Pros: all of the characters from the movies, nice cut-scenes, international teams, 100+ collectable cards
Cons: lack of vertical movement, slow pace, repetitive commentary, disappointing multi-player mode
The bottom line: Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is an innovative game based solely around the made-up sport of Quidditch, yet it falls short of being a success.
The Harry Potter franchise has captured the imaginations of million of kids and adults around the world. Electronic Arts, a video game developer, owns many of the industry’s top franchises, such as Madden, the Bond games, the Lord of the Rings games, the Sims, Medal of Honor and the Harry Potter games. They have already created three adventure games based upon Harry’s adventures throughout his first three years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but now EA has released a game that revolves entirely around the game of Quidditch, titled Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup.

Quidditch is the most popular sport in the world of Harry Potter. It consists of seven players on each team, that square off against each other on an enormous oval-shaped field or “pitch”. But what’s so magical and captivating about this sport is the fact that the action takes place in the air, as all players are aboard a magical speedy broom. Three players on each team are the ‘chasers’, and their goal is to shoot the quaffle through one of the three opponents’ vertical rings. Each goal is worth ten points. Two players are the ‘beaters’. There are two balls with a mind of their own in play called bludgers, and they are very hard and can do a lot of damage. The beaters job is to make sure that the rest of their team doesn’t get hit by the bludgers, but they also carry large clubs and smack the bludgers in an attempt to hit the other team’s players.

Then there’s the keeper, whose duty is to protect the ring, as he is similar to a goalkeeper in hockey or soccer. Finally there is the ‘seeker’, whose job is to catch yet another ball, the ‘Golden Snitch’. The Golden Snitch is a tiny golden ball with wings, which is barely visible during a match and flies at very high speeds. Whichever team catches it earns 150 points and the match comes to a close. Usually whoever catches the Golden Snitch wins the match. With fourteen players whizzing around a pitch and four balls zooming around at lightning speeds, this is a very intense and entertaining sport, which we can definitely tell by reading the books and watching the movies. However, the translation from the books and movies to video games did not go so smoothly.

The gameplay is presented at a moderate pace. All of the basic techniques are explained in the very beginning through tutorials, which are necessary to complete in order to move on to the real modes. You are gradually taught how to pass, shoot, tackle and steal the quaffle. All of this is fairly system, and simply involves moving with the left thumbstick and pressing a button at a time. Later on you are introduced to the bludgers, and you realize that you must earn a chance to hit one and when you do so you control its’ flight via the right thumbstick. Finally, you are then introduced to combos, special moves and special team moves. As you perform a combination of passes and score goals, a small meter builds up, and at times you earn special moves and team moves. Special moves can be performed when you are hit (resulting in instant goal) and stealing the quaffle, and they are presented in the form of a cut-scene. Team special moves are similar although they can be performed at any time in the game.

During the match itself, players will primarily control the chasers, and will attempt to score as many goals as possible. However, when the two halves of the Snitch Meter meet, then the Golden Snitch becomes visible and you gain control of your team’s chaser. Here you will follow the golden trail left by the Snitch, and you can boost to gain speed. If you are extremely close to it, you can attempt to grab it and if you are successful, then the match comes to a close and you hopefully won the match. Teams that build up their specials meter by performing lots of combos are given a head start during the Snitch chase, so to win you must play well the entire game.

The Hogwarts Cup is basically a long tutorial mode, which introduces the above gameplay. In the beginning you pick one of the four houses (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin), and attempt to beat the rivals houses. It is fairly interesting because all of the characters from the books and movies are on the teams, and players such as Harry Potter himself, Draco Malfoy or Cho Chang will be instantly recognized by Harry Potter fans, and this gives the game a touch of authenticity.

After you win the Hogwarts Cup, the best mode of the entire game is unlocked – the Quidditch World Cup. In this mode, nine countries are available (including Bulgaria, England, Japan, USA, Germany, Australia, France, Spain and the Nordic teams). In this mode you must win slightly under 20 Quidditch matches in order to win the most prestigious trophy in the Quidditch world. This mode was fairly exciting to play at first, yet even with four difficulty levels, the game was never much of a challenge for me and soon seemed to become like a chore.

The largest downside to this game is the speed of the game. You’d think that the action would be extremely fast-paced and this might make the game slightly difficult. Alas, this game handles Quidditch at a snail pace compared to the movies. Another disappointing aspect is the fact that you are unable to fly vertically. When you are controlling any of the players on the pitch, you are limited to sideways and front/backwards movement. This takes away quite a lot from the game. In this movies, you’d often see Harry nose-dive and grab the Snitch, but in this game you are unable to do so. The lack of vertical movement also makes tackles and steals easier, as it is harder to avoid your opponents.

The integration of a collectible card system was a wise decision. With the ability to unlock over 100 cards by performing specific objectives such as beating a house record will definitely keep many players playing in hopes of getting as much out of this game as possible. The collectible cards unlock things like broom upgrades, new special and team special moves as well as difficulty levels. The best unlockable however is the game of Queerditch, which is Quidditch’s predecessor. An exhibition mode is also available to be played at all times, and you can play a single match against the computer. Unfortunately, you are not given the ability to play as a Hogwarts team versus an international team. The multi-player mode is fairly limited, as you are only capable of playing a split-screen match. No Xbox Live support is available. Playing against a friend in split-screen mode was less fun than playing against the computer, so the multi-player mode seemed to be a waste to me.

The graphics are the best part of Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup. The characters were rendered into three-dimensional models extremely well, and Harry Potter and also of his pals and enemies are instantly recognizable. The various pitches are also stunning, as every international stadium has a unique theme that is very appealing to the eye. It was nice to see the difference between the winter and summer Hogwarts pitches. There are many particle effects to gaze at, and they were fairly well done. Finally, the cut-scenes are a joy to watch, and are a tick below the movies quality-wise. You will see fans cheering, players performing amazing moves and a bunch of other really well-made cut-scenes.

The audio department is a mixed bag. The background music during the matches was fairly well-orchestrated, and seems to capture the magic of the movies through the music too. However, the rest of the audio was not so well done. First of all, the sound effects were average. They did a commendable job because all of the effects had to be created as obviously you can’t record the sound of a broom flying in real life. But I felt that the sounds made during player contact, the thuds and the crashes could have been improved upon. Also, the commentary was enjoyable at first but soon becomes extremely repetitive.

Overall, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is an average game. Although it is the first attempt to create a game based on the made-up sport of Quidditch, it came up just a bit short in the gameplay department due to a lack of speed and a lack of vertical movement. There is a lot of room for improvement, and there is a large chance that a sequel to this game would turn out terrific. However, I recommend this game solely to Harry Potter fans. Everyone else should consider renting it or even avoiding it altogether. If you want to introduce yourself to the world of Harry Potter through video games, perhaps you should consider one of the adventure games.