4-Aug-2003 Prove you're the Beckham of the broomstick If you have ever dreamed of a stadium packed with 50,000 fans screaming your name in exultant unison... If you've ever wanted to control the forces of nature with awesome magical powers... Or even if you just fancy a good old-fashioned sporting ruck: the Quidditch World Cup is surely the tournament for you.
Handing you control of an entire Quidditch team, not just old scarhead, Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup gives you the chance to take your chosen team from the little leagues right through to international glory in matches played out in key locations spread across the entire wizarding world.
School's In! You can't just swagger up to the Premiership equivalent of Quidditch teams and expect not to be shown up as the inexperienced Flobberworms you are, though. Before you take on the pride of international Quidditch, you must first prove your worth in the Hogwarts House Cup and this is exactly where the game begins.
This being a Harry Potter game, there are far more surprises in store for those expecting solely sports-based action. There are five opening challenges that you must pass before you can play in the Hogwarts Cup. While these act as tutorials for the more advanced techniques of remaining perched on your broomstick while playing four balls simultaneously, there are also some cool story elements.
In one trial for instance, Peeves the meddlesome school poltergeist is running (or should that be floating?) amok and preventing your practice session. By showing some nifty flying manoeuvres and pummelling bewitched balls at him he'll be heading for the hills sharpish.
Despite the title bearing his name, HPQWC is less about Harry himself and far more about the teams who play the sport instead. You can of course control Harry and his fellow Gryffindor team-mates during the Hogwarts Cup, but you can also choose Slytherin House, as well as Ravenclaw and the least cool of the lot, Hufflepuff. We're no Death Eaters, but we'd rather play as the sneaky Slytherins any day. If the fiction is anything to go by, that's a team sure to use all manner of dirty tricks to ensure they win. Plus, their swooshing capes and black team strip are the coolest.
Choose Your Weapon With the Hogwarts House Cup behind you and your rival teams left recovering in Madam Pomfrey's infirmary, it's time to test your magical mettle in the World Cup.
There are four different difficulty levels in the game, each relating to a type of broomstick. It's exactly like choosing between the different leagues and cups in games like Mario Kart, only with a higher risk of splinters. You begin with Nimbus 2000, then go on to unlock Nimbus 2001, Firebolt and, finally, Comet. The higher the rank of stick, the more aggressive your opposition and the tougher the conditions of play.
The individual teams you face also have different levels of aggression and artificial intelligence, and these stats will help you decide who to choose. There are nine teams in total. Will you go for the ultra-sporty American team who are big on teamwork and morale or opt for the Bulgarian team under the world-renowned captainship of Victor Krumm?
Other teams include Japan, who have a funky-punky Jap-cool look mixed with more traditional wizarding cloaks. The French team is big on acrobatic special moves while the Australians are a shiny bunch of broomstick-surfing dudes who have clearly spent more time tanning on the beach than in potions lessons.
Vive La Difference! The differences between the teams' stats, along with their individual special moves means that it feels more like choosing characters in Street Fighter for their skills, rather than feeling an affinity to your own country.
The England Quidditch team may well have Harry, but the Nordic team can combine magic power and summon up a colossal vortex of ice and snow that blinds all defences and opens the goal up to multiple screaming point-scoring. You can only use these multiple point-scoring moves a limited number of times (more on this later), but their effects are devastating.
Unblockable attacks include the Aussie team's tidal wave where they surf along on their sticks, or France's amazing acrobatic circus-like onslaught on the goal hoops, with Chasers passing the Quaffle by using their sticks as trapezes. Don't expect to see this zippy little move incorporated into Cirque Du Soleil's routine any time soon!
Cumulative Nimbus As anyone who has read the books will know, the structure of the Quidditch World Cup isn't based on points like football, but rather on a cumulative points system. What this means is that the total points from each match played is added up and the team with the most points at the end of the entire tournament is the winner.
Each international team is played both at home and away, and the beauty of the cumulative points system is that even if you lose a couple of matches, you can still progress through to the next match.
The pressure will be on to score major points, though, and this is why grabbing the Snitch is so crucial! Plucking this teeny bewitched ball from the sky earns your team so many points that it usually guarantees a win and signals the end of the game.
Flame-Retardant Buttons With so many teams to go up against, not to mention those tricky Quidditch rules, you're going to need to know how your broom controls, bristle by bristle. Those coming away less than impressed with the controls in HPQWC after this year's E3 are in for a surprise. That demo version had just one action button for passing, shooting - everything. Thankfully the game now features full controls, with individual button presses for dodging Bludgers or tackles, rolling, shooting, tackling rival Chasers, speed boost and special magical team attack.
