It will be interesting to see
how those invested in the Harry Potter franchise (Scholastic and Warner
Brothers, mainly) choose to release the inevitable spate of ancillary
products and doodads as the seventh and eighth films draw nigh.
The books are deservedly beloved, and each one of the films has been
carefully crafted, thrilling, and beautifully designed. But subsidiary
products have been lacking and joyless, and I'm sad to say that the
Harry Potter: Wizarding World DVD game continues that unfortunate
trend.
Organized around fourteen challenges,
the game basically boils down to nonstop screen-to-screen navigation
- there's a static one which allows the player to choose a direction
to move using his or her remote control, and an animated one that transitions
the player to the next static screen. The challenges include using
the Marauders' Map to sneak through Hogwarts, flying a dragon during
the competition for the Goblet of Fire, facing off with Hagrid's brother
Grawp, and participating in the Quidditch World Cup.
The graphics and narrated directions
warm the soul at first, and provide that cozy Hogwarts sensation with
the mention of Butterbeer (something I'm determined to make one day
- even if I have to invent a recipe myself). While these tastes
of Potter's world do whet one's appetite, the game proves to be
a total time-waster. Not only is the format a step back in terms
of interactivity - like playing Space Invaders in the age of
the Wii and Xbox - but it's almost condescendingly simple.
It does allow for up to four players to compete in each challenge, but
the multiplayer interfaces are even clunkier than the ones for a single
player. Overall, it's a game devoid of magic - a sad Muggle
attempt to grasp the wonders of wizardry...
This game is geared towards
kids, and rightly so, but navigating endlessly through series after
series of screens grows tiresome - and fast. Kids who play the
game are going to pop this disc out of their DVD players in no time
- and opt to watch one of the Harry Potter movies instead. Maybe
that's the whole point, though - not to provide children with a
rewarding game, but to get them amped again about the franchise.
And the timing for that would be just about right, too, since The
Half-Blood Prince gets released a week after the game, on the same
day that Ultimate Editions of the first two films come out on disc.
Check those out; ignore this forgettable game.
The DVD
The Package
The single disc is housed in a clear keepcase. A small insert
with instructions is included, but it's too small to stay held in
place by the little tabs on the inside left of the keepcase. Therefore
the little booklet is doomed to forever rattle around next to the smugly
safe and secure disc.
The Video
The video presentation of this game is extremely distracting.
It's fullscreen, for one thing. For another, the film clips
that are sprinkled throughout the game are both cropped and compressed
on their sides. To fill the fullscreen frame, clips appear to
have been cropped to about 1.85:1, and then compressed even further
to fit 1.33:1, leaving them both hacked and squished. It's an
absurd visual presentation that clashes with the more polished game-specific
graphics. The actual quality of the video is good, but not great.
The clips feature a lot of artifacts and grain, although the game graphics
are fairly clean and solid.
The Audio
The stereo soundtrack is clear but sterile, and kind of choppy.
The use of music is especially inconsistent, with cues swelling up and
dropping out artificially; the overall sonic effect is of navigating
through endless DVD menus, which is actually what the whole game feels
like.
The Extras
N/A
Final
Thoughts
The classic novels and the
stellar films will endure; enjoy them again and avoid this game.
Skip it.
Casey Burchby is a writer and editor who lives in San Jose, CA.
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