Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out for GameCube last November when the movie was released, which means NGenres has the exclusive on the late review!
I never read the book, but judging from the movie and the game I still don't get why it's called the "Chamber of Secrets" when there really aren't many secrets in the chamber. It should have been "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber," but you can't fault the game for the book's title.
Maybe someone will make a Harry Potter game with a wholly original story. One where you don't have to play as Harry Potter and instead get sorted in to any of the four houses at Hogwarts. But for now, we have the Secret Chamber of One Secret to play.
Sound:
The first thing you'll notice when booting up Harry Potter is the game's incredible orchestrated music, which is why I put this category first. It wasn't until seeing the end credits that I could confirm that the music wasn't lifted directly from the movie but was instead completely original and written for the game.
Not hearing the familiar Harry Potter theme tipped me off that it wasn't John Williams, but the music did such a good job of being in the same style as the movie's music that sometimes it was hard to tell.
The sound effects are also high quality. You can hear the stairwell creek from other parts of the school as the stairs switch places, no one seems to be faking a British accent, and you can even make noises in the wrong direction so the sound will attract guards away from you.
The one problem in the sound department is that occasionally you'll hear it skip or miss a note, due to Harry Potter's biggest nemesis- load times. More on that later.
Aesthetics:
Now for the second thing you'll notice- this game is gorgeous! From Diagon Alley to the Forbidden Forest, it's clear that the artists really cared about the license and worked to completely immerse the player in Harry's world. It's a joy just running around the school or flying over the campus.
Maybe because the last two games I played were Ocarina: Master Quest and GTA: Vice City, I had forgotten what modern-day graphics look like, but I'm still impressed whenever I see the shards of colored light streaking through stained glass windows at Hogwarts.
All the characters look the way they should unless you're a purist who thinks Harry's scar should be in the middle of his forehead. I was very careful with my writing not to put "forehead skin" or "head's foreskin," as this review is rated E for Everyone. Wait, so why did I just tell you what I was trying to avoid telling you? Oh well, let's just hope the head jokes go right over your head.
A lot of what looks like background is interactive. You'll find secret passageways and a lot of items that when hit give you disgusting jelly beans. I'm positive I haven't found everything yet.
Gameplay:
Harry Potter does not pretend to be anything more than a Zelda clone. If you like the 3D Zeldas you know what you're getting in to. Hit some switches (not witches, they get revenge), push a few blocks, get your new spellbook, and you get an A plus. Then at night you can use your spells to sneak around and visit new places to help discover the mystery of the secret chamber.
The game is a little on the easy side. It's also pretty short. I bought it a week ago to tide me over until Wind Waker and boy was I right. The only thing I can do now is try to collect all 101 trading cards in the game. I can't even go back to fight any of the bosses, not that I'd really care to...
There are three main boss fights in the game, and each gets progressively easier. The first is much like the Shadow Temple boss in Ocarina- hit the hands then hit the eye. The final boss just has you dodge two acid-spits, hit X, dodge three acid-spits, hit X, etc., until it dies.
Nevertheless, the game's story follows that of the book and movie well. If you're a fan you'll want to play through and you won't care about the difficulty factor since you're already comfortable enough with yourself to enjoy children's media. Some parts can be quite challenging, but you never have to worry about a Game Over screen. Dying just makes it reload what you were doing.
Speaking of loading, this game absolutely tears itself apart with its horrendous load times. They're not as bad as GTA: Vice City's, but you'd expect better from a GameCube game. I can't believe I've now successfully compared Harry Potter to Grand Theft Auto. Anyway, until you get used to them, the load screens take away any atmosphere established by the excellent graphics and sound. You'll actually begin planning what you do when, to avoid as many load times as possible. "I'll risk doing another task since the save spot is two load times away." Fortunately the act of saving is very quick.
Multiplayer:
There is no multiplayer mode in the game, but it does feature a link-up option with the Game Boy Advance Harry Potter game. I don't own that game, so I was only able to try out a little sliding puzzle game on my GBA with screenshots from the GBA version. It looks like an okay game, but you only get a few puzzles- it's an advertisement.
Having both games lets you open a secret area on the GameCube version that wasn't included on the other consoles (apparently each version, GCN, PS2, Xbox, and PC are pretty different from each other).
Control:
The controls are what you'd expect from a Zelda clone, but they aren't as refined. Sometimes it's hard to get a lock on the thing you want since you have no fairy telling you the next thing you'll lock on to. The L-targeting also goes away if you move too far from the target, a distance that would have still worked in the N64 Zeldas.
OVERALL:
I didn't buy this game when it came out and I didn't buy it at full price. The game was marked down to $35 because it came out in November. I took it to the counter and the nice clerk at EB informed me that a used copy was available for $30, so I agreed. Then they couldn't find the used copy so they let me keep the new one at the used price! Then I used a $15 gift card and wound up getting a new game for $15. If you're at all interested in Harry Potter, find a good deal on the game. It's short so you should pay for what you get. What you get, however, is a great experience and a fine addition to your game library.
The Lowdown on  Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
| Aesthetics: Awesome |
Control: Above Average |
| Gameplay: Very Good |
Multiplayer: |
| Sound: Awesome |
Innovation: 3/6 |
| Lasting Appeal: 3/6 |
Rating Explanation |
Overall: Very Good!
"A Must-Buy"
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Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
