Review: Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4

Played on: PS3

So basically, it's Harry Potter but with Lego people. Just like all the other Lego games, but it follows the basic sketch of the Harry Potter series. It does a brief drive by of the book, and a decent skimming of the movies, in case you're a HP fan and wanted to know the extent the story was covered. But hey, they cover four books within one game. That's pretty good, and so far, they've done a better job of sticking to the story than what's-his-face did of sticking to the book in the 6th movie... but that's for another time.

Visuals:
Well, they're Lego people in a Lego world, so it's not very realistic, unless of course you are a Lego person and I just don't know it. O.o Anywho, it still looks really cool. I've thought all the Lego games look cool. The castle and all the magic looks rather awesome in Lego blocks and Lego Fang is adorable. Lego Cat Hermione is also pretty neat. It's not particularly movie-esque, but you can still follow the story line pretty well. There are some cut scenes, but they're still Lego people and they don't ever talk, just grunt which cuts down the movie-ness of the cut scenes quite a bit. Still, Harry Potter stories in Lego people are pretty freaking neat.

Audio:
If you love the Harry Potter theme song, and I mean LOVE, then boy do I have a game for you! You can hear the theme song slow and creepy, fast and cheerful, soft and romantic, or sweet and sincere. You can hear the theme song played by flute, harp, drums, cow bell, nails on chalkboard... Ok, maybe it's not that bad, and I do really like the HP theme, but my goodness that's a lot of one song. It's like having a song stuck in your head for days, because, of course, the song does get stuck in your head after hearing it for seven hours.

Another aspect of the audio that's a bit of an annoyance is that there are no voices. I get it, they're Lego people, but they have mouths, maybe they could talk? No voice box maybe? Well, they grunt and hmm-mmm every few minutes so they can make sounds. Did no one ever teach poor little Lego witches and wizards to speak? Harry can speak snake language, but not English. Maybe they just wanted to save money on translations...

Involvement:
There are some parts where you can help your guy in the game, and well, it's Harry freaking Potter, I know this story inside and out. Even if your boy doesn't want help, you can watch the game and find all the areas that are different from the books and movies! (Just a side note, if you haven't read the HP books, turn off your computer, go the nearest bookstore/library and start reading you uncultured Muggle!)

So yeah... you can play with two people. I have yet to try this out, but I'm sure I will one day. It looks like it would be fun to play together and the game is made for children so it should be a good starter for the less experienced gamer girlfriend.

Overall:
This game is really cute if for no other reason than it's Harry Potter in Lego form. It's alright to watch, but if you are one of the misfortunate diseased few that don't like Harry Potter (sadly, these people do exist) then you probably won't like watching this game. If, however, you are a sane and normal person you will easily be able to watch this game for hours, for no other reason than to relive the awesome power that is the world of Harry Potter.

Gotta go catch some garden gnomes... see you later!