Nerd Alert : Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7

Harry is back in the land of Lego - ready to finish the saga and duel it out with Lord Voldemort. Throughout the game play, and replay not only as Harry and his friends - but all the characters in the story. Each character brings their own skills to the table. Oh and did i mention you get to play as their pets too?




01/ Harry Pillow $22.00  //  02/ Illuminating wand $37.46  //  03/ horcrux tie clip $18.00  //  04/ Harry Potter poster $15.00  //  05/ muggle born $13.99  //  06/ deathly hallows decal $7.95  //  07/ Hermione lego necklace $15.94  //  08/ up to no good notebook $16.00  //  09/ Dobby lego necklace $11.00  //  10/ accio keyring $9.95

Let me first say that I loved, LOVED the first Harry Potter Lego game for DS (read that review here) - I couldnt put it down for days and days... so I was waiting for this sequel to hit the shelves. And so the anxiously awaited Lego Harry Potter sequel came out - and I anxiously drove home from best buy, ran inside and snuggled up with my Nintendo DS XL.

I started playing and was confused...

"why does this feel so different?"  

"...why are there so few villains to kill?"
"if they are going to change the way you cast spells why aren't they giving me a tutorial"
"...oh that's how that's supposed to work?"
 "this is supposed to be a game where your character uses a wand! and i can play completely without the stylus!?"

and that last one people, that's the one you should be taking note of. the entire game can pretty much be played with no stylus. VERY surprising since the first game was very wand/stylus based, where you would draw different shapes on the screen to cast different spells. They even had a version of the game that came with your very own Harry Potter "Wand" stylus. Now its just point and shoot, and i couldn't be more disappointed.  

// from here

Also - almost all of the fighting in the game is via "duel."  I think this was done so you knew exactly who you were fighting for stronger storyline - not nearly fun as taking out dementors in years 1-4. I might need to try the Wii versions of these games to see if there is a huge disconnect in game play with those as well.
 
2/6 Toes // Overall 
1 // Graphics
The graphics are the same as the the first game so no complaints there.

0 // Storyline and Characters  

The characters are great, and i really like the addition of the pets. But the storyline (though great) was hard to follow even though I knew the story! There was no "how to" intro even though they changed all the game play controls.  

1 // Soundtrack and Sound Effects

Music and sound effects again are the same as the first game.

0 // Length of Game and Price

Compared to the first game, this one was very short. I played the whole thing in less than 10 hours. the first taking me over 20. The difference has a lot to do with the items hidden in each level. with the first game there was more you could accomplish - now you have to pretty much beat the entire game then go back with very specific characters. also, being new - at $39.99 this game wasn't cheap.

0 // Replay Value
I will replay it to unlock every item and every character in every level. but not with the same enthusiasm that i played the first one.

0 // Puzzle Difficulty

The puzzles in this game were not nearly as hard - the most complex levels require you to move light from one lamp to the next, or find items and take them to their designated area. you don't get to fly the broom very much, you didn't get to cast the shape spells, you didn't get to find the hidden hats and red legos until you replayed for the second time.