little confusing at first. The new cards you receive are shown by flashing check marks in the Folio (that's a notebook for your cards). You should choose your initial deck carefully, as the cards and combos available to you hinge on that first pick.
The game is linear. Once you start on a quest, you can't do anything but try to finish it and battle monsters. This is especially annoying when you get to Flitwicks class, which is particularly tricky. You can't stop his lesson, or save -- it's finish the class, or go back to wherever you saved last. What's nice is that the start button, which shows you your stats and such, also shows you your quest. This way, you know what you have to do to progress, which is much better than games that will let you wonder about forever, trying to figure out what to do next. (I didn't say Pokemon. I didn't! I was just thinking really loud.) When you press the Select button, text comes up that tells you where you are. This is very useful when trying to find your classes. The characters wondering randomly in the game give valuable clues, and might even tell you what's there, or where a secret passage is, so be sure to talk to everyone. Like many of these games, the amount of time you have played is shown when you start. Unlike most of these types of games, you can have three save games at the same time. At my house, that's a serious bonus, as son, dad and mom could all play at the same time. The graphics are good, but not particularly exciting. The biggest downer is that you get to fly on your broom, but it's just like playing dodgeball. You don't get to play quidditch in this version.
The end was rather anti-climactic, but I won's spoil it here. After the ending battles, you warp back in time, your stats in tact but itemless, to buy your wand once again at Ollivanders. Not only that, but you have to go through all the same text screens, all the same quests. This is not "replay value", in my opinion. Once you've won the game, you shouldn't have to go back and do all the same things again. Either the game should be over, or there should be bonus levels or something. I would have preferred to stay at Hogwarts and collect cards and battle than start over at the beginning. As it is, I finished the game in less than 15 hours, and am relegated to "Mom's Harry Potter Game Hint Line". Maybe I should charge by the minute.
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