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Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup

Game Reviews

Review 1 : By David
    Starting at Hogwarts, you go through 6 different challenges that teach you the basics of the game. After that, you can enter the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup. In the cup, you learn various moves you can pull of by pressing just a few buttons. You can flip over your opponent to steal the Quaffle from them, jump off your broom and bat the Quaffle into the goal, or do a flip just to throw off your opponents. Also, when passing, you can pass it so that a Chaser doesn't even grab the Quaffle, they just kick or headbutt it straight to the next person. While each team has the same moves, each team has their own individual team move that you can only use once you win the right Quidditch Cards. Slytherin's team special involves a lot of people getting knocked off their brooms, and ends with the Chaser punching out the camera. On the other hand, Ravenclaw's team special is the only one in the game that scores 3 goals at once, every other one only scores 1 or 2. After the 3 Hogwarts matches, if you win the cup, you can enter yourself in the Quidditch World Cup.
    The Quidditch World Cup consists of 18 rounds in all, but you don't have to play in 2 of them. When you begin the cup, you choose your team and difficulty setting, represented by broom. The 4 levels are: Comet 260, Nimbus 2000, Nimbus 2001, and Firebolt. Each team's pitch is completely different from the others, and each team has their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, Japan can pass the Quaffle quickly, but their Seeker isn't exactly one of the best. On the other hand is Germany, who can be difficult to pass with, but have an excellent Seeker. 
    If you get bored playing against the computer, you can play against a friend. You either choose to play with Hogwarts teams or international teams. With Hogwarts, you can play at Hogwarts in either a summer or winter setting. With International, you can play at any international pitch that you've already opened. Also, after you beat the Quidditch World Cup the first time, you open up Queerditch Marsh, the pitch where Quidditch was first invented and played. It looks like a swamp, and the goal hoops are set in tree branches. Although you can only use the Hogwarts teams here, its still a fun pitch to use.
    Overall, the Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup game is excellent. Some of the in-game clips can get a little repetitive, and after you win the World Cup with all of the teams on every difficulty level, it gets a little old, but its still an awesome game. Even if you do everything you can in the game, you can still find other ways to make it fun. Each of my friends has decided on their favorite international team, and I have them over every now and then to play in our own tournaments. I highly recommend this game for anyone. If you don't believe me, just rent or borrow the game once, and you'll get hooked.

Review 2 : By Daniel
Platform: PC

Overal Rating: 8.5/10

Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Sound: 9.5/10
Replay Value: 6/10

    For the first time ever, Harry Potter Fans get to experience the wonderful world of Quidditch with EA Games' Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup. This is a must play for Quidditch fanatics and most other Harry Potter Fans. Overall, I thought this game was very well done for a first game. There is plenty of room for improvement of course but for now, QWC should tide you over until EA releases their next Quidditch game (which I'm sure there will be at least one more). The game play is pretty good. When you begin the game you have a series of House Challenges that you can go through to practice scoring with the Quaffle, using the Bludgers, performing special moves, tackling (stealing the Quaffle from an opponent), and more. You get to choose which house you would like to be and once you have chosen your team you will play each of the other three houses one time before the Quidditch World Cup section is unlocked.
    Most of the time during the game you are the chaser. You'll pass to other opponents, perform special moves, and score with the Quaffle. As you perform special moves and score points you'll earn additional special moves to use in the game. One of them is the bludger, which you control and guide toward your opponent with your keypad (arrow keys on the computer game). You only get a certain amount of time (5-10 seconds) to try and hit one of your opponents with the bludger. Once you hit them or your time expires you return to being the Chaser. Unfortunately, the only time you get to be the Keeper is when your opponent scores on you, in which you momentarily become the Keeper and must pass the Quaffle to one of your teammates. Once you pass the Quaffle to one of your teammates you return to being the Chaser. To "spot the snitch" and become the Seeker you must join the two pieces of the snitch together (you have half and your opponent has half). You and your opponent have a progress bar at the top of the screen and each time you score and perform special moves your progress bar increases towards the middle of the screen. Once you and your opponents progress so much that your ends are touching the Snitch is "spotted" and your position switches to that of the Seeker. The Seeker position was very well done. You go very fast and you're constantly twisting and turning in the air and using your boost to get closer to the flying snitch. You must get nearly on top of the snitch before you can use your action key (left mouse button for the computer game) to catch the snitch which earns your team 150 points and ends the game. Once the World Cup section is unlocked you get to choose from a wide variety of professional Quidditch teams to play on. Most of the teams are fairly good especially Bulgaria (but I wouldn't advise playing as the Australian team on the Firebolt difficulty level because their team is pretty bad). Once you have chosen your team, you play 18 matches against other teams from around the world. Each team has their own individual stadium and uniform. All of the stadiums are absolutely wonderful. I especially like Japan and Germany's stadium.
    The Graphics in the game are absolutely stunning. You'll find very little to complain about graphic wise in this game, except that some of the movie clips, such as the crowds reaction after a team scores, get kind of repetitive after a while. But the stadiums, players, and environment are all very well done and realistic looking.
    As you win your matches, perform special moves and set records, you earn Quidditch Cards. If you collect enough Quidditch Cards you unlock different stadiums for the Exhibition mode (which is used if you just want to play a quick game against one of the Hogwarts Houses), earn access to new special moves, and unlock difficulty levels. The game has 4 difficulty levels are: Comet 260, Nimbus 2000, Nimbus 2001, and Firebolt. Once you finally get to the 18th match, you'll play the team with the second highest amount of total points (always Bulgaria). Once you've one the Quidditch World Cup the Queerditch Marsh section becomes unlocked, which is a cool little ancient stadium that you can play at against the other Hogwarts Houses. By this time you'll probably have between 40 and 50 Quidditch cards (there are a total of 104 QC that you can collect, it takes 65 to unlock Bulgaria). So you can either start a new season (with the same team or a different one) and or you can do some more House Challenges to earn some more Quidditch cards. I recommend collecting as many cards as you can so that you can unlock the hardest Quidditch level: Firebolt and play for the World Cup on that difficult level. The first three difficulty levels are very very easy. But the Firebolt level will present to you the first of many challenges. The main difference with the Firebolt level is that the Seekers are much better and your opponent's passing and tackling capabilities are much improved. You'll have fun with the Firebolt level.

After you've beaten the game on the Firebolt level there's not really much else to do besides continue playing the repetitive Quidditch matches, which by now have become no challenge at all. The audio effects in the game are pretty good. Its got nice background music and nice sound effects for scoring, the Bludgers, Quaffle, etc. All of the sounds are very realistic and the only complaint I have is that the Quidditch commentator (Ludo Bagman) becomes kind of repetitive and annoying after a while much like the game movie clips discussed earlier. Luckily, you have the option to turn off the commentary.

Overall, I give this game an 8.5 out of 10. It's definitely a game true Harry Potter fans will enjoy for a while. Things that I think should be added or improved in the game are the following:

-More Special Moves
-Less repetitive audio and visual effects
-MORE CHALLENGING GAME PLAY!
-Weather control options
-More active role as the Keeper