I played this for a few minutes on my cousin's GBA for a few minutes and I only remember being in the camp at the beginning listening to the looping battle music
Not a bad experience of the 4th chapter in Harry Potter, but not a good one either. Controls are sometimes stiff, and the graphics look like the GBA. If you don't mind outdated graphics, the abundance of minigames, stiff controls and it's short length, get this game on DS.
If you went into this game without the knowledge that there's a Yule Ball dancing minigame that secretly prepares you for the final battle with Voldemort, buddy do I have news for you...
3/10
The Gameboy Advance version of the Goblet of Fire is an okayish time. It not having all the added dumpster fire content, that the DS version did for the sake of using touch controls, actually allows for a better appreciation of the title.
The gameplay remains largely repetetive and the levels are still slightly too long, but it's nowhere near as bad as its DS counterpart. There is admittedly a somewhat nice Zelda-like feel to the levels, though it obviously lacks the visual flair or the animation work of those; there's just very little satisfaction to be derived from progression. There is a jingle that plays but it gets old very quickly, not to mention that the things you collect are simply some dumb shields that do not fit the actual world they inhabit. Why a shield? What does that have to do with anything? Everything also feels a lot more sluggish overall, just the mechanics they went with for both exploration and combat take too long and the screens are too big for their own good.
Having played this version I also came to the realization that the soundtrack here is much better. I believe that the reason why the DS one sounds so horrendously is because the tracks themselves were never meant to be heard without the compression caused by the GBA system. Simply upscaling them doesn't work, they were never meant to be heard this way. They're the same compositions and a lot of the track sounds the same, but it seems that some instruments were simply adjusted for the GBA while recording, which is why, when cleared up, they sound so off-key.
This is the best version of the Goblet of Fire when it comes to games. Still a pretty major disappointment when it comes to this part's potential, but it's all we got. I would really hope that the Triwizard tournament can be revisited some day if any future Harry Potter games were to be made. It's a good concept and may make for fantastic setpieces if given a chance. Just, you know, don't force a co-op focus on it.
The Gameboy Advance version of the Goblet of Fire is an okayish time. It not having all the added dumpster fire content, that the DS version did for the sake of using touch controls, actually allows for a better appreciation of the title.
The gameplay remains largely repetetive and the levels are still slightly too long, but it's nowhere near as bad as its DS counterpart. There is admittedly a somewhat nice Zelda-like feel to the levels, though it obviously lacks the visual flair or the animation work of those; there's just very little satisfaction to be derived from progression. There is a jingle that plays but it gets old very quickly, not to mention that the things you collect are simply some dumb shields that do not fit the actual world they inhabit. Why a shield? What does that have to do with anything? Everything also feels a lot more sluggish overall, just the mechanics they went with for both exploration and combat take too long and the screens are too big for their own good.
Having played this version I also came to the realization that the soundtrack here is much better. I believe that the reason why the DS one sounds so horrendously is because the tracks themselves were never meant to be heard without the compression caused by the GBA system. Simply upscaling them doesn't work, they were never meant to be heard this way. They're the same compositions and a lot of the track sounds the same, but it seems that some instruments were simply adjusted for the GBA while recording, which is why, when cleared up, they sound so off-key.
This is the best version of the Goblet of Fire when it comes to games. Still a pretty major disappointment when it comes to this part's potential, but it's all we got. I would really hope that the Triwizard tournament can be revisited some day if any future Harry Potter games were to be made. It's a good concept and may make for fantastic setpieces if given a chance. Just, you know, don't force a co-op focus on it.
My sister already completed this game so I don't know if I'll ever get to this one
guilty pleasure de harry potter
I made a pretty bad YouTube review for this game in middle school. I won't link here because it's too cringe, but there was definitely something about this one that made me want to give it extra attention. I actually think this GBA port is better than the console version, with a whole lot of gameplay variety and a fun card collecting system throughout. The three Triwizard Tournament tasks were handled really well and the Yule Ball minigame is a surprise standout. If I had one major complaint it's the final boss fight against Voldemort is laughably easy.
1/10
I can name, like, one kinda okayish mechanic from this game: lighting up bushes so you can continue to light up the lanterns, making a line until you get to the final thorny bush you need to burn.
It's hard for me to think of any credit I can give this game. The levels are too long, the gameplay too basic, the AI too poor, the enemies too aggressive, the visuals too underdetailed, the music...
This was one of the worst soundtracks I've ever heard. They go for an epic vibe generally, orchestral within the limitations of the console, but they tend to add one silly instrument and it is goes completely against the melody. There's some brass instrument in the first trial theme, and this incredibly goofy xylophone in the cutscene theme. For actual boss encounters, the music is comparatively lighthearted. I'm honestly kinda baffled that someone signed off on this. Maybe the compression just killed it? I find that hard to believe, but it's a genuinely mind-boggling soundtrack.
