Customer Reviews

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Beware: If you aren't familiar with the storylines in the HP books, specifically "The Half-Blood Prince" a.k.a. book 6....the game reveals a extended cinema variation on events...so SPOILER WARNINGS....okay? Some book edits the game makes maybe in the Movie as is...others, we'll see...

Harry is beginning his 6th year at Hogwarts, it is believed Harry is the Choosen One of prophecy, who will deliever the wizarding world from the clutches of the re- ascension of evil Lord Voldemort...Dumbledore begins Harry's private lessons again using the Pensieve to educate Harry about his adversary and Harry needs a key memory from newly returing Potion's Master Prof. Slughorn inorder to defeat Voldemort....Harry is also eager to learn the origin a his secret benefactor "The Half-Blood Prince" who as filled Harry's hand-me-down Potions textbook with helpful hints and spells... also Harry begins his quest towards the defeat of his nemesis in a climax that ultimately leads to infiltration of Voldemort's Death Eaters into the very walls of Hogwarts itself.

If you played the Wii version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" then the game (and Hogwarts) will feel quite homey. Old faithful spells return from the last adventure like EXPELLARMUS, INCENDIO, WIGARDIUM LEVIOSA, ACCIO and REPARO. Spells like STUPEFY can be charged to increase their effectiveness. Many spells are automatic to the character's location, like LUMOS will light your way in dark places. The remote spell gestures are similar as is the layout of the castle...for those of you new to Harry for the Wii...the remote spell casting is great fun, doing the wand work yourself, for example with PROTEGO, a deflecting spell, you cross your arms like an "x" you can bounce your opponent's shot back at them.

You still have plenty of out-of-story freedom to roam and perform good deeds and mini-adventures to earn crests and badges, like other HP games Hogwarts is expansive and authentic, you can run and use shortcuts to cut down on travel time, but a more improvement is Harry's ability to summon NEARLY HEADLESS NICK anywhere in the castle. NICK will lead Harry to the next story point when you're ready. Gone is the functional Marauder's map, although unlocked sections of the castle are revealed via the map.

Slughorn's Potion's Class and the Potions Club allows Harry to enjoy his new found potion prowess thanks to the Half-Blood Prince's old Potions textbook. The Potions Club is for out-of-class potions work, but as in the classroom players can really mix the potions akin to COOKING MAMA, adding the ingredients, shaking, stirring and adjusting potion temperature, even to wave the smoke away....all by remote gestures.

When not concocting potions a new Dueling and Flying Club has been added...early in the game the Gryffindor Dueling Club is introduced, not part of actual movie or story events...the Dueling Club is a great excuse to fire off combat spells, even offering a 2-PLAYER OPTION. The Flying Club allows Harry, the newly named Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team some extra broom-work.

Quidditch practice and game sessions largely consist of flying through stars to increase your speed to catch the snitch to end the game, while fending off rival players over and around the pitch.


Extras like all the Harry games this one has Harry collecting crest like Mario's Galaxy star grabbing...using DEPULSO, you can find and collect hidden ones and other spells along the way... they add up to unlockables and such. Also Harry's good deeds aren't rewards in themselves...jobs well done earn Harry badges throughout the game...forming a collection for later display, like the Wizard cards of old. In fact, after the story plot points are all covered players can continue to find the remaining crests, solve disputes between students (this usually involves a Wizard's Duel) and potion challenges.

The Wii's strength is usually is only weakness...in the motion play of the remotes is the tool that makes the game so interesting is sometimes what interferes with game play...at times to controls miss the mark and gestures are incorrectly interpreted. But, overall these mishaps are few. The look and feel of the game mirrors the movie style down to the music and actor's images....this is a great precursor to the film experience as was the last Wii HP movie tie-in. Some moments in the game I hope play out as well in the movie....Harry's misfires at love, Ron's misadventures with love-potion spiked candy...playing Love-sick Ron is very funny as is the Jazzy/swing variation on the HP theme while using the Luck-potion!

