Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts is punctuated by teen love, potions and discovering the identity of the Half-Blood Prince. EA's newest game, based on the book and movie franchises goes well beyond the previous works by delivering a true Hogwarts experience.
First, the game series now seems to target a pre-teen and teen audience as Potter, Ron, Hermione and Ginny are starting to discover their interests beyond "just friends" and even a few "snogging" comments. Thankfully, the new Potter doesn't play out like an after school special. Quidditch training and matches are completed by using the Wii Remote to point Harry (and in one case, Ginny) through hoops that serve as speed boosts in their quest for the Golden Snitch. It starts easy but gets progressively harder with more hoops, erratic moves from the snitch and players who slam into you. The same goes for Duelling, where you use the Wii Remote to cast spells at an opponent. A flick of the wrist casts a weaker Stupefy spell as five other motions with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk give Harry access to Expelluarmus (big purple blast), Petrificus Totalus (petrify), Protego (protection) and Levicorpus (flipping foe upside down) provide harder blows. Plus, the game lets two players go head to head in Dueling Mode, which is probably one of the best parts of the game.
A Potions game might sound drab but picking up bottles, dumping in ingredients, fanning the fire, whisking away smoke and even stirring the pot feels fun in a Cooking Mama kind of way. Again, that level of difficulty increases through out the 16 available potions. Exploration, which we're told fans wanted, feels labored with a search for 125 crests (which unlock higher levels in the more action games) and countless mini-crests, various dueling battles with fellow students and map guidance from Nearly Headless Nick. Hitting the Z button gets Harry to run but regardless of speed, he always gets hung up on some momentum-killing corner. The Wii Remote controls mostly work but with quirky issues with potions (stirring a potion on screen requires player to move Wii Remote at 45-degree angle from screen), performing Protego when we tried to perform Expelliarmus and casting Wingardium Leviosa (levitate) only got slightly easier before we completed the game (which then leaves players to explore the grounds in and around Hogwarts).
For fans of the Harry Potter series, the game's action sequences with Duelling, Quidditch and Potions would be enough for to buy the game but storyline and exploration modes feel like a weak glue that holds it all together. Still, those games deliver beyond its movie requirements. If you're looking to be a little more like Potter, you won't get any closer than this.
Micheal Mullen is the Managing Editor of AOL's GameDaily. Over the past 14 years, he has written about video games, technology and celebs for ZD Net, GameSpot News and Electronic Arts.
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