''YOU'RE A QUDDITCH CHAMPION, HARRY''
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Developed: Unbroken Studios
Published: WB Games
Genre: Sports
Release Date: Sept 3rd, 2024
Platforms: NSW/PS4/PS5/PC/Xbox Family/PC
Review copy provided to me by GAMESPLANET and WB Games
Harry Potter Quidditch Champions is a broom flying sports game that is developed by Unbroken Studios and published by WB Games. With the massive success of Hogwarts Legacy even without Quidditch being playable, Unbroken Studios decides its time to give fans what they want with some awesome Quidditch team battles. But does this game give us what we wanted and missed from Hogwarts Legacy? or does it end up the shortest broomstick in the pile? only one way to find out, so lets go!
''THE WHOLE CREW WAITIN''
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GAMEPLAY:
Its time to head back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Harry Potter Quidditch Champions. If you have seen my previous Hogwarts Legacy review, then you know that I am huge Harry Potter fan girl and geek out for mostly anything related to the franchise at all. However, one of my biggest gripes about Hogwarts Legacy, a game which I thought was amazing, was the lack of a multiplayer Qudditch game. Granted based off the time period this was set in, with the then head wizard of the school being Anti-Quidditch, time period and story wise it made sense for it to not be there, but even so, I was a bit salty. But upon hearing about a standalone Qudditch game, Quidditch Champions, I immediately got hyped and thanked the MVP Neville Longbottom because only with his greatness was this probably given to us. He's the real child of prophecy, prove me wrong. But here we are in 2024, after a long wait with a game we have whined about, and when I say we, I mean me, coming out and gracing our screens. So was it worth the fuss and the wait to finally got another Qudditch game? honestly... yeah it pretty much was - at least for me. Quidditch Champions is all about the sport of Quidditch and nothing more with gameplay focusing on solo play where you can take on the campaign and challenge various cups and challenges by creating a team of 5 players to try to win the gold, as well as co-op with a buddy, and even 3v3 styled multiple modes to choose from, should you want to take your broom flying skills to the online level. Characters from the movie are all present, for the most part anyways with Ginny, Weasley bros, Ron, Hermoine, Harry, Malfoy and every character you recruit or make via the in game customization system, you will be able to deck out all these characters in gear that directly ties into the movies, ranging from shirts, cloaks, hats, brooms, emblems, etc - all that tie into one of the main houses of Slytherin, Raven Claw, Gryffindor, and HufflePuff. Sadly no teachers or other side characters that I personally like are available at the moment, at least from what I see. The devs been add Luna Lovegood and Neville or I'm about to Avada Kedavra the whole place up in here like Denzel Washington in Training Day. Dont tempt me. I had no problem flinging kitties around via Levioso in Hogwarts Legacy, so keep that in mind.
As this pretty much is a Live Service game, a usual kiss of death in the industry with a game labeled as one, you have a level up system with rewards tied to your progress with each Season of the game offering you new brooms, emotes, power ups, gear, you name it, its there most likely. But what sets this one apart from instantly becoming a dumpster fire is the zero reliance on microtransaction. Yup thats right, all things in the game can be bought with in game currency won by just actually playing the dang game itself. What a crazy concept. Almost as crazy as Alastor Moody's weird ol eye ball, but not quite as weird as Voldemort without a nose. Poor Voldemort, his dad probably played ''I got your nose'' with him as a kid and legit never gave it back... NOW we know why he was so angry at the world all the time, bro just wanted to smell again, he didn't want to be compared to Krillin from Dragon Ball. At least though, he's not compared to Yamcha, so at least that's a win. Gameplay in Quidditch Champions shines in its authenticity for the Harry Potter world by being aesthetically pleasing as possible with its look a presentation that is presented to you as you play through a rather lengthy tutorial for the game that teaches you how to fly your broom, and how to actually play every position in the game for the sport of Quidditch, which are Chaser, Beater, Keeper and Seeker. Each role plays their own pivotal role in securing you a victory by offering you distinct objectives to follow for a seamless, intense and fun experience in your matches. For example should you play as a Chase, it is your job to zoom across the field, pass to your teammates and attempt to keep the Quaffle out of the hands of your opponents and score a throw into their goal and when successful, will be award 10 points. Knowing how corrupt Dumbledor is though, he'll somehow manage to find a way to just give Gryffindor 20 points just to do it because he biased as hell. Come on bro, how many times do I have to teach you this lessen old man, I WILL BREAK YOU. Should want to play a more defensive style of play, you would choose to play as a Beater, a class that enables to you either damage to knock out your foes by locking onto them and summoning the Bludgeon with your charge up power and slam them directly in the face and after roughly 3 pinpoint hits, down the ground to break their arm just like Harry did once before. Get wrecked, filthy mud blood. Otherwise of the defense you have your Keepers, these people are in charge of making sure that no Quaffle are thrown through the goal, you can do this by press L2+A to move up, left or right to immediately jump in front of the goal or charge your kicks by holding the A button and boot the living crap out of it like you're Malfoy's father kicking Dobby around, then making him apologize for giving you a reason for having to beat him. Know your place Dobby, you silly little friend. Lastly you have a Seeker, this class in charge of chasing down the Golden Snitch by getting your PTSD on with Superman 64 flashbacks by flying through rings to boost our Snitch meter and when its full, get close enough by boosting your broom and grabbing it. However its not like it is in the movie, you dont automatically win, but instead you're award 20-30 points and then you must wait another 2 minutes for it to respawn again. You can either play one position you want with your created character by switching to your desired class in your Load Out or switch to any player on the field by pressing down and switching to that position on the field. Its seamless and quick and works great.