HEADS UP: EA Games is remaking their Harry Potter LEGO games for early part of the New Year....the first installment will cover books 1-4...the original HP games focused too much on building, but the new LEGO/EA Games format (Like Star Wars and Indy) will make these titles worth owning.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for Wii is definitely the best Harry Potter video game to date. If you're familiar with the video game series, then you probably know that games one through three are very similar, while four sort of . . . stands alone. The sixth game is VERY much like the fifth game. You have a very similar (yet updated) Hogwarts, characters that are made to look their movie counterparts, and even a similar spell list.

Hogwarts is awesome. I dunno if you've heard, but this game is supposed to have the most accurate castle of any of the games. You can get lost in it, yes, but after a while, it's cool to be able to say you can navigate the place. In terms of exploration, in this game you collect silver Hogwarts crests. There are 150 in all, and they're sneaky little things, I tell ya. You also collect mini crests, and when you collect enough of those, they combine to make a whole crest. The best part - No Moaning Myrtle swooping in at you and being a creeper like in the last game. It's sort of more like wizard cards from the games of old.

Graphically, the game is superior in every way to the last one. Remember, though, we're still working with a Wii, which has less power than a 360 or Playstation 3. In addition, the Harry Potter games have always had a lot more STUFF in them at sort of a lower quality. You won't be in awe at the cut scenes, but it's not like we've reverted to Pong here, people. And the actual PLAYING part of the game looks much nicer than any of the videos, as per usual . . .

Magic. That's what we play the game for, right? So then it had BETTER have a ton in it! And it does . . . to some extent. Two spells have been eliminated since the last game: Accio and Depulso. Now, they've managed to work depulso into the game in a different way. You sort of . . . attack glowing things with your Wii Remote, causing mini-crests to fall out. There's no real flash or boom, but it's been dubbed depuslo, so . . . whatever, I guess. I don't know how Accio fits in, either. Of all the things I'm disappointed with in this game, it's the lack of new spells that irks me most. In the words of J.K. Rowling -- "HAVE YOU GONE MAD? . . . ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?" Apparently not as much as we thought . . .

BUT, there are some pretty cool additions that make up for it. The number one thing is extra curriculars! In this game, you now have a Dueling Club, a Potions Club, and a Flying Club.

Dueling is SO much better than the last game. You actually have a health bar [type thingy]! And spells can be cast much more easily. They also don't take forever between casts, so you can fire off a dozen stupifys in like a second. Just . . . how it should have been last time. All of your old spells return for this one, except Rictusempra, which is replaced with a delightful "Charged Stupify." I thought it was a fair trade . . . Anyways, dueling is a definite PLUS! And be aware that YES, your first duels will be very easy, but they DO get more difficult as the game progresses.

As for potions . . . it's different. It's a fun little mini game that they drop in, and I'm proud of how it utilizes the Wii Remote. I suppose I could live without it, but it's definitely enjoyable. ESPECIALLY because my little sister is afraid to play any REAL part of the game, so when I get to a potion she has a chance to actually do something.

As for Quiditch . . . well, I'm reminded of the second game, where you follow a set track. The camera does a lot of the work for you, and, to be honest, the earlier games and practices are quite boring. As the game progresses, however, it DOES force you to pay attention by placing obstacles and enemy players in your way. It starts slow, but definitely gets better!

My final thing is this: While this game is multiplayer, it does not support cooperative gameplay. Your friends can't play with Ron and Hermione and explore the castle with you, which is a shame, because I can definitely see bonding opportunities there. You're, unfortunately, restricted to dueling each other.

So yeah! I really liked it, and I'd definitely go out and buy it again, so you should too!

I gave this to my grandson this week for his 12th birthday and he and his 4 friends played with it endlessly. I heard loud comments , cheers, yells, etc. constantly while they played. Really cool graphics and lots of challenges for the boys who were experienced in played Wii. I would definitely recommend this.

My 9 year-old little brother saw the commercial for this game and really wanted it. I bought it for him for his birthday despite the bad reviews and he loved it. This was our first HP game so we can't really compare it to other HP games. We loved the potions and the dueling. Quidditch was not as good as expected. Like what one of the other reviewers said, basically Harry Potter flies by himself. Also as another person pointed out, we finished the whole story mode in one day which was sort of lame but at least we still had to find all the crests and stuff.

