So what makes this game so great compared to the others? Well I think the main thing has to be that it’s so unique. When LEGO Star Wars first came out it was brilliant because the concept of going around a venue blowing things up and collecting studs was new. However as the years progressed the concept gradually became duller until many people found it simply aggravating. Not much had been done to improve this feature in previous games which is why many people including me found games such as LEGO Indiana Jones boring, up to the point where when LEGO Batman came out I couldn’t even face purchasing it. Of course a huge factor is whether you like what the game is based on. I could play LEGO Star Wars for a long time as I like it whereas some people who don’t like Star Wars wouldn’t be able to play it.

The Harry Potter series however is one of the most successful and highly rated series of the decade. But if the game is just about blowing lego up again then surely it couldn’t be very interesting could it? Well actually it could! You see what Traveller’s Tales have done is continue the series from a new angle. Yes you have to blow up lego pieces to be a “True Wizard” but the number of different ways you can choose to blow them up is large.

Lego Studs are unsurprisingly a massive part of the game and return in the usual silver, gold, blue and purple colours. You can collect studs by blowing objects up with your wand by using different spells. This is where things get interesting. There are a huge amount of spells in the game such as Wingardium Leviosa, Expelliarmus, Stupefy and even Avada Kedavra. You see much like how not all objects could be destroyed using the force in LEGO Star Wars (Shiny objects) not all can be in LEGO Harry Potter by using the standard spell. Some must be targeting them and using Wingardium Leviosa while some such as plants can be removed by simply shining Lumos as them! The game may be a lot more technical than previous ones in the series but for this it is a lot more fun.

Making a new addition to the series out Hogwarts Crests: just as Hogwarts School is split into four houses (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin) there are four crest pieces to be collected in each level. But unlike Minikits in previous games which you could just find laying around these crests are much harder to find, most crests can only be found in free play mode. Another new feature to the series are the “Students in Peril”. You’ll find a student in “peril” in every level and if you manage to save them you are rewarded with a gold brick.

As with previous games gold bricks are used to unlock rewards and bonus content with a total of 120 possible gold brick to be found throughout the game. Red bricks can also be found throughout the game but are much tougher to get. Not only do you have to find a red brick you then have to post it using the nearest owl post. This can be of a certain benefit however because if you see an owl post on your travels you can take a well educated guess that there is a red brick somewhere to be found.

Unlike the other games in the series this game is not just made up of chapters for you to play in. In fact a large proportion of the game is spent in the Hogwarts grounds themselves. Between chapters you participate in lessons. Although these may seem pointless at first they are infect very significant as in these lessons you learn new spells and magical abilities which without you wouldn’t be able to progress throughout the game. For example remember the scene in the second film with all of the pixies? Perfect time to learn the new spell Immobulus wouldn’t you agree?

Diagon Alley also plays an important role in the game. Think of it as the Cantina in LEGO Star Wars or as the University in LEGO Indiana Jones. It basically contains all of the shops you need to purchase new spells, costumes, characters and even the opportunity to build your own level. You may remember the lego builder from LEGO Indiana Jones 2, its great fun for a while but it’s puzzling why the developers are still including this feature without any option to upload them to a server and to download other players’ creations.

One final thing that should be mentioned is the lego building capacity of the game. No longer do you need to use your hands to build lego bricks where you can instead use magic. That’s not all though. There are a few puzzles where you have to actually move lego bricks around and stack them to be able to reach higher levels. These puzzles are both challenging and fun which makes the game that much more different.

Overall although the amount of spells can be a bit alarming once you get used to it you’ve got a heck of a game in your hands! I would give it a rating of 85%.

Before I go on to that part of the game however lets focus on the other more familiar points of the game. Starting with controls it’s nice to see the game has gone back to using the four strong grapple routine which hasn’t been seen since Smackdown Vs Raw 2007. No more annoying ultimate control moves that don’t work … although there are a couple still there – but it’s nice to have a few included. I find that the controls are altogether more fluent and there are some new ones as well such as a strong strike for superstars with that ability.

Another thing that has dramatically changed for the first time in the series (including the Smackdown! series before that) is the HUD. Instead of the familiar display in the top left hand corner (if your player 1) you instead get a ring around your superstars feet. There is I feel advantages and disadvantages to this. The disadvantage is you lose the image of your opponent’s body saying if his head if red, orange, yellow etc however I suppose this makes the game more life like. The great advantage comes with the Royal Rumble. Before you could only have six superstars at a time because only six could fit on the screen. However now because the HUD is on the floor you can have more than six making the Royal Rumble seem more real. You can also unfortunately no longer store finishers (except in the Royal Rumble) but this is only a minor fault.

Onto the game modes the popular ‘Road to Wrestlemania’ mode is back with 6 new superstars. You can play as Shawn Michaels, Edge, Randy Orton, Mickie James or even your created superstar! There’s also a special co-op one (which can be done singularly) with John Cena and Triple H. Each of the 6 options offer the final 13 weeks before Wrestlemania. In the co-op mode you even get to play more than 13 matches, sometimes having to do a match at Raw and one at Smackdown in the same week.

