We recently asked you Nintendo Life readers to rate your favourite Game Boy Color games, and as we're preparing to publish the Top 50 results, we're taking a look back at a handful of our favourite GBC games. Here, Kate remembers one particular handheld Harry adventure — the one where the Philosopher and the Sorcerer bickered about whose Stone it was...
There have been an awful lot of awful Harry Potter games, from the janky, physics-bending Chamber of Secrets ("Flipendo!!" will continue to haunt my nightmares) to the downright disappointing Xbox 360 and PS3 games. Considering the vast fortunes generated by franchise, it's honestly wild that it's apparently been so difficult for Warner Bros. to find a studio that can turn the massively-successful Wizarding World series into a half-decent game that captures the magic of the books.
Now, I don't want to tar all the Harry Potter games with the same brush. The PS1 Potter game brought us Large Hagrid, who is brilliant, and the LEGO Harry Potter games are lovingly-made versions that don't stick slavishly to the movies. Apparently, the PS2/GameCube Prisoner of Askaban is pretty good, too, although by that point I had been FLIPENDO-ed into never checking out another HP game until the LEGO ones.
But, shining like a raw diamond buried in dirt amongst all the mediocrity lies one of my favourite games of all time: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on Game Boy Color. Among the readers right now will be two groups of people: the first will be thinking, "ah, one of your favourite games? That's nostalgia talking, lassie". The second will be vigorously nodding their heads and weeping tears of joy in the knowledge that I am extremely right.
The story is not groundbreaking, because the story is roughly that of the first Harry Potter book — i.e. young lad gets forcibly taken from his abusive adoptive parents' house and dumped in a boarding school full of weirdos, where he spends the year attempting to break all the rules in order to get one creepy teacher arrested. Of course, it turns out to be the wrong teacher, but he doesn't get punished. Unless you count being sent back to his abusive adoptive parents' house.
There are a few extra plot points, because it's a video game book adaptation, so every now and again Harry will have to fight rats in the library, or subdue a bunch of angry mandrakes in the greenhouse, which is more than a normal ten-year-old has to deal with, but by and large the plot is pretty familiar.
[turn-based battles] fit so well with the Harry Potter theming that it's weird to see that they kept trying to make the sequels into 3D platformers
But the battle mechanics, and how the spells are integrated into the game, are what elevate the GBC version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone above the rest. It takes its cues from Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, you see — a turn-based JRPG-style interpretation of the magical world.
Harry is equipped from the beginning with a basic wand and basic equipment, each of which will affect his stats. If he manages to collect enough money, he can buy new clothes and a better wand; if he levels up enough, he can learn new spells; if he uses spells often, he'll learn more powerful versions of those spells. It's a system we're all extremely familiar with by now, I know, and even back then it wasn't revolutionary, but it fit so well with the Harry Potter theming that it's weird to see that they kept trying to make the sequels into 3D platformers. When did Harry ever do platforming in the books?
Turn-based combat was a brilliant way to portray the wizarding world, because it put the focus on the spells, even if most of the enemies were... random rats (which were apparently a huge problem in Hogwarts — way more than Voldemort). Seriously, there are so many rats in this game. But there are also stealth sections, collectibles, shortcuts, and mini-games, including a Quidditch Flappy Bird predecessor, and a Wingardium Leviosa memory game.
There was even an entirely optional part of the game where you could collect Famous Witches and Wizards cards, either by buying and consuming Chocolate Frogs, or by finding the cards in the Hogwarts grounds. These cards could be combined to make extra-powerful attacks, or they could just be... collected, much like Pokémon cards (well, not at the moment — the Pokémon card scene is pretty crazy right now). You could even trade with friends, if you had a Link Cable. And friends.
There were secrets, too! Some spells can only be learned in side-quests, or by doing things in a specific order; there were small deposits of coins, cards, clothing, healing items, and potion ingredients hidden all around the castle, as well. As someone whose favourite Pokémon activity is "using the Itemfinder", it was all I'd ever wanted.
Book and movie tie-ins were notoriously... not great in those days. They were oftentimes rushed through to coincide with movie release dates, and likely didn't have much creative control over the story, either. A lot of game studios just had to make do with what they had, so it wasn't until the movies were already out that we got better versions, like the LEGO ones, that could take their time with development. But, for whatever reason, HP & The P Stone is just... really good. Even without the Potter label, it's just a good game. It's Final Fantasy, but about ten-year-olds. It's Chrono Trigger without the "Chrono" bit. Dragon Quest, but no dr—
Okay, no, Harry Potter does have dragons. It's just magic, okay?