Pros:
-Exploring Hogwarts
-Potions
-Dueling
-Good for little HP obsessed kids lol

Cons or improvements I wish to see:
-I wish it was more like sims...in other words, more interaction. I wish HP could like sit on the seats, talk to more people and stuff.
-The Story mode needs to be LONGER and more detailed. I did find the mis-quotes and other story mistakes rather annoying. Like sometimes HP will say what Ron said in the movie. Also I wish I could like sit down in the grand hall and dig into all the yummy food and stuff: more interaction.
-More Spells and charms

I gave it a good rating because my brother loved it

My nine-year-old son loves playing this game. His favorite tasks are mixing potions, quidditch matches, and fighting in the wand duels. I understand the negative reviews--this game may not hold the interests of older players--but my child very much enjoys playing this and it's a blast to watch him. It seems to have the right level of challenge to keep him engaged without getting frustrated. I highly recommend it.

Kevin wrote a good review, but I just want to add a few extra points.
First, I've never played any of the other Harry Potter games, mainly because of the mediocre reviews. However, I decided to try this one based on some good reviews around the internet.

My son (3) really enjoys watching this game. Potion making is his favorite and can actually be quite a challenge. Hogwarts castle and surrounding grounds are fairly expansive and the cutscenes/voice acting are nice.

Dueling is probably the most fun, followed closely by potions. My only real gripe with the game is Quidditch. As already stated, all you do is basically point your Wii remote at the screen, which gives you a glowing pointer. Your broomstick will fly toward that point, although you do not have total reign on where you go since you fly a general direction toward the snitch and can only adjust your position slightly.

You fly through stars and hit target dummies to get more time and continue doing so until you finally catch the snitch. It seems like they could have done SO much more with Quidditch than just flying through stars for a couple minutes.

That gripe aside, I'd recommend this game. Potions, dueling, Hogwarts, (Quidditch)......Give it a go...I think you'll enjoy it.

I bought this game for my 9yr old daughter and she loves battling Bellatrix and the death eaters in dueling matches. She also enjoys making potions and Quidditch. But I do find the game a little boring when playing by myself. But when we take turns it's a blast to play.

I was just a little disappointed with this game. It was a lot of fun but it only took me five hours or so to complete (which I guess isn't to short). There are three things to do at Hogwarts. You can duel, make potions, or play Quidditch. Despite how fun these activities are, there's not really much else to do besides explore Hogwarts and try to know the castle well enough so you don't have to be guided by Nearly Headless Nick to your next location in the plot.There are collectibles and awards in the game but in my opinion they are not worth collecting. On the positive side dueling is a lot of fun, and Quidditch is okay but a little too repetitive (potions gets annoying and difficult very quickly). I loved simply exploring Hogwarts for a little while too. The Wii motion controls work well but it stinks when you get hit by expelliarmus or levicorpus in duels. You mostly fight Crabbe and Goyle and a few other Slytherin goons. But you get a few rare duels against Draco Malfoy, Fenir Greyback, Bellatrix Lestrange, and two Death Eaters. In Potions you have to mix ingrediants and also stir and heat. My least favorite part is when you have to shake things up before you pour them in because this is where the motion controls seem to have trouble reading and you have to do it just right or the contents will explode. With Quidditch, it's a little to simple. You simply point through rings for boosts until you catch the golden snitch. Thank goodness it gets hard in your last match against Ravenclaw when you play as Ginny because Harry is in detention because if it wasn't for a challenge, Quidditch would be painful. Anyway, in terms of storyline, it may be hard to follow if you haven't seen the movie or read the book. I will not give anything away except I did get a kick out of when Harry uses Felix Felicis and when Ron accidently swallows the love potion. This a decent game from beginning to end (almost) and it might be worth getting even though I was just a little disappointed as a huge Harry Potter fan. By the way, it is the best Harry Potter game so far.

The last Harry Potter Wii game was okay but this one gives you a lot more to do, such as making potions. Playing quidditch is one of the most fun things to do. Also, wand duels are a great addition to this version. It allows two people to play instead of just one. Overall, I would highly recommend this game!

I didn't play this game, but my sister did. I watched her play this game. At some points, it seamed boring, but the parts that got her annoyed seamed fun to me. If you are a Harry Potty fan, you will probably like it.