Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup

The single player game is quite fun, and worth the price of admission for sure. That's been covered in other reviews. But I have to cover the two-player aspect here, and that's where it gets docked a couple of stars:

In the books and movies, the scoring system (150 points for the snitch) always seemed strange to me. It was as if the only thing that mattered was catching the snitch. The only time that the rest of the game would be important is if it dragged on for an unusually long time and was a particularly high-scoring game. Without that, the rest of the game is just killing time until the race for the snitch happens.

I'd hoped that EA would somehow come up with a gameplay mechanic where the rest of the game meant something. They didn't.

When you play Quidditch World Cup, it's even worse than in the movies. There's actually no way to play a game where the base score matters. No match ever lasts long enough to score highly enough for the snitch capture to become strategic. The snitch always appears too soon, before the base game has had a chance to really make a difference. And when the snitch finally appears, it's the end of the game no matter what. Someone has to catch it, you're locked into the snitch chase until the capture.

In addition, the snitch capture itself is iffy. Between the two players, one player almost always has more speed boost power than the other. The player with the most boost power always wins the snitch capture. Frustratingly, there is nothing in the in-game tutorials which tells you how to gain more boost power. You must crack open the manual to glean the following information: Boost power is increased by performing passes and combo moves during the regular game.

What this means to the game... Since the base game score itself is meaningless, and only the snitch capture matters, then the gameplay during the base game becomes a competition for who can do the most passes and combo moves. Not who can score more goals. Making the base game score even more meaningless.

I think that EA could have done a few things to make the snitch capture more strategic:

1. Allow the base game to last longer. Don't make the snitch appear so soon. Allow for higher scoring games.

2. Allow the snitch chase to be "missed" instead of railroading you into a capture. Make it so that if you miss the snitch, the rest of the base game continues a while before the next snitch appearance.

3. Allow for the two players to have a more "even" competition when racing for the snitch. There is a key which supposedly lets you "barge" the other player during the race (again, only mentioned in the manual, it's not in the in-game tutorials), but I never saw it work.

However, with the above off my chest, I can wholeheartedly recommend the game for single player play. The above complaints only count for a two-player game. In single player mode, it is great fun, will provide many hours of great gameplay, and very much worth the price. My daughter loves it.

From the first tutorial training challenges, Quidditch World Cup is immensely satisfying. The character animations and special effects are breathtaking, always worth the brief cutscene following any special move. Controlling the three chasers (the only position over which you have direct control until the end of a match) is simple and intuitive, though passing can get tricky at times. Whacking a bludger at an opposing chaser is always a sadisitic good time, and chasing down the snitch at the end of the match is appropriately exciting.

Are there problems with Quidditch World Cup? Absolutely. Most glaring is the utter lack of customization options, a staple for any respectable sports title. There is no way to slow down or speed up the snitch meter (when the meter fills up, the snitch chase begins, thus ending the match), and no storage of team or player statistics. These are minor gripes, and EA has plenty of time to resolve them in a sequel. All in all, these problems would probably only be an issue to non-Potter fans, who won't buy the game anyway.

All said and done, Quidditch World Cup is a charming and addictive realization of the fictional sport. And seeing as it's the only way any of us is ever going to get to take a turn on a Firebolt, it's at the very least a must-rent for Potter fans.