"You're a minifigure, Harry!"

I am a big kid.

I like video games...

I like Lego...

I enjoy the Harry Potter franchise.

So, it only makes sense that I should play the Lego Harry Potter video games. I started with the first game which covers years 1 through 4, which I got for a deal at $15, brand new at Toys R Us.  I enjoyed it so much, I picked up years 5 through 7 before I had completely finished it. Together, the games rang in just over $30, due to a sale on the second, which isn't bad considering they each probably ran near $50 or $60 when they first came out.  They are, as you'd imagine, very nerfed down, which is odd, considering the story deals heavily with death.  Sometimes, this just adds to the comedy.

You deserved better, Ced! (A dissected wizard, stuffed into a cup certainly isn't disturbing!)

The gameplay involved is pretty much the same as all the Lego games.  You WILL NOT get a perfect score on any level during the main story line, so there is a lot of backtracking involved later on in 'Free Play'.  There are areas that are only accessible to certain characters, or items that only react to certain skills (some skills, like advanced spells in the HP games, are acquired later).  This fact gave me pause to chuckle.  One of the aspects of the game deals with rescuing 'students in peril'... this can range from chasing away bullies, freeing said students from spiderwebs, getting them out of a jam that they have obviously put themselves in, etc. The one that cracked me up the most was a boy, trapped in a box that was wrapped in a heavy, metal chain and locked with a huge padlock.  I heard his thumping and muffled shouts for help during Year one, alas, Harry wasn't powerful enough to spring him.  The poor little fella was trapped in that box for 4 years until Harry was strong enough to blast off the chain that bound him within his confines.

"What did you learn in school, Son?"  "Patience... and how to sustain myself on my own tears and fingernails"

Being an older Lego game, the characters communicate through pantomime and various inflected sounds. This makes for some difficult storytelling, which explains why the newer games have actual voice actors with lines.  It just makes the story go a bit smoother, but in doing so, it does lose some of its charm.

So, as you go along, teachers teach you new spells which help you advance, some characters have a slightly different loadout than others ie, Harry could conjure a Patronus in Year 3, which others couldn't cast, but he could not cast Riddikulus, due to the Boggarts taking the form of Dementors when they'd pop out at him.  This makes it a fun challenge trying to get around obstacles with your given characters, or chosen characters, later on in 'Free Play'.  Some characters even get an extra goodie, Harry, for example, has his Invisibility Cloak, Hermione has Crookshanks, Nevil has a shovel.  All are very handy.

One gripe I had was with free play.  There were items that had red sparkles floating around them, which no one could access.  My guess was that you'd need Vold... He-who-shall-not-be-named to use them.  Since I hadn't unlocked him yet, I bought Kakarov, Headmaster of the Durmstrang School and known Death Eater, thinking that might do the trick, but to no avail.  Later on, I unlocked and bought Snape... because Snape's the shit, and he could manipulate those items because he was a Death Eater!  What the Hell???

Fun Fact: If you play the game on the Xbox, and have Snape hide in a barrel, you unlock an achievement called "Solid Snape".

Never rub another man's rhubarb!

A friend asked me if the spell loadout carried over from the first game to the second by going off the console's memory.  I had wondered that myself, I mean it couldn't be very challenging starting off with all the spells, so how does one make the game challenging without feeling like your character had been sent back to first year?  The game handled that brilliantly, by simply following the story.  "Hem hem!" Year 5 introduced Dolores Umbridge, the newest DADA teacher, and lapdog to Cornelius Fudge and the Ministry of Magic.  Paranoid that Dumbledore was creating an army to challenge the Ministry, Umbridge used her position to try to nip that in the bud.  *poof* four or so "dangerous" spells gone. (They also added new spells and goodies to make new puzzles and further the story.)

The second game changes a few things which made it a bit difficult.  Fine manipulation of Lego pieces seemed tougher the second time around, and they changed the location of where you buy some of the extras, but all in all, both games are a great deal of fun!

Mischief Managed!