Don't forget you can rate your favourite Game Boy Color games and help us build our reader-ranked Top 50 GBC games, to be revealed soon. And if you want to lust over some lovely colour variants of the GBC hardware, feel free to let us know your favourite Game Boy Color hue, too.
Comments 59
Accio
Glisseo
Engorgio
Impervius
Wingardium Leviosa
Scourgify
Portus
Lumos
Avada Kedavra
Stupendo
Expecto Patronum
Rictusempra
Furnunculus
Petrificus Totalus
Fiendfyre Curse
Tarantallegra
Morsmordre
Sectumsempra
Crucio
Not at all. The Pokemon games, WarioLand games and Link's Awakening DX are all better.
The GBC hp 1 and 2 games are great and a big part of my childhood but IMO 1, 2 and 3 on pc are better. And for those unaware. The first 3 games had a different version on consoles and pc and the first 2 games had a demake on ps1 too. The pc versions where free roaming puzzle platformers, the gen 6 versions where stealth-ish platformers
Yup, I loved this game.
I vaguely remember that it allowed you to carry your end-game level and spells back into a "New Game+" which encouraged me to replay it multiple times.
It's surprisingly ambitious for a handheld game based on a movie license. Apparently, the GBC Chamber of Secrets game is in a similar vein but I never got to play it.
The Game Boy Advance follow-up Prisoner of Azkaban abandoned the RPG formula for a top-down action-platformer and it was sadly inferior - I remember completing it in an evening and feeling disappointed.
I recently started replaying a lot of GBC games, and the Harry Potter games were among them. I have to ask if you've replayed it recently though, and if you've played the sequel, because the first is a severely flawed game; almost like an unfinished template for its sequel. It's full of ideas that sound great in theory, but in practice are implemented terribly.
The second Harry Potter game for GBC actually fixed many of these issues with the first one, and is definitely worth a play if you haven't tried it before. Really nice music and art as well (which is true to some degree in the first too). I think it was actually the last GBC title ever released iirc, and it shows, because it pushes the system to its limits in many ways.
All these GBC articles feel like an editorial mandate to drive votes for a poll that is being largely ignored.
@DWWM Actually Prisoner of Azkaban on GBA is the final game in the RPG trilogy and is really solid. I think each game is an improvement over the previous and it's a real bummer that the RPG series ended after only three games.
@DWWM you're confusing episodes. GBA Philisopher's Stone was a top down adventure, Chamber of Secrets an isometric platformer and Prisoner of Azkaban a Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest wannabe.
Kate is correct - this game is the best Harry Potter game. Man I played that game so much. I replayed it like 2 years ago too, it was awesome.
I actually really like this game so I feel it is the best Harry Potter game.
@MrMetroid Read the headline again. Pokemon, WarioLand and Link’s Awakening are not Harry Potter games!
Funny, I bought this game at a thrift store mere days ago. I seem to remember emulating it back in the day and enjoying it, though I never played through the whole thing. Hopefully, I will eventually get to it
Yes, it's a good game! I have a CIB copy of it in my collection.
This game sounds really cool, wish I would have had it when I was a kid.
@darkswabber I had the PC, PS1, and GBC copies of Chamber of Secrets and they were all solid. I remember renting the PS2 version and it just....wasn’t as good for whatever reason. The GBC one might have been my favorite though, especially going to Nearly Headless Nick’s party.
@MrMetroid It's not asking if it's the best GBC game overall.
@Noelemahc No, I’m referring to the GBC Philosopher’s Stone that this article is talking about - it was a turn-based RPG which I really enjoyed. The GBC Chamber Of Secrets was also a turn-based RPG, which I haven’t played. The Prisoner Of Azkaban on GBA was an RPG-Lite sequel that felt a lot shallower to me in terms of mechanics and overall game length.
It just goes to show you you should never judge a book by its cover or in this case a game. While I don't recall the reaction to the game at the time, I'm positively sure I probably chalked it up to another throwaway, licensed game.
@bojackson It was RPG-Lite at best - its mechanics were so much shallower than the GBC turn-based RPG Harry Potter games. It was also incredibly short.
I am glad that you enjoyed it though.
