This past week I rented Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix for Xbox 360 and I just finished the main plot yesterday. This is the first Harry Potter game to be made for the Xbox 360 and PS3. This is based on the fifth book and is timed to coincide with the release of the movie of the same name. Electronic Arts developed this game for the PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS, Gameboy Advance, PSP and PC-DVD Rom. Of course they pretty much have a license to print money since they have the exclusive rights to make Harry Potter games as long as they make a halfway decent game. Luckily for us they did make a decent game.

This game is sort of a interactive story adventure game like Maniac Mansion and King's Quest rather than the 3d platform games that the first three games were based on. The game consists of Harry walking around and talking to characters and performing spells and tasks in order to advance the plot. I jokingly considered calling this review "Harry Potter and the Order of the Random Tasks Needed to Advance the Plot". Tasks and locations are plotted out on the Marauder's Map and magical footsteps will appear on the floor and guide you to your next destination once you designate it on the map. This keeps you from getting lost and it is very in tuned with the overall flavor of the game.

The graphics are a real treat. The level of detail that the small army of digital artists at Electronic Arts must have spent in developing a next generation interactive digital set for Hogwarts in truly impressive. We can look forward to them using it again for the games to be based on the sixth and seventh books. The characters are based on the actors from the movies but only a handful of them contributed voices for the game. The overall castle of Hogwarts is very impressive and has a very immersive feeling to it. You can walk from one end of the castle to another without there being a noticeable loading screen. But it's good that it's so well taken care of because about 90% of the time spent playing the game is Harry running from one place to the next.

The audio is also very immersive with characters talking as you pass and a good amount of dialog included in the game.

Casting spells is done by tapping out a pattern of movements with the right analog stick and I could see it being a lot of fun on the Nintendo Wii. There is a pretty cool physics engine and picking up objects with magic and swinging them around the environments is a lot of fun.

Unfortunately the sport of Quidditch is completely lacking from this game. It's a pity since the Harry Potter : Quidditch World Cup game for Gamecube is a guilty pleasure of mine. It would have been awesome to see in high definition.

There is a number of mini-games such as Gobstones, Exploding Snaps and Wizard's Chess and just by walking around and interacting with things you find experience points that are used to unlock behind the scenes content in secret room of rewards haunted by Moaning Myrtle.

The overall level of difficulty was pretty easy and it is almost impossible to fail at a given task at hand. I almost feel guilty racking up Xbox Achievements while playing it. You sort of have to keep repeating it over again until you get it right but kids of any age and experience should have to problem playing through the game.

There is almost no real fast paced action in the game. Sure there is a couple wizards duals but if you just keep casting the basic spells over and over they go pretty quick.

There is not much replay value for a jaded gamer such as me but it was a bunch of fun. Most games based on licensed movies and cartoons are hideous and unplayable but EA had a good amount of respect for the source subject and they made a very good game that would be perfect for any serious Harry Potter fan of any age.