It’s no secret that I love the first four Harry Potter Games on all the consoles they’re on. However, this one stood as the one I hadn’t played up to this point. Turns out, it’s a solid installment in the series. Starting out with the negatives, firstly the visuals are a mixed bag. The game looks (and is, but we’ll get into that later) barren. There’s very few NPC’s on screen at a time, and it’s not the console I choose. The GameCube was only a little worse than the XBOX power wise. The models have not aged well, however, quite a few of the environments have, so it’s 50/50. Another negative against the game is that there were numerous bugs I encountered that halted my progress for a little bit. as well, Final Boss of the game is not good, and if you die you only respawn with a 6th of your total life bar. Seriously. This game had big issues with life management, because when you start a new level you don’t actually get your life restored. The final negative that comes into the game is that there’s a lot of waiting for excessively long animations and cutscenes to play out. Far too much of the game is spent not in control of Harry. However, past that, this game is pretty damn great. The greatest thing here is how fun Hogwarts is to explore. As you learn new spells and gain new abilities, you can basically open up the entirety of the map and explore. It’s so much fun and it really lets you take advantage of every piece of Harry’s arsenal. Hogwarts as a big giant level to explore carries this game SO HARD. It’s also extremely rewarding to collect the cards in the game because every 20 cards you collect gives you another Health Bar, up to 5 additional bars. Another great thing about this game is the dungeon design. Although simple, it really helps you get accustomed to each new ability you gain in them. Really this game is a simpler Legend of Zelda Clone, and I think I’m okay with that.