Games about Harry Potter can be very hit or miss, but which ones are the best?
Since the books and movies about Harry Potter became popular, everyone has dreamed of using a wand like he does. Well, since the movies were such huge hits, video game tie-ins were bound to happen. Because of this, there seem to be an infinite number of Harry Potter games.
With the official announcement of Hogwarts Legacy making waves, now is a great time to look back at the best Harry Potter games that have come out so far.
Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire
EA made Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and it came out in November of 2005. The game made the controversial choice to not let players freely explore Hogwarts, which was a popular part of the previous games and a big part of why they were so successful. Instead, Goblet of Fire had a series of levels that were focused on action.
Even though at first a lot of people didn’t like this change, they came to like Goblet of Fire for what it did have to offer. Its couch co-op was thought to be one of its best parts.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Even though a lot of people liked how Goblet of Fire changed things up, EA decided to go back to how the previous tie-in games worked, where players could freely look around the wizarding castle of Hogwarts. Exploration is a big part of the game, so it adds side quests and “discovery points” to reward people who try to look around the whole school.
Order of the Phoenix brings back free-roaming, and it also adds a new dueling system that makes the series’ fights more interesting.
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
Since it was the last movie tie-in game that let players freely explore Hogwarts, it is one of the most played Harry Potter games again and again.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
Niantic made it, which is the same company that made Pokemon Go. It may not be as well-known, but it has a lot of the same mechanics and features, so it might be just as fun. It’s a good addition to J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, especially when compared to some of the other Harry Potter games out there.
Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
Even though it’s almost 20 years old, the game is easy to play and still looks pretty good. It even has commentaries for some matches and a story mode that ties everything together pretty well. But the computer AI doesn’t make it very hard, so it’s better to play with a friend. The GBA version is also awful.
The Sorcerer’s Stone (PC Version)
The Sorcerer’s Stone is a fun game like The Legend of Zelda because you can learn new spells, collect Every Flavor Beans, and solve puzzles. Just be prepared for the voice acting and character models to be a little off.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
It does have one big problem, and that is the way it gets energy. It is too easy to run out of energy, which forces the player to stop playing for a day or two or pay to keep playing. So, that might turn some gamers off, but Hogwarts Mystery is still a good mobile game that didn’t deserve all the bad reviews it got when it first came out.
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
The only other thing to say is that gamers who liked the first game will like Chamber Of Secrets. So, in a way, it’s like the movie in that it gives fans more of what they already like.
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
This made it easier to solve puzzles because some characters had their own spells and skills.
Prisoner of Azkaban also has the most active and large open map of Hogwarts. You can ride Buckbeak, there are more things to find, and the main missions are a lot of fun. All three games in the original trilogy should be remade.
LEGO Harry Potter: The Collection
So, anyone who likes LEGO games or Happy Wheels will find The Collection to be a great addition to their collection of games. As usual, the jokes are funny and the Harry Potter-specific mechanics work well. The LEGO version of the Wizarding World is also beautiful.
Hogwarts Legacy
There have been a lot of great Harry Potter games, but Hogwarts Legacy is the first one to really use the role-playing possibilities of the world. Technically, Avalanche’s project has nothing to do with Harry Potter because the story takes place about a hundred years before the books and movies.
After making a wizard or witch, players go to Hogwarts and are put into one of the four houses. This is the start of their immersive adventure in one of fiction’s most famous places, and they get to explore the halls and grounds of Hogwarts like they never have before. The action RPG has a combat system based on magic that gets better as players learn more spells and skills, and the gameplay is pretty varied. The people who go to school are also great and fit in with the rest of the universe.
Hogwarts Legacy isn’t perfect, of course, but it does a lot of things well. It’s big, fun, charming, and full of ideas. This is the best Harry Potter game because it is the most likely to keep people who aren’t fans interested.