Another thing that has grown since Smackdown Vs Raw 2009 is the abilities. There are now more than ever and nearly all of them have been revamped. There are a total of 21 abilities including some familiar ones such as: Kip-Up, Referee Shield and Possum Pin. There are also some new ones such as: Ring Escape, Fired Up and Exploder TB Attack.

The most impressive thing in the game which will give it a lifetime of playing has to be the WWE Story Designer. Well there is a slight lie. The main part of the infinite lifetime is being able to upload it online and then download other peoples and play them. Unfortunately this is only available on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Anyway as you can imagine you design stories. Think of it as creating a show for Raw, Smackdown or ECW. There are set moments in which you can change the superstars involved, add music, change the camera and even input the text. Unfortunately the superstars don’t read aloud the text but that would be impossible anyway. Maybe in a couple of year’s time it will be possible, but not yet. Regardless of that the story designer is still brilliant. You could re-enact the ‘Monday Night Wars’ between WCW and WWF, you could re-enact DX ruining Mr.McMahon’s life. You could even create something completely different such as … DX taking over WWE – well that wouldn’t be new but it would be funny.

With the set moments you can also add matches. When you play the story you play the matches as well. As designer of the story though you get to choose who the player will play as. Who will win, how one superstar will lose etc. Basically you control everything. There is a slight downside to the owners of the PS3 and Xbox 360 as there always is on brilliant ideas. If you were thinking of making a story with your created wrestler I would advise strongly against because it’s just not possible. There is a limit to how many scenes your CAW can be in and the answer is a pathetic 10. You can’t even make a decent rivalry with that many scenes. If you thinking why not make 10 identical CAWS don’t think you can have them in 100 scenes. It’s not 10 scenes per CAW it’s 10 scenes overall which means you could only have a maximum of 10 different CAWS in 1 scene each.

Another new create mode is that you can create up to 3 different attires for your wrestlers. Even for the normal wrestlers. On top of this there are more moves in the create a finisher mode and of course the popular highlight reel is back. You can even use it create a entrance movie for your superstar (you even get a trophy/achievement for doing it).

One last thing that should be said is the new matches available. The Royal Rumble although not a new match has been upgraded. Instead of only having the annoying button mashing mini game there are now two extra ones. It all depends on where you have the superstar you want to chuck out. If they are lying on the apron you have to press any button to try and stop the moving gauge in the ever shrinking blue area twice before the blue area vanishes. If they are groggy against the ropes you must rapidly press buttons but there is a skill involved. You press certain buttons at certain times. Lastly if there in the corner then you mist press three buttons that appear on the screen quicker than your opponent in a row to eliminate them. The other new match in the game is the Championship Scramble match which has the same concept as the elimination chamber (except without the chamber and the elimination), basically whoever pinned a superstar last at the end of the time limit wins the championship.

Overall this game rates well above its predecessor. I would give it 94%.

Now the fourth Harry Potter game was completely rubbish. It was a totally different gameplay to the other games and the age rating (7+) probably should have been more like 7, because it seemed like the game was made for seven year olds. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the other hand is a lot better. It’s a 7+ again but in this game it doesn’t matter what age you are, you will still enjoy … unless of course you utterly despise Harry Potter but why would you be reading this if you did?

The style of the game is what people call a “sandbox”. Just like games such as GTA it basically means you can go pretty much anyone and do things in your own order, within a certain boundary. An example of this in the game is when you have to collect all of the members of Dumbledore’s Army. The game doesn’t tell you what order you must collect them, so you can go in any order you wish. Another brilliant thing in this game which we have just seen recently in the Sims 3 is that there are no loading screens. The whole of the Hogwarts School and grounds are loaded all the time. You don’t even get a slight pause as you go from one area to the next, it runs very smoothly.

One of the main features of this game is the spells. Owners of a Wii will have more fun casting spells in the game as they simply swish the wii remote in a certain direction to cast that spell. However don’t think if you own a Playstation 3 you are missing out on much, because you also do it on the PS3. You have two options … you can either cast spells by using the right analog stick or you can enable the motion sensitivity function and move the whole Playstation 3 controller to cast the spell. So really with the Playstation 3 version you are getting better graphics than the Wii and also the same motion control. If you’re lucky enough to own both the Wii and Playstation 3 you’ll probably better buying on the PS3.

As you walk around the grounds you will notice that there are quite a few things not quite right: such as paintings on the floor and statues covered up by curtains. You can use your spells on these objects and earn discovery points which in turn make your spells stronger. Another thing in the game is the portraits. As with the film and book versions all portraits need passwords and you need to find out what they are. It’s no use searching for them on the internet because you can’t type them in. The portraits give you clues as to what they are … some even just tell you the password straight away.

