Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Grows on you"

The Good: Graphics are far superior to its predecessors; magic looks a lot cooler; Hogwarts is huge and a bit different; mini-games are pretty fun for the most part; switching between Harry and his friends is an improvement, not a nuisance; voice acting and the story from the books mesh well, and make for excellent cutscenes; the games length is actually pretty solid.

The Bad: The powerful potential of this license still isn't being used enough, with no voice acting from the actors, no John Williams music and characters that don't quite look like the movie actors; incredibly long loading times; the game still feels like Zelda not done as well; the game skips a huge chunk of the book/ movie; nothing live action.

Harry Potter, in terms of books and movies, is a worldwide phenomenon. You'd think that EA, with the rights to such a spectacular license, would do everything they can to make their work live up to the name.

Sadly, no. While Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, not to mention its predecessors, don't really come off as quick cash-ins, EA really put a lot more effort into the work on The Lord of the Rings franchise. There are a fair few unique and intuitive ideas to this title in particular, but some very blatant issues that hold it back from what could've been a much more magical game.

This game is the first to allow us to play and switch off between Harry, Ron and Hermione. All three learn the first two spells, but after that they learn magic that only they can cast.

This is an intelligent twist on the gameplay by EA. Hermione, of course, learns by far the most spells, being a nerdy bookworm on all mediums. Ron, being a bit of a dolt, learns just one unique to him, while Harry learns two. When one or two of the characters are missing in action this allows for some unique puzzle elements that change later on in the game.

Targeting and equipping spells to buttons are still staples of the franchise, copying Zelda as ever. This isn't a bad thing, because (as you'd see in my other reviews) Zelda games are great. But a Zelda format really isn't what Harry Potter was made for in my opinion.

I think more straight up wizard and creature battling would allow for a much more enjoyable experience, and none of this battling an army of pixies nonsense. I'm talking big creatures, like Aragog, the Basilisk, the Dementors, those Blast Ended Skrewts, centaurs, and other more major beasts from the franchise that would allow for really fun battles. Wizard dueling is in most of the games, but they have yet to unleash the full potential of it.

That said, Hogwarts is big. There's plenty to do, and it can be quite a lasting experience. In fact, it's rather impressive considering the time given for licensed titles to produce quality work.

The graphics are a marked improvement, too. After just a year from Sorcerer's Stone, Azkaban is dramatically superior graphically. The music and sound effects are even much better, but it's a shame we still haven't seen some John Williams work in there.

While the game is big and bold though, and at many times shines out as truly enjoyable, the load times bog down the game a lot. We're talking ten to twenty seconds. And often, the game needs more than one of these in just a minute or two. It really discourages exploration, and sometimes the loaded area turns out not as large as you'd be hoping.

Had the developers simply made the game take up a lot more blocks on the system, this title could've earned a much, much higher score from me. At its best, Azkaban really does stand up against some of Nintendo's work. At its worst, it reminds you of serious stinkers, and causes immense boredom. As in it can go from as awesome as some of the weaker Zelda titles to as crappy as Kirby Air Ride. It manages to do that in about ten minutes. That is impressive, but not in a good way.

The spells are really cool, and there's much more variety. For once you can understand why everyone is so hooked on this franchise, because spells like Flipendo, Expelliarmus, Glacius, Carpe Retractum, Expecto Patronum and Lumos are all really, really cool and fun to use. Each character has some other unique abilities too. Harry's the natural athlete, able to jump farther and climb ropes (probably from running away from Dudley). Ron uses Stink Pellets and Dungbombs as distractions from trolls and the like, to make up for his lack of spells. Hermione can fit into smaller holes than the others, being, well, smaller.

The Potter faithful would've found it worth a purchase upon release, but now it wouldn't be worth it when there are much better titles around. Unless you're absolutely diehard for the kid with the glasses and the funny scar, and absolutely need to have each game, it shouldn't be your first choice on Gamecube. The system got screwed from third parties, but it has some charmers nonetheless.

Hopefully before the conclusion of the franchise EA can pull of a Harry Potter game that is just as magical as the novels and films that have raked in billions.