LEGO Harry Potter Collection Review

The Lego games are back on our screens with a remastered version of everyone’s favourite boy wizard, the boy who lived – Harry Potter. You can now grab a copy of the Lego Harry Potter Collection, giving you access to the Years 1-4 game as well as the Years 5-7 game. Players make their way through Harry’s crazy magical story from the moment you’re receiving your Hogwarts Letter (a day many of us can only dream of) to the day you defeat Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts. This, along with the charm and humour of the Lego games series, makes for a great gaming experience with laughs, puzzles and spells.

As you work through the game, you get the chance to play as and unlock loads, if not all, of the characters from the Harry Potter series. Play as the golden trio, Harry, Ron and Hermione, throughout the story or go back in free play for collectibles, playing as Hagrid, Dumbledore or Voldemort himself. The gameplay works great and while it can get a little tedious shooting various spells and exploding everything in your path, doing just that and finding various collectibles or frankly the most random things happening is just rewarding enough to keep going.

There was one little glitch in my game that just wouldn’t go away though, and I have to mention it because I don’t know if it’s just my game or everyone’s. In the courtyard, just before you can head down to Hagrid’s Hut or the Quidditch Pitch there’s a pumpkin you can ride like a space hopper. It makes a bouncing noise which is fine, it’s funny and it’s appropriate, but every time I climbed off the bloody thing the bouncing continued and got louder and the noise kept layering so it wasn’t just one ‘boing’ it was like seven all happening at once continuously. Eventually I just gave up climbing on the bouncing pumpkin all together, but it was still frustrating.

The graphics were great: the usual for a Lego game. It all worked smoothly and was like it was a whole new game in itself, rather than ported from the Playstation 3. Each year goes past incredibly quickly, and the games also seem to go by very fast but having both games on one disc means that when they’re all put together they make for a decent length game. While the story seems to go by in the flick of an eye, the humour that’s added to the scenes, even some of the darker scenes, makes it engaging enough to keep your interest.

The soundtrack was magnificent. You get to listen through the original music of the series, which just adds more magic to the gameplay. It’s very satisfying walking through Hogwarts listening to ‘Hedwig’s Theme’. Also, since there’s seven films worth of instrumental score to choose from, there’s hardly any repeated music. As a massive Harry Potter fan myself, being able to play a video game while listening to a score that just brings the wonder of my childhood was very fun and moving.

I loved this game – there’s no other way to say it. It’s amazing. It’s magical and fun and humorous, bringing the joy of the Potter series to new gamers with this remastered PS4 version, as well as those who played the original. The Lego games are fantastic at bringing charm and wonder to children and adults, and no matter what your age or your gender or your gaming genre preferences and interests, it’s hard to not get a kick out of them. Traveller’s Tales have done a wonderful job with the Harry Potter Collection and I definitely think people should pick this game up.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.