Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup

It’s not a little known fact to my friends and you avid GZ readers that I’m a big fan of fantasy fiction style movies and games ranging from Dungeons and Dragons to Dark Age of Camelot. One story that particularly caught my attention a while back was the story of Harry Potter and his exploits within Hogwarts. Personally, I thought that the idea of Quiddich, the game that was played at Hogwart’s, was a cool idea that just added to the neat story overall, so I was happy to see that EA took the popular license and decided to focus on the magical sport with Quiddich World Cup.

Quiddich is a unique blend of soccer and hockey, to sum it up best, but it is played in the air on flying broomsticks. The “pitch”, or field, contains three goalposts at either end and the overall objective is to score in your goals while stopping your opponents from doing the same. Each team has seven players on the field in four different positions … the Chasers look to hold and score with the main game ball called the Quaffle. The Beaters usually accompany the chasers on the field to help protect them from (or launch attacks with) Bludgers which are magical balls used to knock opposing players off of their brooms, and the Keeper acts as a goalie to try and block shots heading for their goalposts. The Seeker is perhaps the most important position in the game though, since the Seeker’s main job is to fly after and catch the Golden Snitch … a super fast flying gold ball that awards the team who gets it 150 points and ultimately the victory.

In Quiddich World Cup, you actually begin at Hogwart’s looking to win the tournament, the trophy, and ultimately tickets to the World Cup series that then allows you to select from a number of different countries like U.S.A, Japan, or The Netherlands. Up front, there are challenges that can be done which not only serve as tutorials in the overall game basics, but also to help you win collectable cards that are used later to unlock certain teams and ultimately a few other surprises like high speed broomsticks and whatnot. There are also a couple of different game options available, like a practice match, an exhibition match to pit you against the computer or a friend, or the prestigious World Cup mode which allows you to take your favorite team to victory.

One thing that surprised me is how well this game was put together and played out. I was a little concerned at how easily it would control due to the fact that you are zipping around in the air the whole time which of course allows for multiple different height possibilities, but the computer does a really good job of leveling everyone out enough to make it very easy to follow the quaffle, perform tackles, and try to score. Passing and shooting are also very easy to learn and do, and the AI is challenging enough so that you really have to focus on not only passing, but also in using special unblockable shots or team special moves which help you move the ball down the field and run the score up.

Quiddich World Cup interestingly enough also offers three different styles during gameplay. The main one is obviously using your Chasers to try and take the quaffle from an opponent or move the quaffle down the field and try to score, but when you go on defense you can launch a bludger attack which then has you trying to maneuver the bludger into the opposing Chaser to try and knock them off their brooms or try and get the quaffle back. Also, there are two halves of the Golden Snitch which will move closer together as goals are scored or special moves performed, and once they unite the game will flip to the Seekers which rocket down the trail of the Golden Snitch trying to grab it and claim victory for their team.

The only real downside that I could see in Quiddich World Cup lies in the overall difficulty of the game, especially as you start using the faster brooms and keep progressing through the World Cup tournament. The game really gets tough as you go, and playing a hard fought battle against the computer and being ahead can quickly be turned into a loss by a tough Seeker on the opposing team grabbing the Golden Snitch first. On a flipside, the Golden Snitch part also means that the game isn’t over till it’s truly over … so even if you happen to get stomped up front it gives you a reason to play it out to the end.

Graphically, Quiddich World Cup did a great job in capturing the look and feel of the Quiddich game for gamers to play on their PS2’s. The Hogwarts arena and characters from the movie like Harry and Draco look like they did in the film, and there are fields and arenas from the different countries represented over water, dirt, and snow which adds a neat effect to selecting where you want to play. Since Quiddich is a magical game, there are also some neat spell effects used at times like vortexes to hold your opponents in place for a steal, and each goal scored ends up in a nifty cutscene showing the players high fiving each other or performing flips. The single or team special moves also wind up in a neat cutscene, and players will do everything from aerial acrobatics to dribbling the quaffle back and forth between their legs while on the way to slam dunk it in the goal.

The sound in Quiddich was decent, and the character voiceovers sounded almost right on to their big screen counterparts. The background music was made up of Messa de Requiem : Requiem and Messa de Requiem: Dies Irae which are classic Philharmonic Orchestra tunes, and during gameplay the crowd will cheer and applaud or gasp in surprise as you whoosh around on your broomstick.

It was really neat in my opinion to see not only a game dedicated to Quiddich, but also a game that was done well in representing the magical sport and making it exciting and a lot of fun to play. Harry Potter fans will have a ball with it (or a quaffle, whichever you prefer), and fans of hockey or soccer style games on their PS2 should check it out too, since the game mechanics are somewhat similar overall and done by one of the best sports games producers on the planet … EA.  

Gameplay: 8.0
The game is interesting and unique, and Quiddich was captured really well in this game including aerial tricks, special magical attacks and blocks, and flying at extremely high rates around obstacles and towards the ground. The controls are easy to figure out, and the tutorials not only help you learn how to play but also unlock magic collecting cards to unlock secrets within the game. The AI is tough, even at the get go, but the game remains fun nonetheless.

Graphics: 8.1
The graphics in Quiddich World Cup were a great representation of Hogwarts and the characters from the movie, and the world teams were also really well done in my opinion. I especially liked the cutscenes that would pop up in between goals or when getting drilled with a flying bludger, and the team special moves were especially entertaining. There were also some decent spell effects added in, and some other creative touches like the 3-D window effect used in the trading cards that are collected throughout the game.

Sound: 7.7
Quiddich had some decent sound, and while I enjoy some exciting classical overtures like Messa de Requiem : Requiem and Messa de Requiem : Dies Irae, you can only hear them over and over again so much before you start wishing that they added some other ones in. The voiceovers were decent, and did good in representing the characters portraying them.

Difficulty: Hard
The controls and game are easy to get into, and the challenge tutorials in the beginning did a good job in explaining the game and play mechanics. It gets especially challenging once you move on to the world cup though, and will force players to use everything that they have learned in order to succeed on the pitch.

Concept: 8.4
Well, I honestly didn’t think that it could be pulled off as well as EA did, especially due to my concern over the various height levels and such … but this turned out to be a really fun title that works out really well.

Multiplayer: 8.0
There’s nothing more fun than beating a game, unless it’s watching the opposing player that just got dropped in the dirt belong to one of your closest and dearest friends. You can play two players against each other in an exhibition match, and it’s a good time to be had.

Overall: 8.2
While Quiddich probably wouldn’t be your definition of a sports title, EA did a good job in giving a sporty feel to a magical fiction game from a good story. There is magic involved, but they didn’t overdue it, and even when getting beaten the game remains a lot of fun to play. Harry Potter fans should really enjoy it, and some sports gamers particular to hockey or soccer should at least check it out as a rental and see if they feel it’s worth getting into.