I love adventure games. It makes me happy to know that I shouldn’t eat the blueberry pie in King’s Quest V. It wouldn’t have shown up in my inventory if I was supposed to eat it. Figuring out which item to present to which character is oddly satisfying and solving puzzles without the constant threat of being sniped and tea-bagged is a treat that we gamers don’t savor near often enough. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OotP) is an adventure game at heart. There is magical combat, but it takes a back seat to the puzzles, character interaction, and massive visual scope of the game.
The lion’s share of OotP boils down to Harry, Ron, and Hermione running around Hogwarts and recruiting students to join their Defense Against the Dark Arts study club, Dumbledore’s Army (DA). In the book and the film, Harry’s friends are eager to join. They all want to fight Voldemort and feel as though their current instructor is holding important lessons back from them. None of these feelings shine through in the game. More often than not, Harry has to bribe his classmates to join the DA by assisting them with their homework, hiding their contraband from the faculty, or retrieving their stolen property.
Fortunately, the exploration is wonderful. Hogwarts is designed from J.K. Rowling’s own sketches and blueprints used in the movies. And it shows. The school is massive, and many of the areas accessible to players are never seen in the films. Fans of the books and movies that just want to wander around Hogwarts at their own pace will fall in love with the detailed environments. They’ll also have a good time earning discovery points by mopping up spills, sweeping leaves, uncovering hidden plaques, meeting house ghosts, lighting torches, and searching for hidden statues. Console gamers can also try their hand at Wizard Chess, three variations of Gobstones, and two variations of Exploding Snap. There’s a lot to do in Order of the Phoenix that is secondary to the plot, and all of them are fun.
Aside from exploration, you’re probably considering OotP for spell casting. The Wii version is the most fun in this regard as the Wii remote takes the place of Harry’s wand. Motions are responsive, and it’s difficult not to get into things when you’re actually moving a wand around (and if you’re anything like me – shouting A
I love adventure games. It makes me happy to know that I shouldn’t eat the blueberry pie in King’s Quest V. It wouldn’t have shown up in my inventory if I was supposed to eat it. Figuring out which item to present to which character is oddly satisfying and solving puzzles without the constant threat of being sniped and tea-bagged is a treat that we gamers don’t savor near often enough. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OotP) is an adventure game at heart. There is magical combat, but it takes a back seat to the puzzles, character interaction, and massive visual scope of the game.
The lion’s share of OotP boils down to Harry, Ron, and Hermione running around Hogwarts and recruiting students to join their Defense Against the Dark Arts study club, Dumbledore’s Army (DA). In the book and the film, Harry’s friends are eager to join. They all want to fight Voldemort and feel as though their current instructor is holding important lessons back from them. None of these feelings shine through in the game. More often than not, Harry has to bribe his classmates to join the DA by assisting them with their homework, hiding their contraband from the faculty, or retrieving their stolen property.
Fortunately, the exploration is wonderful. Hogwarts is designed from J.K. Rowling’s own sketches and blueprints used in the movies. And it shows. The school is massive, and many of the areas accessible to players are never seen in the films. Fans of the books and movies that just want to wander around Hogwarts at their own pace will fall in love with the detailed environments. They’ll also have a good time earning discovery points by mopping up spills, sweeping leaves, uncovering hidden plaques, meeting house ghosts, lighting torches, and searching for hidden statues. Console gamers can also try their hand at Wizard Chess, three variations of Gobstones, and two variations of Exploding Snap. There’s a lot to do in Order of the Phoenix that is secondary to the plot, and all of them are fun.
Aside from exploration, you’re probably considering OotP for spell casting. The Wii version is the most fun in this regard as the Wii remote takes the place of Harry’s wand. Motions are responsive, and it’s difficult not to get into things when you’re actually moving a wand around (and if you’re anything like me – shouting A
I love adventure games. It makes me happy to know that I shouldn’t eat the blueberry pie in King’s Quest V. It wouldn’t have shown up in my inventory if I was supposed to eat it. Figuring out which item to present to which character is oddly satisfying and solving puzzles without the constant threat of being sniped and tea-bagged is a treat that we gamers don’t savor near often enough. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OotP) is an adventure game at heart. There is magical combat, but it takes a back seat to the puzzles, character interaction, and massive visual scope of the game.
The lion’s share of OotP boils down to Harry, Ron, and Hermione running around Hogwarts and recruiting students to join their Defense Against the Dark Arts study club, Dumbledore’s Army (DA). In the book and the film, Harry’s friends are eager to join. They all want to fight Voldemort and feel as though their current instructor is holding important lessons back from them. None of these feelings shine through in the game. More often than not, Harry has to bribe his classmates to join the DA by assisting them with their homework, hiding their contraband from the faculty, or retrieving their stolen property.