The game's developer says the aim is to create a layered control system, so that younger players can get enjoyment from the game while older players still feel challenged. The basic controls are indeed very simple. Simply steering, passing and shooting will see you good for the first few rounds, and may even be enough to see you struggle through to victory in the Nimbus 2000 World Cup event. Progress up the ranks however, and you will need to employ devilish combos and team strategies to win.
Combinations of tackles, passes and shooting for the goal are trickier to pull off but easier to succeed with actual scoring if successful. It's up to you if you're feeling daring and saucy enough to risk it for the reward of maximum pointage.
From Book Into Game Whether you play it safe or go for the impressive moves, the action looks incredible, regardless. Everything, from the beautifully realised stadiums and their lush and varied environmental effects to the players' cool team outfits, sparkles with a glossy high-budget, maximum production values veneer that does the Harry Potter universe proud.
The players themselves, even when simply tackling or passing, have some of the most intricate animation sequences seen in a sports game. Players dismount and swing around their broomsticks to avoid Bludger hits or use their feet to intercept through balls. From what we have seen so far, the frenzied action captures what Quidditch is all about perhaps even better than action sequences in the movies.
That said, certain allowances have had to be made for the videogame version of the fictional sport to work in 'practice'. Describing the gameplay makes it sound more complicated than it is, so best make like Hermione and concentrate for this bit.
Matches are made up of two distinct segments, the Chaser mode and the Seeker mode. Chaser forms the main meat of each match and marks the point where control switches between your team members as you try to score the most goals.
The camera will always point you in the direction you need to shoot in when you are in possession of the Quaffle. Players can only shoot when they are in the scoring zone in front of the goal hoops.
Scratch And Snitch Although the game is fully 3D, moving around is basically limited to one plane, with the computer automatically adjusting your height in relation to the ground so you don't need to worry about crashing! What you do need to worry about is the Snitch Bar at the top of the game screen. This bar shows two halves of the Golden Snitch at either end of the gauge. One represents your team's progress in spotting the Snitch, and the other represents the opposition's. As play proceeds, the bars fill up and the Snitch halves move closer together. What's clever is that you can choose to convert some of your progress toward finding the Snitch into special moves and speed boosts. This brings a certain amount of strategy into play: it's good to catch the Snitch early if you're ahead in the league, but if you need more points you should try delaying spotting the Snitch and trading Snitch energy for mega moves like controlling homing Bludgers against the enemy.
Hide And Seeker When the two halves of the Snitch finally do meet, the game enters Seeker mode. Taking control of your team's Seeker, you must chase the Snitch while fending off the rival. You can slipstream in its wake for a speed boost or try ramming your rival off course. The only thing that matters is nabbing the Snitch first! Whichever team's Snitch Bar is fullest when the halves meet will have an advantage over the other team, adding another layer of strategy - albeit a simple one. Despite this lengthy description, the gameplay is fluid and effortless, and as fast-paced and brutal as you could ask for. If you're still struggling to get your Muggle head around it, think of the action as a weird and wondrous hybrid of basketball (chasing the Quaffle), cricket (whacking the Bludgers) and racing (Seeker mode). We've played HPQWC and we think it's got the potential to be the best Potter game yet, with appeal reaching far beyond the books and films. Quidditch is a cool sport in its own right, and in a games market flooded i recent years with identikit extreme sports games, F1 racers, footie sims and US sports titles, Quidditch World Cup should twinkle on the shelves like the original gem it's shaping up to be.
Fast, furious, slick and sassy, this is a lot better than you'd maybe expect. Should prove a slice of sporting magic even for the most die-hard Potter-phobes.
The action in Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup is said to take place around the time of The Chamber Of Secrets and is a sort of videogame precursor to the events of the fourth book's Quidditch World Cup. You'll see Harry and Draco Malfoy in their house teams, of course, along with favourites like Gryffindor team captain Wood, Pavarti Patil, and Lee Jordan (though there's no word on his trademark commentary as yet). Even Victor Krumm and Fleur Delacour make an appearance in the Bulgarian and French teams respectively.
// Portable Potter
Stripped down but (hopefully) no less sexy for it, the handheld version of Quidditch World Cup is played from a side-on viewpoint. Think FIFA on lightning-fast broomsticks and you'll be in the right ballpark. The league and story structure remain unchanged from its bigger console brothers, but the action is simplified slightly for the lack of buttons. What the GBA version can boast above all the others, however, is connectivity with the GameCube version. The idea is that a second player can assist in catching the Snitch on GBA while in Seeker mode. This sounds cool in theory but we've yet to see it in action.
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