If you have kids between the ages of 6 – 12 and are not familiar with the magical world of Harry Potter, you must still believe the Onion satire piece on J.K. Rowling’s supposed Satanism and brainwashing of kids. For the rest of us, we know that Harry has captured the imaginations of kids everywhere, with the passionate audience impatiently awaiting the next adventures of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and their Hogwarts friends.
In the world of Harry Potter, normal people are Muggles, and wizards flock to watch their version of the World Cup soccer tournament, Quidditch. Of course, with the sport being so popular in the wizarding world, it is only fair that the wizard school Hogwarts has its own intramural teams that represent the four houses of Hogwarts. Unlike previous games in the Harry Potter canon, which focused primarily on adventure play with a smidgeon of Quidditch thrown in for spice, Harry Potter – Quidditch World Cup is totally about playing Quidditch with the best broom riders in the world.
Just like a real wizard, you get to learn Quidditch by playing for your favorite House team. In order to get into your first match, you must master the basics of passing and shooting the quaffle, the ball for scoring points. This system of tutorials eases you into the gameplay in a manner that makes you a successful player quicker than Potter catching the Snitch.
A word of warning is in order here for the PC game. It is patently obvious that this game was developed for the console market and is ported in order to reach the PC-only gamer. If you want the best experience and own a console, do yourself a favor and get this game on the console. If you insist on buying this game on the PC, you absolutely must use a gamepad. The keyboard controls are unresponsive but adding a gamepad makes all the difference in the world.
The game really does capture the frantic atmosphere of a quidditch match, with the quick passes and swooping moves to the open goal. By stringing together accurate passes and quick evasive moves, you can build up power for more incredible special goal scoring moves that are presented as full motion video scripted sequences. Combined with the victory celebrations of players doing handstands and flips from their brooms, this game does a very good job of presenting the game of Quidditch with a fun, cinematic flair.
Due to the complexity of the game physics, EA chose to keep the player working in two dimensions while presenting the game in three. This means you cannot control whether to go high or low on the playing field, only left or right as you
maneuver up the field. The fun part is, they do a remarkable job of disguising this to the point that your teammates will go high and low, you will scrape the ground (or ice or water) and the whole point is to pass until you get an open shot.
EA has parleyed their extensive experience in sports games into another enjoyable romp. I was ready to pan this game for being completely unplayable until I tried the gamepad. That made all the difference in the world.
Gameplay: 8.1
Quidditch is a cross between soccer and hockey, played on broomsticks by wizards. For mere Muggles to attempt to play the wizard’s game, you need the assistance of a magical game pad, which transforms your Muggle finger movements into magical acrobatics. You don’t have the fine degree of control that you have with other EA sports games, but the balance seems to be just right between theatrics and competition.
Graphics: 8.4
EA has captured the look and feel of the Harry Potter universe and drops you into it with well-done FMV sequences and polished arenas, etc. The characters are recognizable from the movies, and overall are very appealing. I experienced no lag or framerate problems, so this game should play well on even older PC’s (P3-800 and above)
Sound: 8.3
The roar of the crowd, the soundtrack, the whoosh of the brooms, provide the gamer with a decent idea of what playing Quidditch might be like.
In a children’s game such as Harry Potter, you want to have a balance between ease of use and challenging gameplay. HP:Quidditch does a good job of achieving this. You can let your kids play this game knowing that they will be able to progress.
Concept: 8.1
It is nice to see EA stick to their knitting on this game and put out a game solely focused on the game of Quidditch. However, more could have been done on creating more teams, more challenges to conquer. There wasn’t that much creativity required to make this game, as all the elements were already laid down by J. K. Rowling and the director of the Harry Potter films.
Split screen is tough with the speed of the action and trying to see where you are in relation to your opponent. A network-based multiplayer mode would have been appreciated. In fact, the next round of Quidditch gameplay should allow you to select a specialty and play on a team of seven online players, which could make for some interesting matches and leagues.
Overall: 8.1
Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is a fine game, but is obviously aimed at the console crowd. If you own a PS2/XBox/GC, do yourself a favor and buy it for that platform. If not, just realize you absolutely must use a gamepad and you will have a lot of fun, too.
