Lego Harry Potter for Xbox 360

Guess what, folks? I’ve finished a video game! Which means I need to blog about it!

Well… I say finished. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

The game I’m talking about today is the Lego Harry Potter video game for the Xbox 360. I received this game as a gift from my parents for Christmas and have been steadily working through this game for a while now. I took a break for a couple of months to play another game, but I decided to finally try for the 100% on this one this past week.

I have a system when I play Lego games and I’m going to go through my impressions of the game via my system. I don’t know if anyone else plays Lego games like this, but I’m a Lego game nut and this works best for me. And there will be a little glossary at the bottom of this entry so you know what the hell I’m talking about.

I first played this game straight through the Story Mode for the first four Harry Potter stories. I had a great time going through story mode. I liked the balance and use of the different characters and True Wizard was a fun, achievable challenge. I have to admit, though, that having the Hogwarts halls and classes separate from the individual story levels confused me. I’m used to Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones where you do not have story elements outside of the levels themselves.

After story mode, I usually go through the levels again on free play to find as many of the unlockables as I can. This is the run of the mill style Lego play and a hell of a lot of fun because the randomization of characters throne into your “party” to use can make some hilarious situations and you get to learn how to use different character abilities.

Usually, when you get back to the interactive menu area (The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley), there are only a few things outside of the levels to explore or unlock for gold bricks or money. However, in this game, Hogwarts is its own area to explore for unlockables. This is the part of the game that I struggled with the most. It was hard for me to navigate the castle and figure out where new unlockables were and you cannot have the choice of characters the way you do with free play. In order to use different characters for different abilities, you have to find a cauldron and make a polyjuice potion. That particular potion doesn’t run out at Hogwarts, but it’s a pain to have to go find those cauldrons when you need to switch characters.

This is also where I had a glitch. From what I’ve seen in forums and on walkthroughs, this game is pretty glitchy. Most of them are harmless or something that you can easily fix, but I managed to land one that will not go away. Beneath the second charms classroom is the last Student in Peril I needed to get the last Gold Brick that I needed to unlock Voldemort as a character to get 100% of this game, but I cannot Lumos the Devil’s Snare to get at the student. So technically I have only finished 98.2% of the game, but there is no way for me to get this last student without restarting the entire game.

So I’m a bit peeved at this game. SO CLOSE to finishing it and it decides to glitch out on me. Blarg.

But I’d still recommend the game. I imagine most folks intent on 100%-ing games aren’t Lego gamers, so I don’t think most people would have a problem with one little glitch like that. It’s still a really fun game and I really enjoyed playing the story levels, so if you’re a fan of Harry Potter, Legos, and simple video games where you can pick them up whenever and still feel like you’re connecting to the story, I’d recommend it.





True Wizard – Collecting a set amount of money studs per level. I think there’s a different amount depending on the level, but there is a status bar at the top of the screen when you’re working towards earning this.

Unlockables
Red Bricks – Once found, you can purchase special abilities or enhancements.
Characters – New characters to use during free play.
Student in Peril – Find them all and you get a gold brick.
Gold Brick – Status markers that indicate how much of the game you have finished. Typically, if you have all of the gold bricks, you have 100%-ed the game.

Xena: The Game for Playstation

Xena: Warrior Princess



This has been a review long time coming. I've had this game for ages now. Since last Anime Boston? 2009?

And I've been playing the game since then. I truly am a pathetic gamer. But that's alright and I DID finish the game without glitching it out too badly and that's got to count for something.

This game was more fun than it probably should have been. Original Playstation, terrible graphics, and weirdly wonky directional controls- I'm pretty sure most hardcore gamers would find this game tedious and old. The plot is pretty nonexistent (rescue Gabrielle and fight monsters- that’s it) and none of the levels are impossibly difficult if you have any sort of skill.

I mean, I don't. I did resort to the invincibility cheat by the lava level, but it was in the last quarter of the game so I don't feel bad about it. Plus, I still fell off a lot of things and died that way. I didn't exactly coast through this.

But the appeal of this game from the moment I picked it up at the used game stand until the last of the credits is that this is XENA. There's kicking and flipping and throwing the chakram around in ridiculous ways. It's a fun game because you're playing as Xena.

So, for Xena fans who don't mind the datedness of the game, find yourself a copy. It'll probably be cheap, which is always a plus. I'm not sure anyone else will enjoy this game quite as much, but it's always worth a try, methinks.

