What a simple, yet brilliant concept LEGO has found in video games. Taking popular media franchises and turning them into LEGO video games has poured millions of dollars into the LEGO franchise. In 2016, the LEGO Harry Potter Collection came to the PlayStation 4, and later for the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Does the magic of the Harry Potter franchise translate into the LEGO world? Or did developer Traveller’s Tales and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment join the ranks of the Death Eaters and destroy Harry Potter?
Story:
You really need me to tell you the story of Harry Potter? If you do, do yourself a favor and read the books. They are incredible and full of magical characters, well-written story arcs, and plot twists. Seriously, don’t waste your time on this crappily written review if you haven’t experienced the Harry Potter franchise through the books, NOT the movies.
Gameplay:
In the LEGO Harry Potter collection, you’ll play through Harry Potter’s seven years at Hogwarts. The games are very faithful to the plot of the books and all of your favorite moments from the franchise come to life in the LEGO world.
The characters do not speak, but there is plenty of humor to be found in the world. With LEGO characters being able to pop their heads, hands, and clothes off, there are many jokes to be made as they progress through the level. You’ll be able to explore more than just Hogwarts as you can travel to Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, and even London.
Aside from the missions that you’ll do to progress the story like making the Polyjuice potion, fighting your way through the Forbidden Forest, or sneaking into the library, there’s plenty to interact with. I discovered that you can whack just about any item in LEGO world to destroy it or make coins come out of it. You collect coins to purchase spells, outfits, and characters. My wife and I had a competition to see who would get the most coins throughout each mission and once you hit a certain amount you are granted “True Wizard” status which my wife loved to yell we achieved it each level.
I mentioned that you can purchase spells, some of them are very valuable while others are just for fun like turning student’s heads into flowers or tying their legs together. I think the best thing about the Harry Potter Collection is the sheer number of characters you can play as. You can play from recognizable characters like Harry, Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Malfoy, to behind the scene characters like Dean Thomas, Crabbe, Goyle, and even Hagrid’s dog Fang. Of course, you can play as Lord Voldemort too! Each character has different spells or abilities you can use. For example, Hagrid is big and strong and can move items that others can’t, Fang can dig up items, and there are sections in levels that only evil wizards can access so the replayability factor to the Harry Potter Collection is substantial with the number of characters you can use. It’s amazing and it’s something that I never expected. Using different characters was exciting and it was fun to unlock them.
You might expect that a LEGO game is…well for kids. You’d be right, as most of the levels are easier to get through but there are some challenges that require more than a few flicks from your wand. I think the game is actually easier to play with a partner, so if you have friends (probably not if you are reading my reviews) than I suggest you play the game with them to make things easier. Boss fights aren’t difficult and you’ll be able to die and come back to life as much as you want. You might get a “Game Over” if you run out of lego blocks from your bank but we never came close to that. You have to really suck at video games or be five years old to lose. Later in the collection, you’ll learn to duel which can come with a challenge but once you understand how it works, it’s pretty simple. Just be ready to mash away at buttons.
Memories:
I bought this game digitally while there was a sale on it but I bought it for my wife and not myself. I didn’t think I’d enjoy a LEGO game as I believed they were for babies. How wrong I was!
After watching my wife play it for a few minutes I saw an option for couch co-op play and jumped in. That was it. I played the rest of the series with her from start to finish. I couldn’t believe how much fun it was with the unique humor of LEGO characters, the small puzzles, all the hidden secrets, finding all the LEGO coins, and exploring the huge world of Harry Potter.
I liked to control Harry much to the dismay of my wife who begged to be him but was stuck being Ron or Hermoine. She would whine whenever I controlled Harry and whined even more if I did any of the fun parts of the mission instead of letting her. What a baby! I guess I was right to get this LEGO game for her after all!
Overall:
I couldn’t believe the job that the Traveller’s Tale did with the Harry Potter collection. If I was between the ages of 7-15 it’s a game I would have religiously played over and over collecting everything possible and playing with every character. Unfortunately, I don’t have that time and but I was still blown away by the atmosphere and world design that make the LEGO Harry Potter world so magical. The unique humor and detail to the personalities make this a special game to share with anyone that’s a fan of Harry Potter.
The LEGO Harry Potter Collection scores an 8.9 out of 10.
Do you remember when LEGO Harry Potter Collection first came out? Was it your first LEGO game or did you have experience? What was your favorite character to play as? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!
If you’d like to own a copy of the LEGO Harry Potter Collection, you can purchase a brand new copy of it for the PS4 from eBay for around $20.
Tiger Chainsaw 