I’m running out of things to say about the Lego series of games. No matter what license you put on it, the core mechanics and fun remain essentially the same. From Star Wars to Indy to Harry Potter, you pretty much do the same things in the same way. Oh sure, there a few tweaks here and there, but the majority of the experience is exactly the same. Is that a bad thing? Well, people keep paying more money for it no matter what license is being used, so I guess not. And it is still kind of fun, if a bit tiresome. The Lego series could use something really fresh and innovative to liven things up, but in lieu of that, we have yet a new license to play Legos with in Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4. It doesn’t take much to say this is the best Lego game yet…mainly because that doesn’t really mean a whole lot other than it’s the same fun experience you’ve come to expect with a few new wrinkles.
So what’s new in this Lego game. Well, it’s Harry Potter this time, which means magic and spells. As you go through the game, you’ll learn new spells that will help you solve puzzles. You can scroll through your spells using the bumpers or pull up a wheel menu of them by holding Y. It adds a little extra depth to the puzzles to have to figure out which spell to use. Granted, this isn’t very difficult, but it’s a new wrinkle that helps keep things interesting. If you really want to have some fun, you can even learn spells that make flowers sprout from someone’s head or make their head shrink and so forth. They don’t have any really use aside from practical jokes, but if you’re playing with a friend it’s always fun to mess with each other using these gag spells.
Other elements that are unique to this game include flying around on your broom and exploring Hogwarts. In fact, the hub worlds for this game are much larger and have more to explore than previous games. It’s always a blast to look through all of the nooks and crannies of Hogwarts castle to find hidden goodies. The game also has an excellent system for making sure you don’t get lost as the ghost Nearly Headless Nick will guide you, but if you lose him, he’ll leave behind a trail of ghost Lego studs. So you can feel free to explore without ever losing track of where you’re supposed to go to next. Now, as for the broom flying, that’s a bit hit or miss. Actually, it’s more miss than anything else. Vehicles have always been a weak point in Lego games, and the broom flying is particularly unwieldy, so consider yourself warned.
Although Lego Harry Potter brings along some new elements, it also brings back all of the previous problems. I already mentioned the unwieldy vehicle controls, but other issues like unclear objectives, extremely obscure puzzles, less than accurate platforming controls and so forth all make their return here. Traveler’s Tales has obviously taken the road of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” with this series, but unfortunately there also seems to be some “if it is broke, don’t fix it” going on as well. Well, at least the ingenious split-screen format from the Indy games shows up here. The screen seamlessly morphs from split-screen to full screen depending on how far apart you and your partner are when playing co-op. It’s such an elegant solution, and I know I’ve said this before, but I’m surprised more games don’t use it.
Now of course with this being a Harry Potter game, the inevitable debate and controversy over its use of magic and its influence on kids will be raised. In fact, I read one Christian review that felt this is perhaps one of the more dangerous Harry Potter products out there. Not because the game isn’t family friendly, but they feared this seemingly innocent and innocuous game could entice young’uns to read the books or delve into the movies and otherwise go deeper into the Harry Potter world. I’m not so sure that should be a concern. I can’t really imagine non-Potter fans picking this title up. In fact, many of the cut-scenes are well nigh incomprehensible to non-Potter fans. My wife hasn’t watched many of the movies, so most of the time she had no idea what those wacky little blocky characters were doing or what the significance was of the scene. This is really a game for Potter fans, and I think it would rarely function as a doorway to introduce new fans to the property of Harry Potter. Even if they tried it, I think a non-fan would quickly lose interest.
As for the magic itself, it’s been suggested this game is dangerous because even more than the books and movies, it makes the spells seem like more of just a gameplay mechanic than anything that has to do with magic. It turns something that’s dangerous to meddle with into something seemingly innocent and harmless. Again, that seems to be a bit of a harsh reaction to me. No one seemed too worried with Lego Star Wars about the use of the Force in that game enticing young children to indulge in the New Age movement. I agree however that the spells in this game have become nothing more than a gameplay mechanic. They maintain their familiar Latin monikers, but other than that they’re just tools for solving puzzles. Is that problematic? That seems to be highly subjective. As for me, I’m not particularly worried about my kids grabbing sticks and waving them around to try and make their Lego blocks assemble on their own.
In short, you should pretty much already know if this is a game you would play or not. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you will. If you like the Lego series and the comfortable feeling of knowing exactly what to expect and enjoy the formula of these games, you will. If you’re concerned about Harry Potter and his influence, it won’t matter if this is a family friendly Lego game, you won’t. The minor refinements, some fun takes on familiar Potter scenes, and great looking graphics do make this one of the best Lego games so far, but as I said, at this point that doesn’t mean a whole lot. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the series, but I do feel like it’s time for something new, not just a fresh coat of license paint.
Score out of 7:
Graphics: 6 - Some slick lighting and particle effects and some of the best looking, most plasticy looking Legos on screen yet. Hogwarts looks fantastic.
Sound: 5 - More than previous games, it’s hard to tell Harry Potter stories with grunts and mumbles, but the Lego characters still get the job done. Appropriate Potter music sets the mood, but nothing really stands out much in the sound department.
Gameplay: 4 - There’s nothing fundamentally wrong here. It’s the same solid gameplay mechanics of past Lego games; but that’s part of the problem. This is getting a little stale.
Controls: 5 - Still some imprecise platforming controls, but at least its easy to access all the spells you learn.
Story: 4 - This is tough. Without dialogue, you have to be very familiar with Harry Potter to get what’s going on. If you are, though, there are some genuinely funny moments in these Lego versions of the story.
Content: 5 - Again this is tough because it really depends on one’s opinion about Potter and magic. Other than that issue, a wee little bit of potty humor (I know, weird right, they’re Legos) is the only concern here.
Final: 5 - Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 boasts enough refinements to the familair Lego formula to make it the best game in the series so far, but it’s still a lot of the same old, same old. Don’t get me wrong, the Lego games are still fun, but they’re also getting a little stale. C’mon Traveler’s Tales, time to freshen things up a bit with something more than a new license.