Genji: Dawn of the Samurai

I have finally finished this game! Huzzah!

I bought this one from GameStop’s used game section for only a couple of dollars two years ago. It was one of four games and, while I was very excited at the time and started every game I obtained that day, my game play eventually slowed down and drifted on to other games that I borrowed from friends and family. So, after finished Jak and Daxter, I moved on to Genji and picked that back up.

This Japanese game follows the story of Minamoto Yoshitsune, a great Samurai of his clan. He is tasked with the quest of defeating the Taira clan, thereby avenging his father, and obtaining the lost Amahagane, which give their owners special powers. He does this with the help of a fellow warrior named Benkei and a few stragglers who oppose the tyranny of the Taira clan.

This is a third person, hack and slash type game, which is my favourite type of game. It follows the usual stereotype for this kind of game where Yoshitsune is quick and agile and Benkei is slower and stronger. I tend to stick with Yoshitsune through story game play, but the different locations have different rewards for playing each character, so Benkei didn’t get left behind in the leveling. Also, some levels required playing both characters for the story, so that was also nice.

All in all, this was a fun game. The story wasn’t especially interesting, but it was compelling enough to keep on playing the game and overcoming the new challenges, and while the leveling up could be tedious, some of the map locations adapted to what level you were so you weren’t beating the same baddies you were cutting down twelve levels before.

This is definitely a game I’d recommend if you want to break out your old PS2 for some fun. You can find this game for cheap, like I did, and have a great time with it. The graphics hold up well, the bosses are challenging enough to be difficult but still be beatable, and it’s easy to pick up after not playing it for a while. The only thing that might turn some people away is that the game is in Japanese with English subtitles, but it’s something I barely noticed when playing.

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy


If you’re new to the blog, you are probably unfamiliar with my video game blog posts. I’m terrible at video games and tend to break them in hilarious and new ways, so 1) these posts are few and far between and 2) I usually write them about older games.

Like this one. I recently finished Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy for the Playstation 2.

I bought this game used for about $3 from Gamestop and I really enjoyed it. When I first bought it, I actually struggled to get into it. I mean, the type of game doesn’t really lend itself to extended game play. You’re pretty much jumping across things and punching things in order to collect power cells. You need x number of power cells before you can open up new levels. You pretty much do this until the final boss level. It’s not a linear game and, while there is plot and storytelling to be had, it doesn’t depend on your completion of the individual areas; you get new parts of the story when you complete certain groups of areas. There’s not really much compelling you to proceed.

However, these past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying a new productivity technique. I spend only about an hour doing any one thing (computer stuff, reading, video games, etc.) and giving myself breaks from the game this way motivated me to continue the game. If I was having trouble with one area or one task, I’d end my hour earlier, do something else for a while, and then come back to it without all that frustration that builds up when you just can’t quite get something.

One thing that I really like about this game is that you can’t really die. I mean, you can, but the game doesn’t end in any way when you die. You just start back at the last save point or area entrance. Also if you die, the things that you did before dying still happened. The level doesn’t reset, which is handy when you’re trying to get those hard to reach precursor orbs and really makes this game fun to play through.

I really enjoyed it. If you’re feeling nostalgic for your PS2, pick this one up. It’s cheap and fun.

Doctor Who Adventure Games 1&2

After months and months of waiting for these games, I finally got the chance to play them. And they were both amazing. Granted, some of the awesomeness was the kind of awesome that results in movies so bad you can't believe it and some of the awesomeness was the kind of awesomeness that results in infiltrating a Dalek city to the sound of a great honking thunderstorm of death¹, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and that’s really the only requirement I have for video games.

The only problem I had with this game is that it was as slow as molasses. Either my laptop is not equipped to play new games or there is something wonky with the game itself, but I played almost the entire game with the characters running in slow motion and speaking in half the time it took for their bodies to move. It was, of course, both hilarious and nerve wracking – and I'm not sure if it hindered the game or made it more fun some of the time – but it was incredibly frustrating when you needed the Doctor or Amy to make sharp quick movements around corners.

As for the game play itself, this game managed to take two of my favourite gaming conventions and tack it on to my least favourite thing in games ever and make some sort of unholy, but incredibly entertaining, hybrid.

I hate sneaking around to avoid detection in games. I'm so terrible at it. It's a wonder I ever finish any games. In fact, I'm currently stuck in two other games because of sneaking around problems. However, these Doctor Who games have both puzzles and poking around in the environment for stuff, so it was still really fun.