@Poodlestargenerica I read in an interview that the developers of the RPGs were left to make whatever they wanted because the GBC was so low on the company's radar but when they made Azkaban on the GBA they were really micromanaged and the final product wasn't even close to what they were aiming for. They weren't allowed to be book based on Azkaban.
The developers felt Chambers was their best work so it makes sense that you would have felt that way playing them.
@Poodlestargenerica Yes, I agree. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head as to why I dislike the GBA game despite loving the original GBC Philosophers Stone.
Correct. This game is absolutely amazing.
The GBC actually had the odd lesser known gem. This appears to be one of them. Interesting read.
I only ever played 3 or 4 HP games and my fav one is Lego Harry Potter on the Switch. A slight improvement on the Wii's "poor lighting" version
My brother has this game, too (of course, because we're Americans, it's called the Sorcerer's Stone and not the Philosopher's Stone). I would play the heck out of this game, and beat it multiple times. It was one of those games where once you beat it, it would start over again, but you kept your level, items, and experience points, making future playthroughs easier.
But good God, the Wingardium Leviosa memory game sucked. And that glitch in the Potion's class where you had to inspect the tapestry in Snape's office before acquiring the other ingredients (otherwise, the ingredient in Snape's office would never appear) was game-breaking, forcing you to restart the game.
Recently finished playing HP1 & HP2 on the GBC and of the two 1 definitely has aged the worse but even then I still had a great time with the game. There's a lot of love and genuine care for the IP in both games and it shows. Griptonite Games really did their homework. The only issue I had was how collecting most of the Wizards Cards boiled down to spamming A on every little thing on the map because for some reason they didn't figure out Treasure Chests existed in RPG's until 3 on the GBA. Oh yeah and the absolutely abysmal walking speeds ugh.
I think I'll try it out been a while since I've even thought about Harry Potter I loved the books but it hasn't gripped me like star wars and other books have. I did really like 1 through 4 (not to bash on 5 through 7 I just think they are way worse to me but
I still liked them I'm not sure if that's a popular opinion)
Yes!! Chamber of Secrets was even better - not just in that Ron and Hermione joined to actually create a party for you to manage and the other QOL adjustments you'd expect of a sequel, but also (and I may be misremembering here) I remember it being so hilariously self aware.
If you give money to that awful woman Rowling then you are just as bad as her.
If they ever port the classic Harry Potter games, then they absolutely must port the handheld variants as well. I hate when "remasters" ignore the handheld games, which often afford a completely different experience, sharing only the title of the game in common (and usually some other superficial and/or plot elements).
I played Chamber of Secrets on GBC and GBA back in the day (both of which were completely different games), and ironically enough, the GBC game smoked the GBA one, no question about it. Hell, I preferred the art style of the GBC game too.
By the by, it's not a Nintendo deal, but in the spirit of gaming being gaming wherever it is, the Lego Harry Potter Collection (with both Years 1-4 and Years 5-7) is on sale for just $4 on PS4 right now in case anyone is interested in picking that up: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP1018-CUSA05954_00-HARRYPOTTER17000
My gosh i remember this one (at least i think it was this one) was it the one with the library stealth mission with the cloak?
that was one of my first instances of gamer rage I think, my mum had to do it for me XD
I still regret selling my copy of this game when I was downsizing my collection years ago. I was young and very unfamiliar with RPGs outside of Pokémon when I received it, so I wasn't used to using items/gear in that way and dealing with its style of random encounters; I found it hard and frustrating at first. It clicked after a while, but there are indeed a LOT of rats. XD A lot of it was good fun, even if the Wingardium Leviosa mini game did indeed suck. To this day, I still respect Griptonite Games, the developer, for what they did with this game, its sequel (though I never did play Chamber of Secrets on GBC, I've seen footage), and the GBA version of Prisoner of Azkaban.
I also enjoyed the action puzzler version of Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone on GBA (Edit: Griptonite also handled this one), thought the weird action/platformer of Chamber of Secrets on GBA was...okay (handled by a different studio), and played the PC version of the latter to death. I also enjoyed and eventually beat Prisoner of Azkaban on my cousin's PS2. I also obtained both the PC and DS versions of Goblet of Fire, but at this point the series felt...neutered. I just didn't care for the Harry Potter games as much and stopped asking for them. I learned years later that this was due to EA shifting all Harry Potter development into their internal studios. Which, in hindsight, explains A LOT.
I like HP2 on GBC better
The European version of the title for the first Harry Potter book is the true title. Philosopher's Stone makes more sense than Sorcerer's Stone.
