Snitch of all trades. Sorcerer of none
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is no doubt a magical intellectual property. It has everything from strong narratives, characters, sporting events, house elves, and believe it or not, more! Hogwarts Legacy was the biggest game of 2023, but it was missing the game of Quidditch which fans have fallen in love with ever since Harry Potter caught the Golden Snitch in the books. The original 2003 video game, Quidditch World Cup, released on older generation consoles, was fun enough but widely criticized for being too simplistic in gameplay. Enter Quidditch Champions, the newest game from the world of the boy who lived. Is 2024 going to be another year of Hogwarts mania? Or is this one best left to the Beaters? Let’s nosedive in on our Nimbus 2000.
Questionable Quidditch
Upon booting up the game, players are greeted and guided through a tutorial by freeze-frame images of classic Harry Potter characters. Not even 10 minutes in, I found out that Quidditch is quite a complex sport. This comprehensive trial that gets players to take every position the broomstick-based sport has to offer overstays its welcome. After creating an entire team step by step, position by position, I actually found that I wanted to put the controller down. The gameplay was fun enough at first, but once I played full games as a beater, seeker, chaser, and keeper, I was exhausted.
Each position had a bit of a learning curve, but still not enough variety to keep me hooked. The seeker role essentially had me playing a mini-game of going through rings as fast as I could. The beater role was definitely the most fun but lacked accuracy to hit players off their brooms. I found landing the hits on opposing teams to be way off. I was expecting the same kind of arcade fun I remember from the Nintendo Game Cube era. Finally, chaser seems like a waste of a position to play, and keeper felt janky overall. Guarding the rings seemed like a chore and felt really easy to maintain. The challenge of the gameplay was actually the controls.
If Harry Potter: Quidditch World Champions had a quick to pick up control scheme, I could see myself playing as a Beater online and having a good enough time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Flying on the broomstick doesn’t feel right, and moving up and down constantly feels like a chore. Hitting triggers and buttons just made me feel like I had to think too much. The nice thing about other online head to head sports games out there right now is that controls are simple enough to pick up, but tough and rewarding to master. Riding in, I hoped this was going to be the Rocket League of the Wizarding World. But even after a good few hours, I sadly couldn’t find the Golden Snitch level of fun I was seeking towards.
Potter Presentation
The game definitely has its own style. Players avatars are cartoony enough, but customization is extremely lacking in the game. It’s clear to me that this must have been intended to be a free to play battle pass centric game. There are outfits to unlock, but nothing stuck out and playing through seemed like a slog to get a cool outfit for one of my avatars I’m already switching back and forth to anyway during games. There’s the typical goal celebration animations, taunts, and accessories. With an entire wizarding world to lean on, I am certain Harry Potter gamers expect more than a few standard pink and black shirts to deck your magic avatars out with.
The graphics are cartoony and give a welcoming arcade feel, but the actual gameplay isn’t crisp enough to be competitive. The hit boxes on opposing players don’t feel consistent. At first, I thought maybe I needed to master the beaters magic wand throwing. But I quickly found that it definitely was a luck of the draw scenario.
Finally, the tutorial emphasized passing, but I found hogging the quaffle and just dodging and flying towards the opposing keeper was the easiest way to win without fail. The AI was not effective at all to play against.
Snitch Summary
Overall, if players have PS Plus, it’s worth giving Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions a shot. The tutorial alone is a game in itself. It doesn’t make it easy for players to find their identity as a player. The Beater position is really fun, but other than that, there isn’t much substance offered by the title. The magic world sports title feels chased out the door, and never quite catches the golden snitch of gameplay it was seeking to offer. This wizarding world game is just sadly not a keeper.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
Summary
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions doesn’t quite get off the ground as a good sports title or a good arcade title. The magic never quite lands right and rewards feel half-baked. This title could have been a great small piece of DLC for a bigger game like Hogwarts Legacy. As a standalone title that asks players to come back and keep playing, it just isn’t a fun enough ride to pass the flying test.
