Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone

Other products by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• EA Games
• Know Wonder
• Puzzles, spells battles
• Take flight Coillect Wizard Cards

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005N7YQ
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 16, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (258 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,958 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Review

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the perfect game for Potter fans who've read the books, seen the movie, and still want more of J.K. Rowling's amazing world. As would-be wizard Harry Potter, you can run amuck in a virtual Hogwarts, learn to cast spells, play Quidditch, eat chocolate frogs, talk with teachers and classmates, and, of course, try to defeat You-Know-Who.

This is one of those rare games that both very young kids and their parents will be able to enjoy. You don't need the hair-trigger reflexes of a 13-year-old Nintendo ninja to explore the complex and mysterious world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In fact, exploring the school is half the fun. There are secret passages, shifting staircases, and dangerous shrubbery wherever you look. The ultimate battle at the end is suitably challenging, but overall, the game is fairly forgiving. And you don't have to discover every single nook and cranny in order to pass to the next level.

Interacting with one's fellow students is also fun, and a real treat for serious Potter fans. As in the books, some schoolmates are helpful, some are rude, and some are simply awestruck when they meet you, the famous Harry Potter. Nearly all the characters from the book can be found in the game, including Potter pals Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Some characters are even more fully realized than they were in the movie: Fred and George Weasley, for instance, are always popping up in unexpected places via elaborate secret doors. Thanks to excellent voice work and diligent artistry from the game developers, the characters in the game look and sound like the characters from the film.

It's hard not to lose yourself in the lush graphics and delightful conversations, but as Professor McGonagall might say, Harry is at Hogwarts to learn, not to socialize! The way you learn and perform spells is clever: you must trace a specific onscreen pattern with the mouse. Accuracy and speed in your lessons wins house points for Gryffindor. Aside from your schoolwork, you must win Quidditch matches, solve mysteries, and eventually confront You-Know-Who.

The game is charming, but it is unfortunately obvious that a few corners were cut. For instance, sometimes solid walls can go semitransparent from certain angles, and the edges of the oval-shaped Quidditch Pitch look blocky and amateurish. The game also has a few bugs here and there. And finally, disappointingly, the pictures don't move. Still, the fun of this game is not in the playing of the game itself. The main fun lies in progressing through and interacting with J.K. Rowling's unforgettable universe. On that point, the game is a huge success. --Eric Fredrickson

Pros:

• Talking with the characters from the book/movie
• Sneaking around Hogwarts under the Invisibility Cloak
• Quidditch
• Easy navigation

Cons:

• Obvious that a few corners were cut in making the game
• Relatively primitive 3-D graphics
• Hogwarts pictures don't move

Product Description

Hogwarts term begins.... Be Harry Potter in a Magical adventure filled with wizardry fun and danger

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was very pleased!, November 27, 2001

By	Maggie "janet_at_home" (Holland, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This is a good game. It sticks to the plot of Harry Potter very well. True they changed small things, but they had to do that in order for it not to be boring. You talk to all sorts of people! Ron, Hermione, Dumbledor, I can't name them all. You collect Berrtie Botts Every Flavor Beans for fred anf George, you can get Chocolate frogs, wizard cards and all sorts of good stuff! You battle Peeves and avoid Mrs. Norris in the library! You can go to class, play Quidditch, see Hagrid. You have lots to do and it moves quickley (but not too quick for slow computer users!)

What I liked:
I like how you can walk around Hogwarts and talk to random people and they talk back!

I like the way when your done with the game you can still go back and improove. There is also a choice to enter a quidditch turnament and broom practis so you wont get tired of the game for quite a while. The people in the game are nice and and fun to talk to and the classes are really fun! (you even get graded!!!) This game makes you really feel like you are at hogwarts because it has exallant graphics.

What I didn't like:
Not much! Once and a while the story line kicks in and than you can't go back and get something if you missed it but thats a small complaint! And it would be fun to be able to go into Diagon Ally and shop around, but over all the game was fun and easy to spend hours on!

Oh! The object of the game is to rescue the Sorrcer's Stone, and they explain enough that I think that this game would be fun for non-Harry Potter readers too.

114 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Game Adaptation I've Ever Played!, November 22, 2001

By	Nick (Singapore) - See all my reviews

Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, is out everywhere! It started off as J.K Rowling's bestseller, now a fantastic movie and a computer game! Fans of Harry Potter who are itching to play Quittich should not give Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone (PC)
a miss as it will satisfy them throughly. People who don't usually read the books would also, most likely enjoy this game too.

This game has the basic storyline which follows to the storyline to that of the book. Not much is revealed during the gameplay which is fantastic as people are planning to read the book after playing this game will not encounter any spoilers.

You can run the game in hardware or software mode. Hardware mode means that the graphics of the game are much better off than that of the software mode, which offers choppy graphic. I suppose that this option is there to allow players without a good graphics to enjoy the game too.

As this game was designed for children, the contols are relatively simple to use. The game is played in a third person view, something like Tomb Raider. Players will be controlling the famous Mr. Potter himself. The one of the clever things about this game was that at the very beginning, the tutorial of how to play the game is in the form of exploring the castle with Fred and George Weasely, two characters in Harry Potter. You will learn how to jump and climb, and how to move around.

As the game proceeds, players can collect trading cards and jelly beans for fun. Players will encounter various challenges along the way and in these challenges, players must try to win points for their house, Gyriffndor. Players while exploring Hogwarts will encounter vaiuous characters that they can interact with, giving clues to guide players along.

No Harry Potter game is complete without learning magic spells! Parents, do not worry here! Your child will not be learning actual witchcraft but instead they will learn how to be precise, accurate and focus. To learn a spell, the teachers of Hogwarts will first draw a symbol across the screen at which players, with the help of the mouse, mmust try to draw as accurately as possible ( within the symbol drawn by the teachers ) the exact same symbol in a given time frame. It is quite a challenge but quite fun! If the players does it well, points will be awarded to the house.

Another good thing about the game is that the graphics is drop dead gogerous! Hogwarts looks magnificent, so did the weird plants of herbology class and the best part of this game? QUIDDITCH!

Alas this is a short game, which explains the four stars that I've given instead of the five. Unlike most games based from movies like Pearl Harbour and The Planet Of The Apes, which were total flops, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone (PC) proves that games based on movies may not always be a total flop.

A great game to buy for the holidays as present and honestly, it is very fun to play. Hardcore gamers ( gamers of first person shooters, action etc.etc. ) may not enjoy this game unless they want something refreshing to play with.

Look no further game buyers, with Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone (PC), Harry Potter will once again put some magic into your lives.

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun Game for ALL Harry Potter fans, November 12, 2001

By	Stefan Yates (Manhattan, KS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just got this game 2 days ago, and I can't stop playing it. It's not extremely difficult. Some of the challenges take a little more skill and wit than others. The saving graces of the game, and what makes it so cool, are the characters and the scenery. It's like you are actually at Hogwarts with Harry and his friends. The storyline skips around and if you are not familiar with what's going on, you might be confused from time to time. But for the Harry Potter reader and fan, this game is simply a must have. It is GREAT!!!!

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