Harry Potter (Sega Genesis)

Harry Potter (Sega Genesis)
This game lacks something: Magic.
Protagonist(s): Harry Potter Genre(s): Maze Platform(s): Sega Genesis Release Date: Between 2001 and 2002 Developer(s): Unknown Publisher(s): Unknown

Harry Potter is a Sega Genesis pirate game released between 2001 and 2002, it is known for being a terrible Pac-Man clone with Harry Potter.

Gameplay

The game plays somewhat like a 3D Pac-Man clone, with a total of three isometric levels to play through. The levels take place in Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest and an Arabian area resembling Agrabah more than any setting in Harry Potter. The player controls Harry Potter, who has to collect dots which move around the map while avoiding any enemies. The player can teleport if they walk off the edge of the map to another edge of it, which is decided at random. After beating the third level the player is sent back to the title screen, and it is unknown whether or not this is intended.

Why It Doesn't Have Magic

1. The title screen starts with a second and a half of high-volume music, plus the name is blurry except for the title Harry Potter.
2. Hard and slow controls, because the controls are quite hard, it takes a long time to escape a single enemy, besides they are delayed and when you teleport and there is an enemy nearby chases you and you have to run, but Harry runs quite slowly, so it can become boring to escape the enemies.
3. Bad and forgettable level design.
4. You can't fully see the mazes, so if an enemy is near you won't notice, this gets worse when you're teleported, as an enemy can be on the other side and you come in and the enemy goes to you and you lose unfairly.
5. While there are lives, you can't get extra lives, although this is understandable, since the game is quite short, but still, there is quite a bit of artificial difficulty that it was uncomfortable to finish the game.
6. Too short, the game can be finished in 10 minutes, with only 3 boring levels to complete.
7. Strange and clumsy gameplay, Harry must get 4-6 spheres in the mazes, the problem is that the spheres move a little faster than Harry, so it may be a little difficult to grab all the spheres because of the slowness of Harry Potter, besides that the gameplay is a copy of Pac-Man but without the charisma and fun of the original Pac-Man.
8. The game starts with a very loud sound, the "Ready? Go!" sound from Puzzle Bobble, which will make your ears bleed, besides what when you start the game, the title screen theme is heard very loud for a second and a half, even El Dallas 1999 had to put a warning of high volume and high-pitched sounds in his review.
9. The graphics that can blink a lot, besides that some palm trees are reused from the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast, which is simply lazy, in addition, transitional images are pixelated and the color palette is pretty mediocre, although it is still acceptable.
10. The sound effects sound bad, besides what sound high and sharp and tire very fast, and the music is poorly recorded and the music is mostly music loops that last a few seconds, besides what the Street Fighter 2 theme is used in this game at level 2, which is quite rare, because the music has nothing to do with the level that is set in an Arabian area.
11. In relation to the previous point, for some reason when you attack an enemy or get a sphere, the music and sounds become sharper and more annoying for two seconds and the pitch is lowered by few semitones.
12. Poor understanding of the source material, as in the film Harry should not grab something that looks like spheres and escape from mummies and snakes.
13. When you pass all three levels there is no plaque saying end or congratulations for completing the game, only the game sending you face to face to the title screen.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Passable graphics, despite the mistakes mentioned above.
2. The transition images are passable, despite being pixelated.

Trivia

• This game has another version with Pikachu.

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