Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4: Im.. I'm.. I'm a What? Your a Lego Minifig Harry!

The LEGO game series by Travellers Tales has covered a massive amount of ground over the years with a huge selection of movies represented. Starting with Star Wars, they have covered D.C Comics, Marvel Comics, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings and the Lego Movie (of course). They also covered all of Harry Potter as well, splitting up the releases for years 1 to 4 in the first release and years 5 to 7 in the next. Well, here's the first half of the Harry Potter saga, how goes it?

Well... if you have ever played ANY of the titles I just mentioned here, you'll already know mostly what to expect really. That being a cheerful platformer, each level taking its cues from the various scenes in each story with each level being covered in things to destroy for money, items to find and doors/items you cant do anything with until you play through again using free-mode. Its a quite simple formula and one that hasn't really changed throughout the years.

Though some would say it doesn't really need to change all that much, characters pop out brilliantly, each animation and expression from each minifig giving of a brilliantly silly sense of fun. Each level too manages to throw in all kinds of oddball moments just to keep things interesting. Unfortunately the controls don't always behave themselves, characters don't always act the way you want with occasionally slippy controls coming into play more than once. That's a minor issue however as for the most part things run smoothly.

One of the big draws for this game is the free-roam mode around Hogwarts and it feels a joy to run through, with new areas and secret places opening up as you collect more and more characters and powers. This goes across to the levels themselves, with new bits and pieces being revealed as you progress. Its not like theres a lack of content either with masses of characters to unlock ranging from the obvious (Hello Dumbledore) to the completely obscure (I forgot who Professor Vector was. I think everyone did bar the biggest Harry Potter fans).

And that's where a big stumbling block lies... If you don't happen to be a Harry Potter fan, theres nothing really for you here as the game (with six levels in each year) often assumes you know the plot already with whole side-plots from the books being ditched or toned down, more major plot points showcase via miming and major twists (such as Quirrel being evil) not even being hidden at all.

If you do happen to be a Harry Potter fan though... I just have some last words... Nitwit! Blubber! Ointment! Tweak! Thank you!

NOTE: In year 3 there is a major game-freezing bug during the 'Dark Tower' level, I have made a blogpost detailing what to do to get around this problem. Click HERE for the page.