Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PS2) REF MAP79

USED ORIGINAL GAME BOXED WITH MANUAL GWO

It was no surprise that the first Harry Potter games were a huge success, but what was unusual was that they were actually pretty good. Millions of fans will be pleased to hear that the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets game is even better.

Taking its visual and audio cues from the movies but sticking closer to the book than a two-hour film ever could, the PS2 game begins as Harry starts his second year at Hogwarts despite an ominous warning from Dobby the House Elf. At its heart Chamber of Secrets is a 3-D platform game, similar to Super Mario or Jak & Daxter, with the same basic controls being used for the majority of the game. However, the nature of the story means the game is peppered with various mini-games and side quests, including Quidditch and Wizard duels.

In between the major quests you get a chance to explore Hogwarts, which is impressively massive and filled with hidden secrets--the collecting of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans being of particular importance since they can then be traded with Ron's brother for everything from Famous Witches and Wizards Cards to upgrades for your Quidditch kit.

If the game has only one fault it's the extremely long and unusually frequent loading screens that keep popping up, and which you soon get very tired of seeing. It's not nearly enough to ruin the game though, which must go down as one of the best book/movie conversions of all time. --David Jenkins