Fortunately, the exploration is wonderful. Hogwarts is designed from J.K. Rowling’s own sketches and blueprints used in the movies. And it shows. The school is massive, and many of the areas accessible to players are never seen in the films. Fans of the books and movies that just want to wander around Hogwarts at their own pace will fall in love with the detailed environments. They’ll also have a good time earning discovery points by mopping up spills, sweeping leaves, uncovering hidden plaques, meeting house ghosts, lighting torches, and searching for hidden statues. Console gamers can also try their hand at Wizard Chess, three variations of Gobstones, and two variations of Exploding Snap. There’s a lot to do in Order of the Phoenix that is secondary to the plot, and all of them are fun.
Aside from exploration, you’re probably considering OotP for spell casting. The Wii version is the most fun in this regard as the Wii remote takes the place of Harry’s wand. Motions are responsive, and it’s difficult not to get into things when you’re actually moving a wand around (and if you’re anything like me – shouting A
I love adventure games. It makes me happy to know that I shouldn’t eat the blueberry pie in King’s Quest V. It wouldn’t have shown up in my inventory if I was supposed to eat it. Figuring out which item to present to which character is oddly satisfying and solving puzzles without the constant threat of being sniped and tea-bagged is a treat that we gamers don’t savor near often enough. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OotP) is an adventure game at heart. There is magical combat, but it takes a back seat to the puzzles, character interaction, and massive visual scope of the game.
The lion’s share of OotP boils down to Harry, Ron, and Hermione running around Hogwarts and recruiting students to join their Defense Against the Dark Arts study club, Dumbledore’s Army (DA). In the book and the film, Harry’s friends are eager to join. They all want to fight Voldemort and feel as though their current instructor is holding important lessons back from them. None of these feelings shine through in the game. More often than not, Harry has to bribe his classmates to join the DA by assisting them with their homework, hiding their contraband from the faculty, or retrieving their stolen property.
Fortunately, the exploration is wonderful. Hogwarts is designed from J.K. Rowling’s own sketches and blueprints used in the movies. And it shows. The school is massive, and many of the areas accessible to players are never seen in the films. Fans of the books and movies that just want to wander around Hogwarts at their own pace will fall in love with the detailed environments. They’ll also have a good time earning discovery points by mopping up spills, sweeping leaves, uncovering hidden plaques, meeting house ghosts, lighting torches, and searching for hidden statues. Console gamers can also try their hand at Wizard Chess, three variations of Gobstones, and two variations of Exploding Snap. There’s a lot to do in Order of the Phoenix that is secondary to the plot, and all of them are fun.
Aside from exploration, you’re probably considering OotP for spell casting. The Wii version is the most fun in this regard as the Wii remote takes the place of Harry’s wand. Motions are responsive, and it’s difficult not to get into things when you’re actually moving a wand around (and if you’re anything like me – shouting A
Nervous Brickdown borrows a lot from arcade classics like Arkanoid and Breakout. Sadly, it doesn’t copy the one thing it really needs: consistency. Nervous Brickdown is short, and the levels go by quickly. This is normal for an Arkanoid clone. What isn’t normal is that after a few levels of Nervous Brickdown the game shifts gameplay concepts. In the initial stages, for example, you’re playing the classics: moving a paddle along the bottom of the screen to destroy the blocks at the top. Then some new block types like bumpers and oddly shaped transparent, translucent, and finally solid blocks are introduced. Things are going well, and you’re adjusting to these new elements when suddenly you’re fighting a boss. Once the boss goes down it’s time to change everything up and turn the game world into paper where you have to draw your own paddle.
Things get very confusing very quickly, and the only real problem presented is that instead of giving us five separate game modes Arkedo Studio has piled each and every one of their ideas into Brickdown‘s Arcade mode. I would have much rather seen a Classic Mode, a Paper Mode, a Haunted House Mode, a Boss Rush Mode, and so on. Exacerbating the sour taste left in one’s mouth from the lack of modes is the game’s length. If each level set were its own mode then the game wouldn’t only take an hour and a half to work through. Games shouldn’t be that short – especially on the first attempt.
The graphics are pleasant, and the music is great. The haunted house levels sound creepy and the classic levels sound like the wasted days of my youth spent in the arcades of yesteryear. Unfortunately, the game just doesn’t stand up to today’s standards. Arkanoid and Breakout are fun for roughly ten minutes. That’s why they were arcade games. You could get all the requisite fun for an evening out of them with one quarter.
Multiplayer is novel, and you only need one DS chip, but it suffers from the same shortcomings as single player. It’s just not engrossing. To Arkedo Studio’s credit, though, the multiplayer is cooperative, which is a rare and welcome sight. Unfortunately, the multiplayer is ad hoc only – Nintendo’s WiFi service isn’t supported. How do two people cooperate at Nervous Brickdown? Well, the paddle changes colors. If the paddle is blue then you can make contact with the ball while your teammate can’t; if the paddle is yellow then your friend is the only one who can hit the ball. Interesting idea, but it won’t hold you for long – especially since both players can move the paddle at all times making the multiplayer more trouble than it’s worth.
Nervous Brickdown is a good update to the standard hit-the-ball-and-destroy-the-blocks game, but it’s just not enough to keep gamers going. If you have an undying urge to smash bricks then this game is as good as any, but for everybody else there’s really nothing special here.
