Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Game Boy Advance)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.0 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 07/18/2007
• Released on: 07/10/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Game Boy Advance) Review

Electronic Arts has produced two very similar renditions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. The graphics in the DS game are more detailed, and the stylus acts just like a magic wand in that version, but the two games are otherwise virtually identical. Each is a collection of minigames and fetch quests woven into the story framework of the fifth Harry Potter film (and the book, to some extent). Regardless of which version you play, you'll get to control Harry, wander around a meticulous replica of the Hogwarts grounds, and cast spells alongside the other members of Dumbledore's Army. However, what you won't get from either version of the game is the same high level of tension and excitement that you got from the movie or the book. Showdowns that were epic in the movie are depicted as dull, turn-based duels or as static images, and the filler-style fetch quests only serve to stretch what should be a two-hour story into an eight-hour grind.

Your home base is the Gryffindor common room. From here, you can practice various minigames related to Harry's studies, and compete in popular school activities such as gobstones and exploding snap. If you play the Nintendo DS version, you can also partake in a round of quidditch and play the after-school minigames with your friends using the system's download play function. Ron and Hermione stand vigil near the common room's entryway. Talking to either of them will cause the next bit of the story to unfold. Usually, this means going out on a fetch quest to talk to someone or to find an item situated somewhere around Hogwarts. While you're traveling from one place to the next, you'll invariably be asked to use your magic to help out other students, or be challenged to a duel by Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies.

The basic story is faithful to the film's progression. As the story unfolds, you'll enlist Harry's friends into a secret society, learn defensive spells behind Lady Umbridge's back, take lessons at Hogwarts, and constantly square off with Slytherin and other evildoers--just as Harry did in the film. Likewise, the game's depiction of Hogwarts is superb. They've scanned the backgrounds and turned them into 3D environments that you can walk around in. Every floor of Hogwarts, all of the rooms and secret paintings depicted in the films, and all of the surrounding landmarks are yours to explore. Compared side by side, the DS and GBA versions look quite similar. However, the graphics in the DS version are more detailed and include cute animated touches, such as revolving staircases and blowing leaves. In both versions, the audio consists of musical cues and sound effects that evoke the same Euro-fantasy mood that the films' soundtracks do.

It doesn't take long before the novelty of exploring Hogwarts wears off. There are dozens of fetch quests, and most of them involve walking through a multitude of corridors and buildings. You'll smile the first time you hoof it through places like the magical staircase, the trophy room, and the outer walls. Unfortunately, between backtracking and subsequent quests, you'll see those same places countless times. The amount of walking is ridiculous, especially since a large number of missions involve mundane goals like using a spell to fix cabinets, or collecting the ingredients another student needs for a potion. As you go through the game, you won't be able to shake the feeling that the sole purpose of these filler moments is to stretch a two-hour story into eight hours of gameplay. To make matters worse, the bits of story that were borrowed from the film have had the life sucked out of them. They left out the majority of Umbridge's cruelest moments, probably to maintain the game's "E" rating, but her nastiness is watered down even further because key events tend to play out as matter-of-fact sequences of still images. You also don't actually participate in some major battles, and the ones you do have a hand in take place as bland, turn-based duels.

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