Those crafty minds at Electronic Arts have taken a popular fantasy book and movie franchise and turned it into a cinematic, visually stunning set of games that represent some of the best melding of the two media ever.
Unfortunately, the franchise in question ain't Harry Potter. Unlike EA's stellar and action-packed Lord of the Rings titles, scrappy student wizards Harry, Ron and Hermione have been pretty poorly served on the video game front.
That's changed a little with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but only a little. Another puzzle-based romp through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, this latest Potter adventure features some much-needed improvements over the cruddy Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, most notably the ability to switch between mischievous mages Harry, Ron and Hermione, and use their unique strengths and skills to overcome obstacles.
The game is also a bit faster-paced, but at the expense of plot. In fact, the game version of The Prisoner of Azkaban only follows the movie and book storyline in a general way, creating a lot of situations out of thin air just to provide more platforming and puzzle fodder. Remember when Professor Lupin sent the trio into the lava room to get the glacier spell? Yeah, me neither.
And these are puzzles very clearly aimed at the 'tween set the game is designed for, with older gamers likely to be be put off by their simplicity and occasional repetitiveness. On the plus side, having three characters at your disposal does increase the variety of the challenges, whether it's using Ron's ability to detect secret passages or Hermione's skill with wriggling into small places. In some cases, all three must be used together to solve a puzzle.
A fairly wide selection of minigames also helps beef up an otherwise average package, especially if you have an EyeToy camera peripheral for your PS2 - the EyeToy games in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are pretty much all more fun than the standard set of games bundled with the device.
But unlike the Lord of the Rings games, which seamlessly blend movie footage with game-play and feature the voices of all of the principal actors, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban feels more like a generic action-adventure game that's had the colourful trappings of the distinctive Potter licence stamped on it. It's by no means magic, but it beats spending a summer with the Dursleys.
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BOTTOMLINE
Fans of the books and films will enjoy the chance to explore the Hogwarts grounds and do things like ride Buckbeak the hippogriff and collect all of the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, but there's not a lot in this game to appeal to your average Muggle.
