Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

You control the wizardly trio (Harry, Ron, Hermione) in the quest to unveil and defeat the traitor that caused the death of Harry's parents.

The story starts out with a well done and useful tutorial: while on the Hogwarts Express you have to try to capture Ron's pet rat (or whatever kind of rodent it actually is).

The story then unveils in Hogwarts. You can explore with your party the various chambers of the academ, visit locations you are familiar with either from the movie or the book, and make many pleasent encounters with notorious Hogwarts characters.

Combat is turn based and all members of the party have their own special powers. Furthermore, you get 17 spells you can learn and find in the game that will enhance your party's power and there are a lot of in game items with which you can buff up your characters' defenses and main game characteristics.

Overall the game is a very nice RPG, very simple and charming. Graphics is ok, as the overall quality of the game. Expect to play for no more than 20 hours though. Replay value is not that high, as you will be able to retain all the levels you accumulated in the first game (monsters instead don't improve at all).

Bottom line:
This is a very nice Harry Potter game. I love how EA transformed it in a complete and simple RPG. I strongly suggest any Harry Potter fan to buy this.


Keeps getting better & better   June 2, 2004
shadowette (OKC, OK)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

If one were to compare this game to Sorcerer's Stone or Chamber of Secrets, they would agree that this is much better.

POSITIVES: 1)Secrets are still challenging, but a little bit easier to find 2)You are required to find everything before completing the game. This is much better than the Sorcerer's Stone where the game just ended and you didn't have a chance to try and finish gathering cards or finding secrets 3)Virtually impossible to die. Instead of losing lives in challenges and going back to the last place saved, you are simply moved back to the position right before you fell. 4)Gamemakers were much more generous in beans, pumpkin pasties, and cauldron cakes

NEGATIVES: 1)Hippogriff riding presented quite a challenge and probably the most difficult part of the game. You are required to fly the hippogriff through a course for 5 levels. Each level progressively harder than the last. The 5th took quite some time to accomplish.

All in all, I gave the game 5 stars because it presented enough of a challenge to be stimulating, and enough story to be entertaining. Strongly recommend this one. The price is great too.


Lacking past quality   June 2, 2004
cory warren (salem, or United States)
12 out of 21 found this review helpful

I have been a avid fan of the harry potter series, and of the games and movies. This product, however those not do well to in any way present the material provided in the books, and in the movie.

the first gba game i felt was fine, even though i did not like the lack of control.

up until now they had made game boy color games, that you have more control, and how much effort you put into the game decided how easier it would be. this was a combat based system similer to pokemon were you battle to level the charactors.

while i was disappointed they stopped making the game boy color games, i still played the prisoner of azkaban gameboy advance version.

i was over joyed when i saw that they had combined the two games into one.

this is were it turned bad. The game was lack 85 percent of what was in the books. here is a list of key things they left out that are extreamly important to the plot of prisoner of azkaban, and the remaining series of books.

~You never fight a dementor, you just play a silly little game instead.
~there is no history what so ever of the mauradors who are completly left out.
~there is not mauraders map.
~No quidditch.
~No professor trawlany and no divination class.
~The end of the game in the shirking shack those things that have no explanation, such as how would lupin know peter was there also if there was no mauraders map.

this game took me only about 3 hours to complete, which those not say much, as the gameboy color games tended to take a a day for me to complete the first time around. the past games offered more gameplay then this one did.

i recommend you not waste money on the GBA version. you would get more enjoyment out of the PC or console versions, and they provide more for you to enjoy, even if they are a little more advanced gameplay wise.


WOW!   June 22, 2004
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

This game was MUCH better than I expected. The graphics are quite realistic and the movements of the characters are as good as some of my PC Potter games. The game controls are simple and one can learn them in a very short amount of time. Azkaban is challenging, yet lots of fun. Some disappointiong I found out about this game is that some objects can only be moved in certain directions with your wand and that even if you have SP, it's hard to see what's in the dark corridors, and in the battles you have to mostly depend on luck. But overall, this is a MUST HAVE for any Harry Potter fan. So if you like Harry Potter a lot, have a GBA and are reading this review.............BUY THE GAME!! ^_^


Easy Pissy Tips   December 5, 2004
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

When you are ending and you are done defeating Malfoy. I suggest you to chose Herminone to get to Sirius. Herminone Is more easy to go through. Belive me, for I have played this game like 6 times already and Harry and Herminone are on level 52 already. It is great!