Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup (PC)

It's also more straightforward than you'd think. Much thought has clearly gone into providing a gentle learning curve, and picking up the basics of the game is supremely easy. It's helped, of course, by having familiar faces from the Harry Potter world all along the way, guiding you through what you need to know.

The ultimate aim is to walk away with the prize of the game's title, but first there's the small matter of the Hogwart's tournament to win. You align yourself with one of the four houses, and seek to win that before you can move on to the international stages. And that promptly gets you into the heart of the action.

The gameplay, as you'd expect, is frantic and exciting, and while it's not going to keep the older gamer occupied for too long, its target audience is clearly going to be in its element. To keep things going that bit longer, you can earn Quidditch cards as you progress. These are rewards given to you along the way, and can unlock fresh elements of the game. With plenty to collect, it's an added feature that helps prolong the game's lifespan.

Quidditch World Cup is a game with obvious appeal to the many legions of Harry Potter fans. Fortunately for parents the world over, thanks to entertaining gameplay and its faithfulness to the source material, it's not going to disappoint them. --Simon Brew

Customer reviews:

HP Flying slightly low, 2004-01-15
When I got quite a bit of money for Christmas, I decided to spend it on a few video games, of which I had recieved none. One of the ones I had picked was Harry Potter Quidditch.

There are some games meant to take a gamer a while to complete and give a gamer a challenge. Though there are loads of Quidditch cards to collect to unlock all the teams and levels, this game does not give the gamer any challenge at all if they have experience using a keyboard or mouse.

Though this is fun temporarily, it is not one to buy if you want to be able to play it for a long time and not get bored.

The scenery and different stadiums can sometimes stun you e.g. the Japanese Stadium I'll admit is well created, but the teams barely put up any fight. On Nimbus Two Thousand level in the world cup, which isn't the easiest level, I scored 300 odd points compared to Bulgaria's 30 until the snitch arrived. Bulgaria are the only team you need to unlock to play, so you'd have thought they'd have put up more fight.

Though this might impress at first, you won't enjoy it for to long, so don't spend your money if you play games quite consistently

NOT BAD GAME!, 2004-01-14
When i saw quidditch world cup in the shops i thought "yeah great finally a different sport game "and i was right but it lacks a few things 1. multiplayer 2.decent graphics and 3. uniqueness. there are loads of good points like playing each part(beaters,seekers, and chasers). but whats the point passing a ball around scoring goals when you can win it in the last 20 seconds?
good game but dont pay it, rent it.