Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This video game-related article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards or the Video Games project's guidelines. Video game-related articles should adhere to the Manual of Style and should not contain unverifiable information, nor should they have gameplay instructions or excessive details. (January 2008 )

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
PAL region PlayStation 2 cover art
Developer(s)	KnowWonder, Warthog, Griptonite, Argonaut
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Engine	Unreal engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation, Xbox
Release date(s)	15 November 2001 PlayStation & Windows NA 15 November 2001 PAL 16 November 2001 Game Boy Advance NA 15 November 2001 PAL 23 November 2001 Game Boy Color PAL 16 November 2001 NA 30 November 2001 Macintosh NA 1 February 2002 GameCube, PS2 & Xbox NA 9 December 2003 PAL 12 December 2003
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E OFLC: G PEGI: 3+
Media	CD-ROM, Nintendo optical disc

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States, is the name of five distinct video games. The first four versions were released in 2001 by Electronic Arts for the PC, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and the PlayStation. The PC version was released for the Mac by Aspyr in 2002. Another version, for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, was released in 2003. Although very different games, they do have some common features, such as the Flipendo jinx, even though it is not found in the books or movies. The game is based on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first novel in the Harry Potter series. Most reviews for the games were rather negative due to the simple game play making them only suitable for a younger audience, with the exception of the PlayStation 2 version, which is slightly more challenging. Some people disagree with this assessment of simplicity in the gameplay.^[who?]

[edit] Versions

[edit] GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox version

A new game of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was made for newer consoles in 2003, a couple of years after the original versions. It had quite different gameplay, and was made by Warthog Games. It was criticised for taking all the spells from the Chamber of Secrets. But on the other hand they used quite a lot of imagination in the spell challenges and other levels and locations, and it follows the events of the book and movie very closely.

[edit] Game Boy Color

The Game Boy Color game is a role-playing game, similar to games like Final Fantasy. The player controls Harry, starting from when Hagrid brings him to Diagon Alley. It strictly follows the story of the books, with all the scenes from that point on in the book being playable, except for the addition of bands of monsters such as rats, bats, and spiders roaming most of the locations. The spells are used for combat, rather than interacting with the environment.

[edit] Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance game is completely different from the Game Boy Color game. The Game Boy Advance game is a top down puzzle game. The player explores Hogwarts, and must attend classes which often include a challenge of collecting a certain number of items, such as challenge stars or potion ingredients. This game features the familiar monsters from the other games in the series, such as snails and gnomes.

[edit] PlayStation

The PlayStation version of the game is a puzzle game, however, it also features combat with various creatures and bosses such as Lord Voldemort. The Flipendo Jinx is used on both enemies and objects around the environment. Many other spells are learned during lessons taught by the teachers around the school.

[edit] Plot

Harry Potter, an orphaned eleven-year-old boy living with his uncaring, neglectful and magic fearing aunt and uncle, discovers that he is a wizard and leaves to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Over the course of the year, he learns the spells that will help him defeat the most evil dark wizard in the world, Lord Voldemort.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) guide at StrategyWiki