Review: Harry Potter: Spells
by Matt Fox
December 10, 2009
Overview
Get accepted in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and master the art of spell casting through your phone. This is probably the closest thing to actually casting spells that you are going to find. Attend school, get sorted into your House, and earn House Points as you master each spell. With multi-player dueling over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, this app is one any Potter fan should check out.Features
This app transforms your device into a magic wand. What more do you need? Okay, so it obviously does more than just that. The app includes over fourteen spells like Expelliarmus and Petrificus Totalus just to name a few. Sorry, no Unforgivable Curses in this version though. I know, I know...I was bummed too.
As I said earlier, you can Duel either the CPU or with a friend over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. You also get a very authentic Harry Potter experience from stuff like visiting Ollivanders Wand Shop to getting sorting into a House by the Sorting Hat. You also have to get through the seven years of school, each year having different spells to learn and master of course.
As you get better at spell casting and dueling, you will gain more House Points. These points are used to raise your House's overall score. These scores are listed locally and globally so you can also see you you stack up with other Potter fans out there. Lastly, you can record your voice saying the spells too.
Breakdown
The Good:
If you are a Harry Potter fan at all, this really is an amazing app. If you want to know what it might feel like to be a wizard or a witch in Rowling's world, this is about as close as you can get. The sounds and music are spot on as is the overall experience of playing through the game.
Dueling with a friend is also a very cool feature in this app. As is the ability to record your actual voice when casting. As lame as that might sound at first, it's actually really cool to hear your voice shout out Stupefy when casting. Especially if you are fighting a friend and you hit them with that spell.
The Bad:
The main "bad" here are the accelerometer controls as you may have guessed. It just doesn't work very well and it can get very frustrating. The worst thing is that you may get the spell down every time at first, but then for some reason it just doesn't register it anymore and you keep failing the lesson or whatever.
The best way I can describe the spell casting is if you think of it like drawing on a giant chalkboard. That's how you hold the device. It will get you frustrated and all I can really tell you is to be persistent with it and keep practicing.