I couldn't agree more! That's a lie because my next sentence is that I liked Chamber of Secrets more. But those two are both excellent little RPGs!!!
I loved this game as a kid!
Hands down this is was my favourite gameboy game!. Had so much fun playing this game!
@LillianC14 they don’t sell this game anymore so don’t worry just emulate
An unexpectedly fine game when I picked it up second-hand back in the day, and a far better experience than any of the console and PC versions of the same era, for my money.
Having said that, I'd still preference the LEGO HP games on Switch (and even DS) now.
Chamber of Secrets on GBC is much better, though!
I wish Nintendo would add the whole GBC library to NSO
Chamber of Secrets for GameCube is not only the best Harry Potter game but a pretty great game in general.
Oh man, played this a million years ago with very limited English, but growing up with HP books and games was magic
This game did something bewildering to me that I've never seen done before on the GB: IT WAS IN PORTUGUESE! Properly translated too, using the same translation the books did (the translator went above and beyond with the books to translate all the made up names). I was struggling to learn English just so I could play Pokémon and Zelda and I thought games in Portuguese could only be a reality on the PC, for whatever reason. 20 years later and basically all companies translate their games to Portuguese..... EXCEPT Nintendo! Oh well.... (and also now as an adult with lots of trans friends I feel very sad when anything Potter comes around because the author is a bigot but that's another issue)
Quidditch World Cup on the GameCube has always been my favorite HP game, but I definitely have fond memories of the GBC games.
I didn't play much of Philosopher's Stone for GBC. Found it hard and a bit boring at the time. Prisoner of Azkaban for GBA though was really good.
I played several games in the series on several platforms, and yes, the GBC versions are by far the best. I do feel like it would have been hard to make it work on more powerful hardware, because it'd be a very lacking RPG then without any character and gear customisation, which would probably break the Harry Potter universe and characters. Lord of the Rings could easily get away with its great turn based RPG game (and my personal favourite LotR game, although I didn't play the more recent ones that seem to be very popular), Harry Potter wouldn't have, in my idea at least.
So yes, it's the best. But continuing that trend wouldn't have worked. Neither did turning it into a third person cover shooter...
This is one I saw someone have many years ago but never picked up myself. It's one I have debated tracking down someday but never got around to. Nice to hear it is solid.
Useless fact: in Russia, Harry Potter is known as Gary Potter.
The best for me is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Wii. They did an amazing job of an openworld Hogwarts, its architecture, secrets, and lively atmosphere.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on PC exists, so no, the best Harry Potter game isn't on GBC
@MetaRyan That was my favorite PC game for the longest time. I loved it and was so close to 100%ing it at one point (only needed one more Wizard card). I replayed it multiple times! Though it was a lot of trouble just to get Goyle's hair lol.
@SKTTR Yeah, they did a great job with the open world and atmosphere with that "Order of the Phoenix" game, but the gameplay itself was merely decent.
They hyped up the motion controlled dueling so much, but then it didn't work properly in practice, and you didn't get many opportunities to practice it anyway, since dueling was restricted only to a rare amount of predetermined events that weren't replayable. Like with the movie adaptation, the Battle of the Department of Mysteries was a shallow affair that in no way lived up to the epic climax it was in the book.
The motion controls in the rest of the game worked much better, although there were still some frustrating levitation-based puzzles that didn't always respond properly, and overall the game is too much of a collectathon (or taskathon) for my tastes.
I also don't like how once you complete the game 100%, there's no real replay value save for another game of Wizard Chess or starting the whole game over from the beginning. Although, it's still the best non-Lego Harry Potter game on the Wii, and I do appreciate that they followed the book over the movie in some areas such as recruiting the entirety of Dumbledore's Army instead of just the small butchered roster from the movie.
Agreed. I had it too. Was really fun.
This was a undoubted hidden gem of an rpg for the system, what a surprise to see it get some love in an article such as this. I thought it had been forgotten.
While I do not care much for HP, this was the single best experience I've ever had from it.
In 2016 I went through and beat Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on PS1 and was surprised at how fun it was. Nice exploration with decent combat and a lot of secrets from the book to boot but with a feel that was somewhere between the book and films
@MrMetroid He said the best Harry Potter game, not best game on Gameboy Color.
@KateGray There's a sequel as well, maybe it was for the GBA, can't remember..!
Yes!!! This game was really good, second only to pokemon silver at the time for me
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