Prose & Pixels is a feature that combines two of my loves: books and video games. Here I’ll discuss all sorts of things to do with the two, whether it’s recommendations, influences or just a good old chat.
Today I want to discuss the Lego Harry Potter games, as part of Harry Potter Month organised by Faith @ Student Spyglass!
You may be forgiven for thinking all the Lego games are only for kids. But let me tell you something – THEY’RE NOT! Is Harry Potter just for kids? No. Neither are the games. I’ll explain why you should play these addictive titles, illustrated by some of my own screenshots!
With a wonderful, quirky sense of humour that you grow to recognise as you play more and more of the Lego series, the Lego Harry Potter games will appeal to all. The jokes (all completely non-verbal, by the way) work for both children and adults, and if you know the Harry Potter series then it’s all the more fun. Plus it’s not just the main characters you that meet – but practically every minor character that J.K. Rowling ever mentions has their own little Lego doppelganger.
It’s so wonderful to play in such familiar settings, and with characters that you’ve grown up with. You’d be surprised at how gorgeous these games actually look, considering they’re based on a load of blocky figures! Practically every environment you could think of within the grounds of Hogwarts, as well as Hogsmeade, parts of London, the Ministry of Magic and Diagon Alley have been faithfully recreated for the games. And unlike so many of the other Harry Potter video games, you have the freedom to explore Hogwarts as much as you want, whenever you want, searching for hidden areas and running through well-known locations. The only game that really got close to that within the film-to-games series (at least of the ones I played) was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Some games take ages to tell a story, through endless cutscenes, countless speeches and thousands more lines of dialogue within the game itself. Although admittedly, Lego Harry Potter is recounting a familiar tale, it manages to tell without any words. There are no voices in the game (only sound effects like grunts and shrieks), which helps to make many a funny moment. The developers have taken some liberties and added in occasional extra bits, or silly moments, but none of it ruins the story and only makes the games even more charming.
Personally, I absolutely love these games, and they’re my favourites of all the Lego games. Of course it helps that they’re based on a series I know and love – but I even prefer them over Lego Lord of the Rings. Whilst the main story may only take something like ten to twelve hours to run through, you’ll want to collect everything and achieve that coveted 100% – which will take so much longer, and many repetitions of levels after you’ve unlocked the right character for the job. Apparently I’ve spent fifty-five hours on the first game, and thirty-nine on the second, which should give you some idea of how much there is to find! However, this means more time to explore Hogwarts, and pretend, even if for a short while, you’re a (rather square!) student at Hogwarts.
I highly recommend the Lego Harry Potter games to fans of the series, as well as fans of adventure and puzzle games. They’re a real treat that will keep you entertained for a long time, as well as giving you the opportunity to explore Hogwarts!
Rinn Reads 
WHY IS THIS SO HILARIOUS TO ME???
I’ve actually never played a lego video game, but they Harry Potter one sounds really awesome! And that screenshot of Cedric dying, HAHAHAH! And Harry Potter “causing carnage” WUT
This game looks so random, but oh so fun.
OH MY GOSH PLAY THEM PLAY THEM NOW!!
They are just so brilliant! Such a great sense of humour (a lot of which will probably go over kids’ heads) and just… so wonderful for big fans ❤
It really is, I mean if you don't want to do levels you can just run around Hogwarts, drink some Polyjuice potion and turn into a million and one different characters! It's fun when you have a party that consists of Snape, Victor Krum and Mrs Weasley running round causing havoc.
I LOVE THESE GAMES SO MUCH! This has been such an awesome post to read. It makes me want to run upstairs and play them all over again. They’re fantastic and I hope more people play them now after reading your post!
YESSSS go play them again! ;D
I think that they have great replay value too. Even if you’ve put in hours and hours to get 100%, you’ll still want to play it again because it’s Harry Potter.
I LOVE THE LEGO GAMES. Especially the two Harry Potter ones. I play them together with my boyfriend and it’s so much fun. We’ve finished them both on Platinum on his account and we’ve started all over on my account *addicts* We also have Pirates and Lord of the Rings. We’re currently playing LOTR and we played Pirates on my PC before. (now everything on the PS3, much easier together) I really want to get The Hobbit + Marvel.
I like all the details. When they walk in the snow and you see those squares. When they fall in pieces when they are hit. And the humor in the little clips.
Yay! Haha, yes you both have to get all the trophies, that’s the whole point of the PS3 right? ;D Plus like I said above, they have so much replay value.
I’ve never played the Pirates one! I don’t think it’s available on Steam 😦 I also have Star Wars, LotR, Marvel and the Hobbit. I’ve completed Marvel 100% (some of the mini games are SO frustrating but it’s a really fun one, with a giant Lego New York to explore!), and I need to complete the story of Star Wars and the Hobbit, and collect all the extras on those and LotR. LotR has some control issues though, which makes me sad 😦
Yes, for a game that’s about little plastic blocks, it really is detailed. And the humour is just brilliant 🙂
Oh yes, it’s so hard to use magic when you play Gandalf! It’s one of the most frustrating things in the game. It doesn’t seem to work properly 😦 and sometimes I really wish all the magic you can use in Harry Potter, haha.
