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Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup Review - Xbox

29th February 2004 by
82%
The Harry Potter franchise has been hugely successful; soon after the popular series of books came toys, games, movies, school accessories and more all based on the young wizard and his adventures. Throughout the Harry Potter movies and books, soccer - the sport that we all know well - is replaced by a sport named quidditch. Quidditch is quite similar to soccer except that it's played in the air on broomsticks rather than on the ground and that there are three goals at each side of the field instead of one. Electronic Arts have thought further into Harry Potter and realised that they could make a game based on quidditch - and that's exactly what they've done. Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup shows you how quidditch is played by the masters of the sport and takes you from playing as the children at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to playing as the adult champions in the Quidditch World Cup.

Gameplay

Despite being solely a sport game, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup retains the feel of the Harry Potter theme; playing quidditch feels just like it is shown in the quidditch sequences of the Harry Potter movies and the game's menus are also designed with the theme in mind. For example, in the Options menu, to load or save a game you select the Remembrall, an item that fans of the franchise will know well.

When you start a new game in Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup there are just two gameplay modes available: Hogwarts mode and Exhibition mode. The World Cup mode, which is the meat of the game, is initially locked. In order to unlock the World Cup mode you'll have to exhibit your skills in the Hogwarts mode. Here you must select one of the houses in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, the school that Harry Potter attends: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Each house has the same abilities and moves, so it's simply a matter of personal choice.

After selecting a house you must play through a number of tutorials, each led by a different member of the house. These hands-on tutorials briefly instruct you on the basics of quidditch, such as passing the quaffle - which is basically the ball of the game - and performing special moves and combos. After finishing each tutorial certain Hogwarts events will become available, in which you'll play full games of quidditch against the opposing houses. If you've tackled the tutorials properly you'll have no trouble coming first in the Hogwarts competition, and therefore unlocking the World Cup mode.

The World Cup mode takes you through the most important event in quidditch. Here, professional, adult quidditch teams from countries such as Japan, the United States of America and Australia compete against each other in knockout rounds for the enviable World Cup. Each round in the World Cup takes place in grand-scale stadiums, much bigger and more impressive than the pitch at Hogwarts, and goes on no matter what the weather condition is; (continued next page)

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