Full Review

I picked up Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban primarily because I love the Harry Potter series, I had no decent Game Boy Advance games, and I hadn't played any of the previous Harry Potter games. Luckily, there is a lot to like about this game.

You begin the game as Harry, freshly escaped from his aunt and uncle's house, hanging around in the Leaky Cauldron. You will play the game as Harry, Ron, Hermione, or some combination of the three depending on which part of the game you are playing. In addition to exploring Hogwarts and battling enemies, you also collect Chocolate Frog cards, which unlock special combat abilities for Harry. There are also some minigames you can play. The plot of the game mostly follows the plot of the movie, though there are some differences and the pacing is off a bit. And the end boss is basically just thrown in at the end of the game, and didn't make much sense in the context of the rest of the game. But anyone playing the game already knows the plot of the book or movie, so I can't fault the game designers too much for trying to put in a little surprise at the end. And it was still fun a fun battle.

The mostly menu-driven controls for this game were very smooth and easy to figure out. In fact, I think this game is better classified as an adventure role playing game (RPG), since combat takes place in random encounters and characters gain experience points and levels. As you would expect from a Harry Potter game, magic takes the center stage in this game. Characters don't attack with weapons, and instead are limited to using magic, items, or special abilities. The encounters can be seen on the non-combat screen as amorphous glowing blobs, so you can avoid some of them if you want. Characters level up with experience points, which increases their statistics, but they must use their magic in order to unlock stronger versions of their spells. There is also some strategy, as you try to learn which spells work best against which enemies. There are also some puzzles, primarily centered around using the non-combat abilities of each character to navigate the game world, like using the Lumos spell to light a dark path. With the exception of the Shrieking Shack puzzle, they aren't too challenging, though a younger player might find them tougher.

Graphics in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are impressive for a GBA game. Rather than taking on the impossible task of trying to make the characters look exactly like the real actors from the movies, the character models are instead optimized to look good given the graphical restraints of the system. So no, Harry doesn't really look like Daniel Radcliffe, but he does looks interesting and creative for a video game character. Environments and background graphics are beautiful as well, with a depth and clarity that was surprising. This game seemed to always have something great to look at on the screen.

The game isn't quite perfect, though. The sound is okay, but gets repetitive quickly. As I mentioned before, the pacing feels off, as you are rushed through some plot very quickly, and you aren't able to go back to previous areas after the plot has moved on. You also can't tell which character can equip a certain item before buying it from the store, and you also can't see the stats of the item before you buy it. For all the player knows, the item is worse than what you already have.

The game is very short, easily finishable in 7-10 hours, and would probably make a better rental than a purchase for most players. There isn't a lot of replay value, but after finishing the game, you can play again without losing your items or levels. So if are one of those gamers who just has to get every single item in the game, you can pick up the things you missed the first time around.

Despite the problems, there is a great deal of fun to be had in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the Game Boy Advance. I recommend it for all Muggles.