One of the unfortunate disadvantages of this game is that is quite short. Although saying that if you don’t rush through it you will find it will take quite a while to get 100% on the game. Many people say they complete this game within an hour. I can tell you that it is completely impossible to do that even if you’re on the easiest difficulty. If you’re on normal difficulty and play it at a steady pace this game should last you at least for over 10 hours … and that for a game is actually quite reasonable.

I think overall this game is very good … although non Harry Potter fans wouldn’t think it was as good as I’m saying. In conclusion buy this game only if you’re either a Harry Potter fan or you like a good RPG game because it is very good. I would rate it 88%

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This game has more matches, more special features and more … moves than any of the previous wrestling games and I’m talking about that on all consoles not just the Wii. 24/7 mode in the previous game is replaced by the “Road to Wrestlemania” mode which is outstanding. The only downside is that there are only 7 superstars you can choose from: Triple H; John Cena; CM Punk; The Undertaker, Batista, Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho. However each superstar has a unique story mode which has cut scenes and storylines made especially for the superstar. For the first time ever there is a co-op story mode with Mysterio and Batista so you can play two players.

Another new mode which replaces the highly criticised GM mode is the Career Mode. In this mode you selected your chosen superstar (even created ones) and play matches to get to the championships. It is very strategy based because you have to try to get a good rating from each of your matches. To achieve a high rating you have to complete little mini-missions such as “use your finisher 4 times” or “taunt 8 times” etc.

One of the best features about this game has to be the “Create-A-Finisher” mode where you go really in-depth into the making of a move. However unfortunately this is not available on the Wii or DS versions of the game.

But the Wii version makes up for that a lot! New to any wrestling game made and exclusive to the Wii version is the entrance. As your superstar is waking in you can get him to raise his arm, taunt the crowd etc while walking in to the ring. A good point for this is that it’s not just a part of the game that means nothing, the more taunts you do the higher momentum you start off with when the match begins. The best part though is the ending of the match. You can pick the person up and go to shake his hand and then knock him out. You can get the referee to lift your arm up and then hit him as well!

The new matches available in the game are great. Inferno matches, gauntlet matches and for the Wii … well normal matches! The wii has over 4 times as many matches as it did last year which seems a lot but remember it only had like 7 matches. Some matches have been readjusted, especially the tag team ones. The main focus for the game is on tag-teams and so the matches have been re-done. New things such as “hot-tags” and even new strategies for the computer players have made the tag team matches brilliant.

Online play is also available for the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii version as well as voice chat being enabled on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The best thing about this is that there will be plenty of downloadable content available which will keep the game from being out-dated.

Overall I think that this game has thoroughly improved on the last version, especially for the Wii console. Which is why I’m giving it a 91% overall rating.

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This game features all of the previous 3 Indiana Jones films, and of course like the previous 3 lego games this game adds a sense of comedy to the 3 films. You can control a number of characters which are all made out of lego! The main character of course being Indiana Jones himself.

With the 3 films in the game all of them are split into 6 chapters. In each chapter you have to progress the end while along the way finding Lego Studs, Artifact Pieces, Parcels and various other equipment ranging from guns to spades. The Lego Studs are just the same as in the other games where silver studs are worth 10 studs, gold studs are worth 100 studs, blue studs are worth 1,000 studs and purple studs are worth 10,000 studs. You must find a certain number of studs to get “True Adventurer” in each level. Artifact Pieces are just like Lego Canisters/Minikits in the previous games. There are 10 in each level which you have to find and some will be in hard-to-reach places where only certain characters can get to. Parcels on the other hand and much rarer than artifact pieces and are similar to the red power bricks in other games. There is only 1 in each level, once found you then have to find a post-box to mail it back to Barnett College.

There are over 80 characters in Lego Indiana Jones and most of them have some type of special ability, of course some have none. There are a total of 9 types of special abilities, which I will go into in another review. However I will tell you all 9 of them. They are: The Academic Ability, The Enemy Disguise Ability, The Excavate Ability, The Explosion Ability, The Glass-Shattering Ability, The Repair Ability, The Super Jump Ability, The Tiny Size Ability and the Thuggee Chant Ability.

However unfortunately some characters also have fears. These fears will stop the character from advancing any further. Indiana Jones for example has a fear of snakes. So when ever he comes across a snake (which you will) he stops dead and won’t get any closer. You have to get another character to hit the snake before you can advance any further, unless you want to leave Indiana Jones there on his own. Other characters have fears of spiders etc.

The game play in Indiana Jones is very fulfilling and very enjoyable. This is the type of game where it is quite difficult to get bored (unless you have a small attention span). Each area is unique to each other so you will never find yourself in the same area twice (unless you play in the same area for free play).

Just like the previous lego games you first have to do story mode for each chapter. Then after you have done story mode for that chapter you can advance to free play, In free play you will be able to go back and get things you missed as you can also play as any character you wish. There are no more limitations and there is likely to be many artifact pieces that you have missed along your journey, you must collect them to get 100% in the game.

I think that overall this is a well balanced game and that a score of 8.9 should be awarded to it.

For more reviews on Lego Indiana Jones visit Test Freaks