Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Wii, 2007)

LIKE: The expansive and absolutely gorgeous Hogwarts Castle.

DISLIKE: The VERY clumsy controls! After playing the latest Zelda, which had very intuitive and easy-to-master controls for aiming and movement, this one is VERY disappointing.
Developers needed to study the aiming and movement mechanics of Zelda, Metroid, etc. It is often exasperating to get Harry to face the direction you want him to to target an item for a spell. It should not be harder to focus, target and aim while playing a Wii game, like Harry Potter OOTP, than it is to play a well-developed game (Zelda, Metroid, etc.) made for the Gamecube. But it is. I'll take Zelda OOT for Gamecube for ease of control any day over this one for Wii, and that is too bad.

LIKE: The non-linear, free-roaming, exploration abilities. HOGWARTS IS HUGE!

DISLIKE: The choppy cuts between gameplay action and cinematic adventures. There are some very bad, erratic cut scenes. You would never find such jarring cuts in the previously-mentioned, well-crafted games.

LIKE: This game actually utilizes some of John Williams' great original musical themes (for the first time), in addition to the basic themes from previous games.

SUMMATION: This HAD potential, and is a slight improvement from previous games, but it is no Zelda. In fact, due to the great mechanics of Zelda, I found this game almost a little too exasperating to stay with. It should have sold cheaper than Twilight Princess, not for the same price, like previous HP games. There is a reason they were cheaper. Those reasons still exist.

MY ADVICE: Wait until it is cheaper and buy a used copy on eBay.

When I bought this game I thought it would be great and awesome and so much fun, turns out it isn't really that great. Unlike the other Harry Potter games this one has horrible controls. I got really frustated when Harry would not point his wand in a simple direction and cast his spell at the right object. The spell casting wasn't done much better. When you cast spells you have to swing the remote or twirl it a certain way. This was just as frustrating when you tried to get Harry to use the spell you wanted him too.
This game is fun if you look past the controls and spell movements. The characters voices are those just like in the movie. Hogwarts is huge and you can roam free around it finding and unlocking hidden things. The storyline is just like the movie and you get to play as other people in the movie besides Harry like Dumbledore when he fights Voldemort.
If you're a fan of the Harry Potter games and you have to get this game then I'm not stopping you. If you have money and you're looking for a good Wii game I wouldn't recommend you buy this one.

Myself, I am a Harry Potter freak. I can most certainly understand why this makes the game appeal tremendously to me, whereas it might not do the same for a casual fan or anyone else.
The greatest part of the game to me is the massive castle grounds, which can provide loads of entertainment without you requiring to even do anything in the game. Running from the Gryffindor common room out to the owlery in real time is just a lot of fun.
The graphics are rendered beautifully, and even the characters themselves don't look all together horrible. The only problem I could see was framerate issues, and it would get jagged and slow at times for no real reason. This isn't that huge of a problem, but I was disappointed with it.
The game itself is also quite fun. The mechanics of using the wand to cast spells is really intuitive and you will have yourself lifting chairs in the air and repairing broken vases almost instantly. This is also a bad thing, in that the difficulty in this game is basically near zero. I switched it up to "very difficult" immediately upon starting the game, and it still feels like an easy level game to me. I suppose that is because it is primarily made for children, and I am a grown man who likes to play Harry Potter video games.
Overall, it was well worth my purchase. Being a huge fan, I can see the appeal of owning the game and running around Hogwarts Castle whenever I choose, and perhaps having a playthrough of it in the future if I were to get bored or something. To anyone who is not a huge fan, however, you can easily complete it during a rental period, so I would not advise you to buy at full price.

I really love HP and I thought this game would be totally awesome. It was fun, but it'd quickly get boring.
pros: pretty good graphics, get to use wii remote often, explore explore explore!!
cons: map was hard to follow, script was pretty shoddy and could be annoying at times.

The most fun part was the exploring and being able to run wildly and seing what's behind a potrait and stuff like that. But, once that wears off it goes a bit down hill.
The map was hard to follow because you'd pinpoint a place you'd want to go and then you have to follow these black footsteps to get there. More than half the time Ron and/or Mione's head/body would get in the way and you couldn't tell which way to go! Also, if it's dark because of shadowing, you've no clue which direction to take. And, you're staring at the ground trying to follow footsteps and you'd practically be crosseyed because you're afraid of 'losing' the steps!! Now, onto the script. The script played 2-3 lines per person....you'd hear it ALL day long! Also, the annoying part is when you're trying to get somewhere and Mione or Ron keep saying "we should get to the library." Well, I KNOW that...if you'd just move out of my way and stop blocking the door so I can get out and GET to the library!!
There really are a few things that could be changed, but they can more or less be overlooked.

Out of 10, I'd give either a 6.5 or 7.

hope I helped!!
~mich
p.s. I've finished the game in about 1 day but I haven't discovered 100% of the school. From what I've done, I think it'd been nice if I could play quidditch or swim or go beat up Dudley or something lol.

First of all, I have to say that I am a fan of the Harry Potter book series. Because I love the books so much, I have watched the movies.
Because I have watched the movies, I thought I would try the video game.
I would suggest sticking to the books, and letting your imagination bring you around Hogwarts.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" for the Wii, I feel is a waste of time. Perhaps if you were very bored, then this game would provide some amusement, as you ignored your 'mission' and just walked about Hogwarts school...talking to various characters, exploring rooms, and using your limited spells to move things around. It was kind of nice to 'walk' through the castle, and overall the graphics were quite nice. Even the human characters looked pretty decent (a little odd, but recognizable, anyway).

But I felt that if you were to actually try to play the game (the way that the game wants you to play), it was tedious. I was frustrated when, in Grimmauld Place, Ron needed help putting a few piles of clothing away in his trunk, and you have to use your spellwork to 'Wingardium Leviosa' the clothing all of 2 feet over into the trunk. Ron must be super-lazy! (I know that is just a practice-lesson, but even still!)

All in all, the controls are not too difficult to use (although you do need both the Wii controller and the nunchuk) although sometimes it is a bit tricky to get your spells to point exactly where you want them to go.

I would say that this game is best for young children (perhaps age 6-10) who just want to walk around the castle and look at things...not for serious-gamers.

Thank you for reading, I hope that this has helped you.