[Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince - insanecrazy07

Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince
Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: EA Bright Light
Release Date: June 30, 2009
Genre: Action

Now usually the standard videogame that's loosely based on a movie, that's vaguely based on a book doesn't do well. Judging from it's earlier titles, the games were poorly-made budget titles. This one is slightly better, although it still has the weird clumsy walking and vertically-challenged Wingardium Leviosas. It would have been easier to just use the Wiimote to move around the levitating object, giving the player freedom to move around while casting.

This one takes out the most fun feature in the previous title, being able to attack other students in the hallways. The worst thing you can do to another student is run into them, in which you fall flat on your face. Apparently, they're made of cement!



While playing this game, I grew tired of playing "go through the star-shaped rings" for Quidditch matches, not to mention their monotonous "practice runs," which ends up having to do the same thing twice in a row. During your Quidditch matches, they will route you through one of the three rings and you have to execute it perfectly otherwise you get stuck, miss the checkpoint, or just lose precious time. If you miss any rings, it should only be that one, otherwise you will fail. You are guided much like a rail-shooter so your chances of hitting the wall or the ground while going underneath the stadium (like they did in the Chamber of Secrets) is very likely because you have no idea where the hell they're going. A free roam type of flying would have been much better, giving the player full control of their destination. Not to mention the "simulated glare" happens to get in the way making the rings harder to see and you're forced to guess where they are. They're not very forgiving should you miss one of the rings, and in most of their minigames, there is not a restart function.



Potions was fun for the first few runs, but after a few tutorials, the recipes got much harder and horribly imprecise. There were many times where I stopped boiling, stopped shaking, stopped pouring, or stopped stirring and the damn thing would smoke or explode. You're supposed to shake some of the bottles so that they bubble, and then pour. I saw the thing bubble, I poured and it smoked. What the hell? The game only rewards you with more time if you do the steps right, but sometimes, it is just easier to purposely pour too much to move onto the next step. The recipe becomes exponentially harder if you mess up more, because you have less time, but if you manage to do everything right, you'll have your time meter completely filled to 100 and past that since it will stay at 100 for awhile. Their scoring based on stars 1-5, is completely whack. There have been times where I screw up repeatedly, and still get 5 stars, where there are other times that I have done it absolutely perfect and only get 2. The Wiimote sensitivity is absolutely horrible for a game that requires such precision, especially for shaking since it tends to pour instead of shake. You'll have to find just the right spot to shake it upright, simply holding the Wiimote upright doesn't do the trick. They should have done the Trauma Center approach with grabbing and moving bottles, random ingredients and the like. It takes too much precious time to drop an ingredient as it slowly comes out of the container, floats across to the cauldron and should you jump the gun and drop it too early, you have to grab another one, which takes even more precious time. There is not a restart function so should you screw up badly, just explode the flasks and create a smoky fire hazard while time runs out.



The last minigame (which the minigames are actually the main part of the game), is dueling. The commands for spells aren't too bad, but casting Levicorpus, Protego, Petricus Totalus and Expelliarmus seem to run together, meaning that you wanted to cast one spell, but you get another. Your only real damaging attack is Stupefy, which can be charged or spammed. You can stun your opponent and then proceed to get within point-blank range and spam Stupefy until they're done. If they get back up, cast another stun just before they're able to move and then continue spamming Stupefy. What the game fails to tell you is that all of the stun spells can be shortened by shaking both the nunchuk and the Wiimote, not just Levicorpus. Also, Protego only bounces off one of the energy balls, and absorbs the rest, and it does not guard you from stun spells. You'll want to do the Dueling Clubs since those reward you with upgrades, making Bellatrix less of a nuisance.

This game has only three minigames, the same three I just mentioned. Your only class is Potions and there are no mealtimes, bedtime stories, or trips off to Hogsmeade or the Forbidden Forest. It would have been nice to partake in other classes, whatever ones are on Harry's schedule, but you are limited to just Potions. You only see Snape during a few cutscenes, and the Room of Requirement is closed. You are limited to using Charms outside of duels, which most of them they don't bother to tell you how to do, such as Reparo. Collecting 150 Hogwarts Crests is one pain, collecting thousands of mini crests to equal a few of the larger Hogwarts Crests is another.



