The 10 Worst Harry Potter Video Games (According To Metacritic)
Video games that are based on movies that are based on books are typically doomed from the start. Harry Potter had some victories, such as with its LEGO games. However, those games stand upon the corpses of a lot of bad Harry Potter games.
The fate of Harry Potter video games is often tragic, and those who are or were fans of Harry Potter are also gamers. They would love a successful game that brings the magic of the wizarding world to life. An RPG where you could make your own character, pick your own classes, and hang out with different companions and get different endings depending on your choices and class scores? That is the dream.
When it comes to Harry Potter, there are a lot of bad games. Here are the ten worst games, ranked from least bad to most bad based on their Metacritic scores.
10 LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 For PS Vita - Score 64
This may come as a surprise, as the LEGO Harry Potter games are among the best. According to Metacritic, they are. However, when it comes to its PS Vita version.... well, that's a different story.
This version was released in 2012 and has received the lowest score of all the LEGO Harry Potter games. Critics just seemed to dislike this game on the Vita and felt that the handconsole did the gameplay no justice.
9 Harry Potter: Wizards Unite For iOS - Score 64
This game is a little more recent, as it was released in 2019. The critics actually seemed to like the game, but the user score is abyssal at 2.9. The name was made by Niantic, which should sound familiar, as they are the same company that developed the wildly successful Pokémon Go app.
Obviously though, this game did not get even a fraction of Pokémon Go's success. According to the disappointed players, the app had too many microtransactions, and, if you live anywhere rural, then you are basically doomed in terms of content. Many felt that this Harry Potter game was forced, while the gameplay style was quite natural for Pokémon.
8 Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone For Playstation 2 - Score 56
This game was on numerous consoles, but its lowest score was for the Playstation 2. Released in 2003, it certainly did not age well in terms of graphics.
Critics were a little harsher to this game than the users, but that may have been because they threw nostalgia aside. The game looks like it could be fun for a young fan who is just getting into video games. Well, a young kid getting into video games in the year of 2003, at least. Notably, the frame rate for this title is awful, especially by today's standards.
7 Harry Potter For Kinect For Xbox 360 - Score 54
The cover for this game should have served enough warning as to what the player was getting into, as it is just a picture of the film actors instead of any hint of the game content.
This game was rated poorly for being dreadfully short, and the Kinect gimmicks fell very below what had already been done in titles. It would have seemed like utter madness to purchase this title for 50 dollars. It may serve as a good game for a six-year-old, but that is it.
6 Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup For Gameboy Advance - Score 53
Released in 2003, this game is a blast from the past, though it likely failed to make an impact on any child of the modern gaming era. Like The Sorcerers Stone for the PS2, this game got much higher ratings from users rather than the critics. Once again, this difference may be due to nostalgia. Quidditch-based games certainly had their place with some dedicated fans.
5 Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix For DS - Score 51
Strangely enough, Harry Potter games got worse instead of better as you go further into the titles. The graphics were better, but they covered a soulless husk of a game that felt like a very bland copy of the film instead of taking some creative initiative like the first two, which, like them or not, at least took a few risks. This game was rated lowest for its DS version.
4 Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince For The Nintendo DS - Score 48
This is where the Metacritic review colors turn from yellow to red—red for "please stop. Oh, God, please stop." Released in 2009, this DS game was further proof that the Harry Potter games were getting worse with each new release. Both the users and critics actually ranked this game exactly the same, showing that not even nostalgia could save this title.
3 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 For PC - Score 43
Finally making it to the last book and last film, the games have hit even more dire Metacritic ratings. Once again, the users and critics both agreed that this game deserved its poor scores.
Reviews state that this game takes under three hours to beat. That is a crazy short amount of poor gameplay for 50 dollars. The game also hilariously tries to act like Call of Duty, but with spells.
2 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery For iOS - Score 43
Now, this is when Metacritic gets a little bizarre. It appears the game got review-bombed, with users being far harsher on this app than critics.
This game is actually quite popular and has high ratings everywhere else, and it does deserve that credit. Unlike the other games, it shows at least some heart with original characters, stories, and actual RPG elements. Fans were just incredibly mad that the app works in real-time, so users sometimes have to wait a couple of hours before getting to play more content. Many also called the game a "cash grab" despite the fact that it's free and you only pay if you get too impatient to wait a few hours... though that does sort of stretch the claim that it's "free."
1 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 For PC - Score 37
This is the worst Harry Potter game of all time. If you still bought Harry Potter games up to this point, you have to be the biggest Harry Potter fan ever, as the games got progressively worse and worse to the point where this outcome was no surprise. As PC Gamer UK so eloquently quoted on Metacritic, "it's a shooter for people who don't shoot and have the initiative of a house-elf."
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