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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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5.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 15 critic reviews
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Based on 16 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Electronic Arts UK

Genre(s): Action, Adventure

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: June 25, 2007

Summary

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that much of the wizarding community has been denied the truth about the teenager’s recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort. Fearing that Hogwarts' venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort's return in order to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students. But Professor Dolores Umbridge's Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the dark forces threatening them and the entire wizarding community, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry takes matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves "Dumbledore’s Army," Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead. With the ability to play multiple characters, including Harry Potter, Dumbledore and Sirius Black, the videogame of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix offers fans the opportunity to wield a wand, explore all around Hogwarts, and experience one of the most exciting and dangerous years in the life of the Boy Who Lived. [Electronic Arts / Warner Bros.]

Also On Metacritic

FILM: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

GAMES: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Games Master UK

With trickier minigames and less wandering and this would have been a winner. [Sept 2007, p.80]

Nintendo Power

Order of the Phoenix delivers nice graphics and music, and some genuinely fun activities (including a multiplayer mode) but the endless tasks seem more like prepping for O.W.L.S. than playing a game. [Aug 2007, p.84]

Worth Playing

Feels limited, and your powers seem squandered on simply fixing statues or any of the other humdrum tasks you're instructed to complete.

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Play.tm

A resoundingly flat adventure that fails to inspire more than fleeting moments of touch-screen enjoyment that are never expanded upon. Running backwards and forwards across Hogwarts may admirably show the level of detail EA has invested in the game's environments, but it also clearly exposes the overall lack of content unfolding within it.

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IGN

The minigames are fun and make fantastic use of the DS touch screen in different and interesting ways. At the same time actually reaching the games is frustrating and boring, and the story is handled so poorly that even playing through the game I didn’t get much of an idea what the film will be all about.

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Game Almighty

The minigames aren’t anything you haven’t seen before on the DS, but they do a good job of breaking up the tedium of travelling Hogwarts.

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NGamer UK

Running is done clumsily with the D-pad, while the stylus is only used in minigames. [Sept 2007, p.70]

GameZone

If your Harry Potter fandom tells you that it’s worth spending your money to see an ugly representation of your favorite character run around an ugly representation of your favorite school doing boring things, ignore it and buy a better game. Trust me.

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GameSpot

A few fun minigames don't make the watered-down story and tedious fetch quests tolerable.

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AceGamez

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix could have been so much better - the graphics are pretty good, the sound is passable but grates quickly and the mini-games are fun for a short while. However, the gameplay is tedious, the AI is glitchy and the plotline and speech are compressed.

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Pocket Gamer UK

The game of the film of the book has exploration, adventuring, action, and loads of mini-games but Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ends up being a confusing mush of ideas.

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GameSpy

Despite the enjoyable spell casting, the DS version of Order of the Phoenix simply isn't much fun. It's made even less enjoyable due to the poorly handled control and camera angles.

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Gamestyle

Gamestyle is sure that die-hard, DS owning Potter fans will buy this game, and maybe even enjoy it a tiny bit, regardless of what we say here. For the rest of us though, this is one to steer clear of. Repetitive, tedious wandering and only marginally entertaining mini-games do not a proper game make.

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Thunderbolt

An utterly abysmal game.

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Games Radar (in-house)

What you get from this DS disaster instead, is a headache without even half the heart of the novel.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Corey L. gave it a2:
The best part of this entire game is easily the multiplayer mini-games. The story line is so watered down that even die-hard harry potter fans will wonder what they are doing.

William T. gave it a4:
Could have been a good game, but has too much running around (With the headache inducing camera), errand running and repetitive gameplay. But altogether it's just BORING. Avoid.

Desmond H. gave it a3:
If you want to play this game, play the console versions. As for the DS version, get a different game.

[Anonymous] gave it a4:
The game has horrible camera angles and has a bad storyline. I must admit the minigames are fun, but it is not enough to make up for this poorly made game. And after the Ministry part theres nothing to do except for playing minigames. My advice? Go reserve the Phantom Hourglass

Sally gave it a9:
This game is a bit boring at the start but after the 10th task it gets more intersting.

Sarge S. gave it a1:
Very very bad, and incredibly short.

Kai C. gave it a10:
I've played all the Harry Potter games and OOTP is by far the best handhelp HP game out there. Really fantastic.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Game Info

Summary

Also On Metacritic

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

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