Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (GBA)

Product Information

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone offers colourful 2-D graphics that render the action-driven puzzles and minigames in spirited detail. I've still got to play the PC and Playstation 2 versions of the game, but this is the Game Boy Advance release. Based on the 1997 novel of the same name, the player controls Harry Potter, who must navigate his first year in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and eventually confront the villainous Lord Voldemort. The game may be short and easy, but it's also thoughtfully designed and genuinely entertaining, and KnowWonder deserves credit for that.

With such a rich and interesting story to be made into game form, it's a surprise that more of the book wasn't used in planning the quests. To be able to purchase content for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS family systems, your funds usable through the Nintendo Account must be merged with the funds tied to your Nintendo Network ID. I especially enjoyed the multi-character-based puzzles and the new spells that Harry, Ron and Hermione can cast, all of them useful for different reasons. There is not enough room to squeeze past it, you cannot keep trying to go over it because this always results in loss of all lives so you have to start the task again. The Game Boy Advance version, along with the Game Boy Color and PlayStation versions, was designed with input from Harry Potter author J.Learn new spells, undertake new quests, make new friends and challenge new adversaries to confront the powers at the heart of the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione and Ron are both playable characters, and the three friends will need to work together if they're to overcome the deadly obstacles that stand in their way. With flame-breathed dragons to outwit, diabolical mazes to conquer and even Lord Voldemort himself to contend with, Harry Potter fans are sure to find this latest adventure absolutely enchanting. While it shares some similarities with the Game Boy Colour version, like the musical themes, sound effects and spell names, it's a very different experience.

The animations are decent for the time, but any battles with enemies are too shortlived or frustrating to enjoy when compared to the RPG stylings of the Game Boy Colour release. You play as Harry and you have to complete various tasks such as finding books in the library, spell challanges and flying lessons. but the experience is hindered slightly, simply by sloppy implementation of standard gaming elements. Dan Amrich of GamePro and Gerald Villoria of GameSpot regarded the game as a run-of-the-mill adventure title, but considered it to be more challenging than expected, which Villoria attributed to the delay in Harry's Flipendo spell and the erratic enemy AI.Amrich and Harris lamented the scarce save points, with the former claiming that "you should expect to play for an hour or two each time you pick it up if you want to make real progress". This system must be updated to the latest system software and connected to the internet with automatic downloads enabled, and it must have enough storage to complete the download. At E3 2001, Electronic Arts announced its license to publish video game adaptations of the Harry Potter franchise, with titles for the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, and the PC scheduled for November 2001.