On a brighter note, you have the entire castle to explore, which is beautifully done, but aside from collecting crests, there is not much else to do. Going to the Infirmary was a cool idea at the time, but there is nothing there. It's not easy getting lost, but should you find yourself lost, hitting (-) will summon Nearly Headless Nick and he will guide you, instead of a golden stream like in the last game, which had its problems like not being able to tell which direction it was traveling.

I will be doing the scores a little differently today, still including the required ones, but also judging on other scales as well.

Presentation: 8.0
The menus are pretty good looking, not overly confusing, although I get stuck when I have the Wiimote pointed at an option while using the D-pad to move down. I like using the D-pad better than the Wiimote, since it doesn't scroll down the choices. The story is just as skimped to the movie as the typical movie is to the book. Content coverage is progressively worse the further you deviate from the source.

Graphics: 7.5
I was actually impressed with the graphics, which is hard to do on the Wii, especially by my standards. The environment is very well done, but the character models could do some work. I actually felt like I was in Hogwarts, but with people with spray-tans...

Sound: 7.0
Good music, fitting for each situation. However the voice acting just isn't the same as any movie. This is expected.

Gameplay: 7.0
The duels are pretty well done aside from the random casting of spells. The potion minigame gets better as you get better at it, but at first, it is downright frustrating. Harry can't do a 180, or even turn without running into something or falling over. Chasing Malfoy is the only difficult part because Harry is so damn clumsy. The minigames do get repetitive in the 5 hour period, so take a break if you need to.

Lasting Appeal: 7.0
This really only lasts the 5 hours that it takes to go through the story, but again, collecting all 150 crests, and unlocking special "badges," which are like achievements will take up a lot of your time. Whether you have the attention span to get everything is another matter...

Overall: 35/50 (Dude, a 7.0 is considered good on the Wii)
The small, abundant negatives still outweighed the scarce positives to give it any higher of a score. I'd consider this a rental, even with the two-player dueling. It would have been better if the focus wasn't on the first player, but having it where the first player is on the left, second is on the right, healthbars, timers and fatalities! Just kidding on the last part.


The Last Gasp Badge can be obtained by completing a potion after the timer has run out, and I mean just BARELY making it.

Extra Scores:

The Harry Potter Fan: 6.0
Being a fan might make this score inflated, but here, it is the opposite. A big fan would mostly be disappointed in the limited-ness of this game, not being able to do a lot of the things mentioned.

I'm Just a Casual Gamer: 8.0
This game can be saved just about anywhere aside from the minigames, and the overall length of the game is really short only requiring 5 or 6 hours to go through its main storyline. The overall difficulty isn't to the point of throwing Wiimotes at TV screens (accidents...yeah right!), but it will definitely challenge the casual gamer. After beating the game, you have the freedom to do whatever the hell you want, instead of repeatedly killing the last boss over and over.

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

Nice review, but you're a bit heavy handed

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

Good review. Make your overall score out of 50.

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

I heard it's best in Wii.
Not heard ,watched exactly.

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

well, it is true indeed. 5 hours and i went through the story, another six hours and i had the badges plus completed every club challenge. the crests is another thing, though, don't feel like getting them.


insanecrazy, did you know that when felix felicis is working and harry has a pre-made route and all that, you can still collect the mini crests? and you get a ton load of them.

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

Wow, it's been that long that I forgot that it was out of 50.

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

Actually, I was supposed to be buying this game on PC, seeing it rather snatching mediocre scores... it'd be better on the shelf ;D .

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

Yes, and I let my sister do all of that while under felix felicis. They purposely made everything that you do ridiculously easy. And yes, we got a buttload of mini crests.

They just could have made it SO much better than what they had. Just being able to expand it to other classes would have been enough. Being able to talk to other professors while in free roam, or attend another class, just anything! Even making the Room of Requirement change and be accessible during different segments of the game would have been nice, even if there's nothing to do there.

I forgot to mention but you learn new spells by teaching the other dueling masters the techniques...because the instruction at Hogwarts is so horrible that they rely on a student to teach them.

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

I totally agree you on that, insanecrazy07, since Prisoner Of Askaban ( hope I am correct with spelling....) none of the HP games do well in delivering variety. But I guess, the movie is really being hyped all around... so let's just wait and see how it turns out to be. ;D

 

Re: [Wii] Harry Potter & the Half-blood Prince

Great comeback my friend I enjoyed the first couple HP games but have not played anything since the second one. I doubt I will be buying this anytime soon (probably ever) anyway. Accepted. Just do me a favour and change the title to include your name as the author.