Which HP Lego game is your favorite one? I love the look from the second game, but I think I prefer the first one.
And also a lot of the jump quests bug me, cos the camera spins and then the character jumps the totally wrong way. Like there’s one for a mithril brick that I have to do with Legolas, but every time he jumps backwards off this cliff the camera moves so he actually jumps slightly at the wrong angle. It’s SO frustrating and I have no idea how to do it? D:
I think the first one too, because it’s more ‘classic’ HP if that makes sense. It’s all at Hogwarts and it gives me the warm fuzzies 🙂
This sounds and looks like so much fun! I never played Lego games but I did play the ‘regular’ HP games and those got boring pretty early on.
I love that there’s so much to do in the Lego HP universe, I might have to give these a look myself 🙂
Happy playing!
Yes, sadly a lot of film to video game adaptations just don’t work. They either stick too much to the plot which doesn’t let the player do much, or they completely deviate and it makes no sense. Plus they’re often rushed/made cheaply, so they’re just horrible.
These games however… the only one that feels a bit rushed is LotR which I think they tried to release just before The Hobbit, as the controls are really frustrating at times. But it’s still a gorgeous game visually, and of course retains that sense of humour.
If you use Steam, they quite often have them in the sales for £3-5 (or dollars, Euros, whatever currency :P)
My brother has Steam on, I’ll have to check it out, thanks!
Definitely do that – then you could decide whether to grab yourself a copy or not 😀 Steam has a handy feature where you can add a game to your wishlist, and it’ll email you if the game goes on sale.
*grabby hands* I’ve never played a Lego game before, but now I want to! Do they make this for the Wii or DS Lite? I know those two are out of date now, but I wonder if I can find them at Gamestop or something as a used game.
Oh you really should, Kayla! I know for sure that the first Lego HP is on Wii, and the second one must be too… I’m sure you’d be able to find a second-hand copy somewhere 😀 Totally worth it.
Actually I’m pretty sure they’re on DS too – but I’d go for the Wii version, bigger screen and more to see! 😉
Ooh I really enjoyed playing the Lego Harry Potter and the Indiana Jones games on PS3. They are a blast!
I haven’t played the Indy ones, but I’ve loved them all far so I’m sure I’d enjoy them too 🙂
My sister has these on the PS3 so I’ve played with her for a good few hours but that’s it! I’ve been playing the Marvel one with Matt when he’s here which is really good fun, but I’ve not yet given either a go on my own, maybe I should?!
Your screenshots are brilliant – I love that one of Cedric, they may be just brick people but it’s brutal!
Yes!! I mean they’re super fun to play with someone else, basically the perfect two player game (it’s a shame you can’t play with more than two) but also great by yourself 🙂
I had so many screenshots I wanted to share but I thought I probably shouldn’t go too overboard 😛
One of my best blogger friend says the very same thing about the lego games – they are the most fun she’s had playing. She gives as high praise for them as you did here so if I wasn’t already decided to give this one a go, I would be now!! Being able to play in practically every single environment JKR created is more than enough call for me anyway, I predict soon wasting hours and hours doing just that 😀 All the freedom this seems to have play-wise is probably my favorite thing. I love not being restricted in my game play: if I want to explore every nook and cranny of some random room, I know I can! HUGE plus! This is so going to be my net video game purchase. Awesome post!!
And she is totally right ;D I’m glad to hear you’re going to give them a go.
I know, how amazing is it that you can play in some of your favourite worlds? Another reason why the Lego LotR and Hobbit games are great too 🙂 Plus sandbox games are the BEST.
I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE THE LEGO GAMES SO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I started off with the Star Wars ones but the HP ones get dusted off the most!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. 😀
They’re just so much fun! Exploring all these different worlds… ❤
Haha! I love the Lego games, but I’ve never played the Harry Potter one! I need to! I’ve mostly played Batman Lego, which is fun. I think all of the Lego games are kind of funny.
🙂
I haven’t played that one! I’m not really a big Batman fan and I tend to go for the franchises that interest me more, although when I’ve played all of those I’m sure I’ll move onto the other Lego games because… they’re Lego! 😛
I seriously love love Lego games. I just put the Hobbit one on hold at my library. I am quite lucky that my library does loan out games because I have been able to play all the lego games for free because of them. The last one I played was Lego Marvel here is the review if you want to check it out: http://angelasanxiouslife.blogspot.com/2014/01/lego-marvel-superheros-video-game-review.html
Oh nice! My library doesn’t do that, but I only really play games on my PC so I guess that wouldn’t work for me anyway.
I saw your Marvel review actually, love that one 😀 Apart from some of the seriously frustrating gold brick challenges…
These look so cool! I’ve never seen any of the Lego games, but I love Lego and I love HP so it MUST be a great combination!
It is a PERFECT combination! 😀
Lego Harry Potter! 😀 I remember playing Lego Star Wars, and I loved it!
I love how these adaptations allow the player to just explore the worlds, because we’re always limited by what we see in the books and movies. 🙂
Exactly! And there are so many hidden things, and also bits that are from the books (and never mentioned in the films) like the Muggle Studies classroom – so they’ve obviously done their research.