LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Review (5/5)

The "LEGO" video-game franchise rocket-started back in 2005 with "LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game", a title providing a fresh glance at the prequel trilogy and also many subtle and outright parodies of each film, then gave us three more SW entries (the third, "LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars", due for release this Autumn), two Indiana Jones-based titles, a Batman makeover and even a venture into the "Rock Band" world. Now, we get the best incarnation yet in the form of "LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4", and believe me when I say that those words come as a surprise even to this series fan. Recently, the formula for Traveller's Tales' games has become stale and dull, but the wizarding world of Potter makes for an exciting locale, providing spells, new characters and puzzles aplenty for players in the form of Harry's first four adventures. Though the books obviously came first, the influence of the films here is profound in the sense that Harry looks somewhat like Daniel Radcliffe's younger self, as does Hermionie to Emma Watson (not so much Ron though, prepare to cringe). Also, the story cut-scenes that move from iconic setpiece to iconic setpiece quickly but pleasurably are both beautiful and hilarious to watch, so thank goodness the Leaky Cauldron has a theatre where you can replay them. Which reminds me: this time around the hub is huge,even bigger perhaps than the one found in "LEGO Indiana Jones 2", but thankfully much less confusing to navigate due to Nearly Headless Nick guiding your characters around. Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and more all become your playground as time progresses, and a lot of time will progress in that each "Year" takes about 3-5 hours to complete, meaning a good 12-20 hours can be lost just playing through the main story-line, all of which will be miles of fun. Writing this review actually makes me quite happy, as after 2009's Indiana travesty of a sequel I thought the franchise would never recover. Here's hoping Autumn's Star Wars effort can keep up the good work and reinvigorate the terrible TV series its based on!