The stories for both of these are very reminiscent of Classic Who stories. City of the Daleks is a twist on The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Daleks have invaded the planet, but instead of enslaving the human race, they have destroyed them. Amy and the Doctor have to infiltrate the rebuilt city of Kaalan on Skaro in order to fix time, restore the human race, and save Amy from fading out of existence.

The Blood of the Cybermen reminded me of both The Tenth Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen. A team of archaeologists discover a Cybership in the Arctic Circle that's been buried for thousands of years and they are being converted into Cyberslaves in order to dig out the main force of Cybermen, who are determined to convert the rest of humanity. Naturally, the Doctor and Amy are equally determined to stop them.

I found them both to be really fun and I'll probably be playing them again soon in order to pick up any missed collectibles.² I definitely recommend these for the gamer Whovians out there. I'm really looking forward to the next two.



Cowering in the dark while the power flickered on and off in my house. Of course the storm started as soon as I got into the Dalek city.





¹ I started playing this game fairly late at night and a HUGE thunderstorm rolled in shortly after I played. And it was full on apocalyptic thunderstorm. Lightening was flashing, the house was shaking, and I played a decent chunk of the game on battery power only because it would have been bad news if my laptop had been plugged in. It was intense.

² These are basically like the chocolate frog cards in the Harry Potter games. You collect Doctors, Companions, Enemies, Friends, and Jelly Baby flavours.

Lego Indiana Jones

As this blog is still new, I should let you all know that reviews and recommendations of video games will be pretty few and far between. I love video games. I really do. I have some great times playing them. Unfortunately, I’m pretty bad at them. I don’t usually finish video games, either because I just don’t have the hand-eye coordination to press the buttons in the proper sequence at the right time or because I’ve managed to find a crippling glitch or simply break the game.¹

So don’t expect much in the way of video games. It’s a lot harder for me to break a book or a movie to the point where I can’t finish it, which is why I prefer them.


Lego Indiana Jones, like the rest of the Lego games, is pretty easy. Your character can never really die; he/she just splits apart, you lose some studs (money), and you reassemble in a few seconds. If there is any challenge to be had, it is in the game’s puzzles. Sometimes you need to be controlling a certain character in order to open a door. Sometimes you need to rebuild the machinery in the room to get a required object. Some of these puzzles are hard, and some are easy, but they are a lot of fun.

Because that’s what this game is. Just a bit of fun.

The layout of the game is like this- Barnett College (where Indy is an archeology professor) is the central hub. From there you can buy extra characters, unlock new levels, view movie clips, and have a gander at all of the objects you’ve collected throughout the game. These are all very well and good, but the most important thing about the college is the maps in the entrance hall. Those maps are how you access the different levels of the game.

Now, when you start the game, you will automatically play the first location of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Once you finish that level, you can either play through the rest of that movie in story mode or go to the college and get a chance to pick out what you want to play.
There are three maps, one for each of the movies in the Indiana Jones Trilogy, and each of these maps has about six locations plotted out and numbered. Each of those numbered plotted points is a level within that movie. You have to play them linearly in story mode before jumping around, but it’s a fun option to go back and play your favourite levels from your favourite movies.

The thing that I really enjoy about these Lego games is that the game doesn’t end when you’ve finished all the playable levels. There are hidden objects, unlockable characters, secret levels, and loads of other fun extras to be found within the levels themselves and within the college. It can be a bit tedious at times because of how much stuff there is to get², but I found it incredibly satisfying to finish the game.³

It’s just a fun game. It’s never scary or worrying or the last thing between you and the apocalypse. It’s a really great game for kids, which I’m happy to see. Video games for kids are usually either dumbed down for very very young kids or too challenging to actually finish. While the subject matter (Indiana Jones) appeals to an older audience and wouldn’t be something kids would necessarily be watching, this game does a fantastic job of telling great adventure stories in an appropriate way.

I’d definitely recommend this one to anyone who likes Indiana Jones and Legos, to anyone who’s maybe not as good at video games as they wish they were (good practice), and to kids.




¹Let me tell you about my misfortunes in the Final Fantasy series some time.
²Like ten pieces to an artifact in each level, a package to be mailed in each level, etc.
³Especially because I’ve been working on Lego Star Wars II for the past… two years?