The levels are so long. And they get progressively longer for the first three after the tutorial. Then they get shorter afterwards, but entering a level and seeing a quarter of the game's entire collectible count is to be found in it alone sure is something. Some levels took me over half an hour, and this is a very easy game mind you. So much of this game is just overlong, dull, mind-numbing stretches of boredom.
There is a dance rhythm minigame I'll give them that. The same rhythm minigame, minus the dancing unfortunately, is used for the final battle. What a way to bring it back together!
The DS version in particular adds so many meaningless and awful time-wasters. Shitty touch-screen minigames like "scratch to find a matching card" or "click on the same colored candy" or "throw the bean to the left or right" are placed at random spots throughout the game, with characters often just casually standing in unattainable, dangerous places. The most egregious thing is the use of this duel minigame, where, at seemingly random points, when you hit an enemy with a regular spell, which I assume would simply damage it on the GBA, it turns into this minigame where you can either click, draw or drag your stylus around the screen to attack, and then defend against the enemy attacks. WHY? Why have a regular, top-down adventure game, and just have it so that something that should be a simple action, something that IS a simple, quick action for 99% of the game in fact, and just turn it into this long and repetitive section? It's like if Super Mario RPG kept the gameplay from Super Mario World, but once every 10 goombas you entered a turn-based battle with it instead. This blows so much, such a ridiculous decision.
One more thing they added in the DS version is this Tamagochi-like creature called "Niffler" which you feed or wash when it wants to with the stylus. Awesome. Glad time was spent on this. Any and all amount.
Goblet of Fire is, overall, the weakest showing for the Harry Potter games. The executive decision was that the one movie where Harry spends a lot of time on his own should be a co-op title. And with so little to go off of for the levels that aren't the trials, both the approaches taken by the individual teams (a very short game with few levels that you revisit to progress into a next one vs a longer game with the same amount of levels but having them take much more to beat the first time) failed to make one of the seemingly most gamey parts of the series—it is entirely about tournament games after all—good.
I can name, like, one kinda okayish mechanic from this game: lighting up bushes so you can continue to light up the lanterns, making a line until you get to the final thorny bush you need to burn.
It's hard for me to think of any credit I can give this game. The levels are too long, the gameplay too basic, the AI too poor, the enemies too aggressive, the visuals too underdetailed, the music...
This was one of the worst soundtracks I've ever heard. They go for an epic vibe generally, orchestral within the limitations of the console, but they tend to add one silly instrument and it is goes completely against the melody. There's some brass instrument in the first trial theme, and this incredibly goofy xylophone in the cutscene theme. For actual boss encounters, the music is comparatively lighthearted. I'm honestly kinda baffled that someone signed off on this. Maybe the compression just killed it? I find that hard to believe, but it's a genuinely mind-boggling soundtrack.
The levels are so long. And they get progressively longer for the first three after the tutorial. Then they get shorter afterwards, but entering a level and seeing a quarter of the game's entire collectible count is to be found in it alone sure is something. Some levels took me over half an hour, and this is a very easy game mind you. So much of this game is just overlong, dull, mind-numbing stretches of boredom.
There is a dance rhythm minigame I'll give them that. The same rhythm minigame, minus the dancing unfortunately, is used for the final battle. What a way to bring it back together!
The DS version in particular adds so many meaningless and awful time-wasters. Shitty touch-screen minigames like "scratch to find a matching card" or "click on the same colored candy" or "throw the bean to the left or right" are placed at random spots throughout the game, with characters often just casually standing in unattainable, dangerous places. The most egregious thing is the use of this duel minigame, where, at seemingly random points, when you hit an enemy with a regular spell, which I assume would simply damage it on the GBA, it turns into this minigame where you can either click, draw or drag your stylus around the screen to attack, and then defend against the enemy attacks. WHY? Why have a regular, top-down adventure game, and just have it so that something that should be a simple action, something that IS a simple, quick action for 99% of the game in fact, and just turn it into this long and repetitive section? It's like if Super Mario RPG kept the gameplay from Super Mario World, but once every 10 goombas you entered a turn-based battle with it instead. This blows so much, such a ridiculous decision.
One more thing they added in the DS version is this Tamagochi-like creature called "Niffler" which you feed or wash when it wants to with the stylus. Awesome. Glad time was spent on this. Any and all amount.
Goblet of Fire is, overall, the weakest showing for the Harry Potter games. The executive decision was that the one movie where Harry spends a lot of time on his own should be a co-op title. And with so little to go off of for the levels that aren't the trials, both the approaches taken by the individual teams (a very short game with few levels that you revisit to progress into a next one vs a longer game with the same amount of levels but having them take much more to beat the first time) failed to make one of the seemingly most gamey parts of the series—it is entirely about tournament games after all—good.