![]() There's only one mandatory vehicle segment I can think of, and it wasn't hard to handle. There were still times when I'd miss a jump and die or fall off a platform I was working on, but these seemed to happen far less than they did in the games of the past. LEGO Harry Potter both bests and succumbs to some of these follies. Now, LEGO games always seem to have the same problems - poor platforming, silly vehicle segments, and bad AI partners. Oh, and don't even get me started on how cute the screeching mandrake roots are. Zapping a radio only to have a bunch of skeletons run out and dance, watching Moaning Myrtle put on a synchronized swimming routine, and having the cheeseball ending image of the film Prisoner of Azkaban cranked up to an even more absurd level are just some of the things that cracked me - a mid-range Potter movie fan - up to no end. The humor they've infused into this lore is also awesome. There are more than 160 characters to unlock that range from well known folks such as Ron in his tux to more niche people like Krum as a shark. The environments the developers have come up with are great - Hogwarts looks like Hogwarts and has the twists and turns you'd expect, Diagon Alley is hopping, and the levels are filled with crap to blow up. All of that gameplay stuff aside, the other thing that hooks me when it comes to LEGO Harry Potter is how Traveller's Tales nailed this franchise. If you want to jump back into the story you can head into Hogwarts and start following Nearly Headless Nick to the next mission. You always start in the Leaky Cauldron and can replay a level with the characters you've unlocked or abscond to Diagon Alley to enter cheat codes and spend your studs on new characters. Four years of levels could get confusing, but the game does an excellent job of keeping you on track while letting you explore at will. This is all part of another thing I love about LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4: the hub world is back and it's better than ever. This is your playground, and it feels like it. I dig that the game remembers what benches I've already shaken down for studs years later. What's awesome about Hogwarts is that it's a living, breathing place. ![]() You know that you're going to learn how to best these challenges, but you don't know when. You'll walk down the hill to Hagrid's and pass Cornish Pixies holding items just out of your reach and treasure chests with locks that appear to be unbreakable. See, because these spells are so particular in what they do in the LEGO Harry Potter world, the game's teasing you with what's coming later. Levitating books back onto the shelf and rearranging LEGO blocks to make stairs was fun, but it was the wonderment of what I'd learn next that really kept me going. I had a great time using these incantations. These are each color-coded and can be switched on the fly via your controller's 1 and 2 buttons. Lumos scares away attacking plants, Riddikulus knocks back your worst fear, and so on. ![]() You'll use this to lift items so that your partner can reach high studs, assemble items, and break apart other objects for the studs they're made of. Wingardium Leviosa is the most basic and the most useful. LEGO Batman had different suits for the main characters and LEGO Indy had the whip and a few other items, but LEGO Harry Potter equips the kids with a number of magical spells that each have their own specific purpose. For starters, the spell system is a fresh idea. So if the formula's the same, what's so great about LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4? A bunch of stuff. If the visuals didn't tell you, the whole thing is kid friendly: if you are defeated you simply lose some studs and respawn, and a second player can drop-in and drop-out with the push of a button. You collect the studs so that you can buy new characters and powers before exploring the levels to find secret blocks, characters and students in peril. Harry and company will blast blocks apart with their spells and tricks, and this will cause colored studs to spew out. Here, you're going to play through the defining moments of the first four movies/books and you're going to do it as little plastic LEGO pieces in a little plastic LEGO world. If you've played one of the past LEGO games - Star Wars, Batman or Indiana Jones - the setup to LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 should be pretty easy to wrap your head around. Watch Hermione work her wand in this video. ![]() After a few hit or miss LEGO outings, this is the game fans have been waiting for. Then, LEGO Harry Potter won me over with gorgeous environments, clever use of the famed spells, legitimate humor and adorable references that show how dialed in Traveller's Tales is to this franchise.
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