The game play is fast and extremely intense, especially in 5v5 matches where everyone is going at once and trying to tackle each other, bludgeon each other or zooming around you chasing the Snitch. It becomes increasingly more intense when you're the one holding the Quaffle ball and trying to dodge everyone and weave back and forth on your boom trying not to get hit to lose the ball. If you do get hit, you must immediately make a U-Turn and try again by catching up to the opponent and try your hand at knocking them off their own broom as well to get the upper hand. Luckily even if you are getting your butt kicked or you feel your broom isn't very good, you're able to earn experience and in game currency to be able to purchase upgrades for each broom you use, which levels it for agility, durability and speed, like you too are running from a dragon in the Goblet Of Fire. The controls though CAN be a little tricky at first to get the hang of, mainly because you use different things for every class you play. On paper I say this game is a pick up and play title, and while this is true, yes, you still have to go through the tutorial before jumping into a match and getting the hang of every class available in order to really get the hang of the controls and how they respond to movements and actions. But once you've got the hang of it, it will forever be like riding a bike and after an hour or so, it 100% becomes a pick up and play game, no matter when you feel like playing, even after that initial learning curve. Trust me, its worth it because chaos is soon to ensue as soon as you play your first match, in which my first match was against jerk face Ron - who of course, I kicked his ass. If he did have a soul, he doesnt have one now. Just saying. Multiplayer is when things get REAL though with no amount of invisibility cloak to save you from a beating. In multiplayer mode, you are locked to 3v3 and two roles, so you dont have to play like 5 at a time like in single player, but you play versus anyone and I mean everyone, regardless of their character level. So you can be a level 5 with an ''ok'' broom and going against a freaking level 40 with a friggin FireBolt or Nimbus 2000, its just not fair, especially if someone on your team isnt very good at the game, then you're guaranteed to lose because there's no real proper way to make up for their slack due to the limited amount of role you will play in 3v3's. I only wish I can hex someones broom to help out, but alas, Hermoine caught me on fire and ruined that moment for me, freaking book nerd.
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''TO VICTORY''
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OVERALL:
At the end of the day, Harry Potter Qudditch Champions does what it sets out to do, offering we as plays the Quidditch game play and sport that we've been looking forward to for so long that has been kept from us in Hogwarts Legacy. Its not perfect, much like Dumbledor's recruiting talent because how the hell does he keep recruiting teachers for the dark arts and all of them end up villains? bro is bad at his job and I'll take back what I said in the past about he didnt deserve his fate, no.. no, he totally deserved it. There's also an issue with tutorial being slightly longer than needed to be but it makes sense in a way why it is so thats kind o fa nitpick, certain characters missing from the game like Luna and Neville are a head scratcher and some of what might be considered barebones content that might make people wonder about the longevity of the title. But even with the negative stuff aside, Its still an enjoyable experience with fast paced matches that have you zooming, punching kicking and earning your way to victory, authentic scenery straight from the movie, atmosphere change from autumn, summer, winter, tons of unlockables to keep replayability up for hours upon hours on end, campaign mode that acts as escalating tournmanets where you take on House Cup tournaments, school tournaments and then aim for the World Cup itself to be the world champion - Its extremely fun and a joy for any Harry Potter friend. But.. what if you aren't a Harry Potter fan or just on the fence about the game? well then it might be different for you, experience wise. You for a game only focusing on one form of gameplay, they're asking yo to put down $30 for it and that might seem a bit steep for some. So how do I vote this? well I see it as both a wait and a play now. I say WAIT on to drop down to $20 if you're playing on PC, XBOX, Switch, however over on the Playstation side of things on PS Plus for PS5, I say pick it up right now as it is free to download as long as you're a member of PS Plus for the month of September, so you cant go wrong there. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says WAIT if you're buying on anything other than Playstation and Play Now if you have PS Plus.
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