Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (PlayStation)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (PlayStation) (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PlayStation) in the U.S.) is the first Harry Potter video game for the .

Description
Loosely based on both the original novel and the movie of the same name, the game chronicles Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and even enables you to play a bit of Quidditch against the other houses. Argonaut has a bit of platforming experience under their belt with the Croc series, but Harry Potter is a departure from those games, and does manage to stay true to the spirit of the books.

One of the great things about this is just how responsive the control is. You are able to steer yourself in mid-air, which becomes extremely helpful later in the game. At about the halfway point in the adventure you need to race the house poltergeist Peeves along rafters in the attic. These are very small boards with many slippery spots, and if the control wasn't this responsive, you'd be falling off the rafters quite a lot, which would make the fun and tense sequence much more frustrating than it needs to be.

The story is carried out through a series of quests. Players usually have to find an object by traveling through an area while solving puzzles and using the spells. As they should, these areas start off easy and gradually grow tougher as the game progresses. Later in the game, every skill from using spells in combat to jumping from ledge to ledge will be used quite a bit, so it's good to learn everything early in the adventure.

Graphics
These days, when you pop a new game into a PS one you really aren't expecting to be impressed with the graphics. With so many people focusing on PS2 titles, the little gray system gets neglected in the graphics department. Not so with this game.

Sound
The audio department is probably the least impressive aspect of the game, but that doesn't mean it's all bad. Voice acting is surprisingly decent and thankfully, they used British actors (or people imitating British accents well) for all of the characters. Everyone's favorite potions master, Professor Snape, comes across very well. The music in the game fits the theme well and it even sounds a little similar to John William's score for the film.

Verdict

 * As a Harry Potter fan I was looking forward to all of the games based on the books/movies, but I was also a little worried. At least in this game it was apparent that the game's creators paid attention to important details and that they made sure that they weren't some rushed out.
 * I do wish the Quidditch was a little more in-depth, but maybe some day they'll release a standalone Quidditch game. There is just so much you can do with that game from school matches all the way up to professional Quidditch. And with it being one of the most popular parts of the book series, there is definitely a market for it.
 * Potter fans will probably enjoy this more than others, but judging by the slim pickings of good games on the PS one these days, anyone who enjoys a little adventure probably could have some fun with this one. Hopefully, next year we'll get a PS2 game based on Chamber of Secrets.

Characters

 * Harry Potter: an eleven year-old wizard who survived Voldemort's wrath as a baby.
 * Hermione Granger
 * Ron Weasley
 * Draco Malfoy
 * Albus Dumbledore
 * Quirinus Quirrell
 * Rubeus Hagrid
 * Lord Voldemort

Behind the scenes

 * In the PC and PlayStation versions of the game, Norbert seems to appear early in the game, unlike in the book and movie where he appears nearly at the end of the story.


 * In the PC and PlayStation version of the game, Harry gets trapped in the dungeons during Potions class.