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EA's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a solid, well-designed port of a white-hot literary property. The result, while hardly magical, makes for engaging fun.
After a brief cinema frontispiece relating Harry's unhappy early childhood beneath the stairwell of his mean Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, the game proper starts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
The game takes you through the first year at Hogwarts, with progress tracked in the form of points for the school's four houses, or factions. Fellow Gryffindor housers Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger will show you where to go and offer timely advice. Professors Quirrel, Snape and McGonagall, supersized groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid and three-headed guard-dog Fluffy are all here. Character pix look remarkably like the movie's actors.
The highly linear gameplay primarily takes the form of learning a series of spells, then putting them to good use as you scour the school and its grounds for potion ingredients and other items. The spells are:
Flipendo: Fireball attack; also pushes objects and flips switches.
Alohomora: Unlocks doors and chests.
Lumos: Illuminates dark areas.
Avifors: Moves heavy objects, clears away barriers.
Wingardium Leviosa: Levitates and moves objects.
The medium-sized levels firmly emphasize puzzling your way through mazes, shown in top-down view. Familiar vid-game elements like bottomless pits and floating platforms make for modest hazards. Gnomes and other quaint enemies are more annoying than threatening. Harry's health is replenished by Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and extended by Pumpkin Pasties.
The game breaks furthest from its bookish roots with the Quidditch levels. Presented in top-down view, these send forth a broomstick-riding Harry in a freewheeling game best likened to aerial rugby.
Much of the game's appeal comes from the many hidden areas and secret passages. Uncovering a hard-to-find Chocolate Frog, for example, will give you a Wizard card. While not affecting gameplay, it's a fun little bonus borrowed directly from EA Sports' Madden football games.
Licensor Warner Bros. is keeping a tight rein on all Potter products, with the result that the story sticks to J.K. Rowling's book like a sneer to Draco Malfoy's lips. Battling the troll in the girl's bathroom, finding the unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, playing a giant game of chess - they're all here in near-perfect pixel-for-page replicas.
The screen text does a remarkable job of capturing each character's speech patterns. The flute-driven score nicely conveys the story's old-timey feel. Graphics are clear and sharp. A handy map helps you find your way through the seven floors of Hogwarts.
EA's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone delivers depth and variety in a well-crafted package. This game should satisfy Harry's legions of fans worldwide.
Contributed by Xoleras (66998) on Apr 15, 2006.
Press Release:
CALLING ALL WIZARDS-IN-TRAINING
EA LAUNCHES FOUR HARRY POTTER VIDEO GAMES
Redwood City, CA - November 13, 2001 - Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS), the world's leading interactive entertainment software company, today announced that it has shipped four video games based on the wildly popular novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The games will be on store shelves November 16, 2001, the same day the highly anticipated movie from Warner Bros. Pictures is released in theatres. The games will be published for the PlayStation® game console, PC, Game Boy® Color and Game Boy® Advance.
Each of the four games will take advantage of the individual platform's hardware capabilities to deliver the ultimate Harry Potter- experience to all types of gamers, while representing a faithful interactive adaptation of the book's story line.
The PlayStation game will feature extensive platform-style gameplay within Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Players take the role of Harry Potter as he arrives at Hogwarts and embarks on a journey to unlock the secrets of his own magical abilities. Along the way, players will experience a series of challenges inspired by the book's story line, such as a 3D 'roller coaster' ride through Gringotts', Quidditch- matches, and a flying broomstick chase to retrieve the Remembrall- for Neville Longbottom. Players will also encounter more than twenty memorable characters from J.K. Rowling's magical world as they learn to cast spells, collect items such as Wizard Cards and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans', explore numerous 3D environments faithful to Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds, and traverse interactive environments with multiple levels and secret passageways.
The PC version will also allow players to take the role of Harry Potter as he enrolls in Hogwarts and embarks on a journey to unlock the secrets of his own magical abilities. Along the way Harry will explore the halls of Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds, study to be a wizard, learn to fly a broomstick and play Quidditch collect objects to solve puzzles, become skilled at spells and potions, discover secret passages and locations, and interact with other characters from the book. The PC game will also feature an array of puzzle and adventure gameplay as players guide Harry through the halls of Hogwarts, sneaking around to avoid confrontations with nosey characters like Filch and Peeves. The PC version also features a fast, arcade-style Quidditch game to further immerse players in the magical world of Harry Potter. While the required system specifications for the PC game will be modest to ensure that Harry Potter's- biggest fans can easily install and play his interactive adventure, the game also delivers advanced 3D graphics on more powerful PCs.
Players of the Game Boy Color version also assume the role of Harry Potter as he enrolls in Hogwarts and embarks on a journey to unlock the secrets of his own magical abilities. Harry will have to complete and solve tasks and puzzles, learn how to use spells, gather potions and collect items in order to wear down the stamina of his opponents and defeat them, as well as battle creatures and occasionally face off against evil characters. As the player gains information and successfully completes confrontations, Harry will receive Experience Points. As the player collects Experience Points, Harry will effectively increase in strength and abilities and will be able to upgrade spells he has learned and engage in more difficult challenges. The Game Boy Color game also features the use of Wizard Cards, which will allow players to open extra rewards within the game, as specific items. The player will be able to acquire these throughout the game and trade them, both with characters in the game and with their friends as well. (Trading with friends will be made possible by connecting two Game Boy systems together by means of the Game Link Cable, a standard peripheral accessory for the Game Boy Color.) Because the player will have to make choices throughout gameplay that will change what cards are available, it will not be possible to collect all the Wizard Cards within a single game. Only by trading and collecting cards, players will be able to open all the extra rewards within the game.
As Harry Potter in the Game Boy Advance version, players will hone their magical skills and advance through Harry's first year at Hogwarts. Each term will challenge players to meet a number of objectives, such as collecting and mixing potions with Professor Snape- or piloting a flying broom through the Forbidden Forest in search of Neville Longbottom's Remembrall. In order to pass the first year of study, players must complete a multitude of objectives, while overcoming evil creatures and avoiding obstacles. The Game Boy Advance version will take advantage of the enhanced portable console to provide action-driven puzzles and mini-games that promise to capture the daring and adventurous spirit of Harry Potter. Players will experience Harry Potter's world through an isometric 2D perspective, including top-down view of Quidditch and broomstick flying sequences that deliver the speed and excitement of competition. Scenarios such as chasing down learning spells will add challenges and objectives while remaining true to the book's story line.
The KnowWonder- and Griptonite Games- studios of Seattle-based entertainment software developer Amaze Entertainment, are developing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the PC, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. Argonaut Games, based in London, is developing the PlayStation game.
In addition to the 2001 games, EA is also developing games for release in 2002 based on Harry Potter for next generation-consoles. More information on these games will be announced later.
The J.K. Rowling Harry Potter book series has been published in 115 countries and in 28 languages with more than 100 million books in circulation worldwide. The Harry Potter books have rocketed up and stayed atop national best-seller lists in several countries.
About Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros. Consumer Products is a division of Warner Bros., an AOL Time Warner Company, and is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of more than $1.3 billion for fiscal 2001. The company develops, publishes and distributes software worldwide for the Internet, personal computers and video game systems. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS, EA GAMES, EA SPORTS BIG’ and EA.COM. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.info.ea.com.
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Contributed by Corn Popper (66198) on Apr 14, 2006.
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