LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

I played a computer game back in March and April called LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4.  It's a fun game don't get me wrong, but it loses it's zing after a while.  I've been planning on doing a review on it, but haven't gotten around to it.  I also can't do a real formal review, so I'll do an informal one instead.

You begin with the first chapter of Year 1, namely The Philosopher's Stone.  This being LEGO, there's no actual dialogue, just mumblings that sound like speech.  You start off with the Hover Charm for your first spell.  When you get to Hogwarts, you learn the Light spell, and you basically build up skills from there.  As you go through the story (Quiditch games, the fights with Voldemort/his minions, encounters with magical creatures, etc.), you gain new spells/skills, learn about Hogwarts and end with the final battle from Goblet of Fire.  My favorite level has to be "Dobby's Plan".  Here, Dobby is messing with Harry's broom and you have to stop the obnoxious house elf from causing any more damage.

And then there are the classrooms where you learn/gain your new magical abilities.  I think the one I like the best is the boggart scene where you learn cast "Riddikulus" on the boggart, which hilarious results.  Every time you gain a new spell, it gets added to a circle of spells in the top-left corner of the screen.

Along the way, you pick up studs which are tiny LEGO blocks that are used as cash/points.  These you can use to unlock prank spells, cheat codes, etc..  My personal favorite is the spell that makes its victim fly up the air and hit the ground while spinning. 

There are some major drawbacks, however, and these I find to be very annoying.  While a new level/scene loads, you have to wait while watching this spinning cauldron in lower right hand corner.  I've seen walkthroughs of the game on YouTube, and they take minutes to load.  This gets irritating.  Also, there is a serious glitch on Level 6 of Prisoner of Azkaban.  The game just hangs after you cast your spell on one of the statues.  The only way to get around this is to stop the game and monkey with the graphics. Oh, and once you finish the story and just start looking for extra gold bricks (big points in the game), the game just loses its point.

All in all, it is a fun game, but after you finish Year 4 on the game, either go back and redo the story, or else put it away for a while and come back to it later.  In fact, get it out of the library instead of buying your own copy.  It'll help ease boredom after you finish the story.