PSX GAME RECOMMENDATIONS |

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Games are recommended on a four-point scale like those "strongly agree/disagree" questions you get on surveys. This scale goes "Strongly", "If you like this kinda game", "Watch it online", and "Avoid at all costs" from best to worst. It's one part how likely I am to replay the game and one part how likely I am to recommend it to fans of that game's genre. I'm not in the business of objectivity, just what's fun to me. No reason to play a game if you're not having fun, yeah?

[#] Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (EA Games, 2001)

The early Harry Potter games have always made me quite curious. Each platform was contracted out to a different team and run on very different game engines—and yet they share a lot besides that. Pottermania's splashes on the PS1, courtesy of Croc developers Argonaut Games, are usually derided these days based on their oatmeal character models, but I think that's a bit undeserved. I grew up with these games, and they're, if nothing else and if you'll excuse the pun, charming.

Through the game, you'll run along to classes (Charms, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts are featured with Simon sequences for learning each's spell), be the school's favorite Quidditch seeker, and wander about under an Invisibility Cloak in some clunky stealth stages. The school's atmosphere is really good, with lots of flickering lights, floating junk, and secret passages to some fun minigames. I just wish it was used to its fullest potential.

In fact, that's kind of the issue with Sorcerer's Stone. It's very inconsequential. It doesn't control terribly great (though nothing a kid couldn't get on with), castle exploration is pretty shallow amounting to nothing more than a few extra rooms, and Quidditch matches amount to the same "fly through the rings" sequence every time. I'd really recommend the sequel over this one. This isn't bad, but there's also not a lot you can't get from watching someone else play it.

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