Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (GameCube) offers a decent adaptation of the beloved book and film, letting players attend classes at Hogwarts, learn spells, and explore iconic locations. The ability to switch between Harry, Ron, and Hermione adds some gameplay variety. However, the experience suffers from uneven pacing, sometimes repetitive mini-games, and a simplified storyline compared to its source material. While enjoyable for younger fans or those seeking a quick burst of Potter nostalgia, it lacks the depth or polish of some other entries in the game series.

I always loved how the games followed the films in more ways than one, even accidentally.

The two first films have the same director and thus the same style, and most of the kids don't really have any obvious changes in between them, neither do the two games. It's the third one when everything becomes different. New director, new style. The game has brand new graphics. It feels like the beginning of a new era.

It no longer just feels like a kids game that some team threw together on the backside of a month (until the end maybe), but it feels like an actual game that they spent some actual time on. It doesn't feel like I'm playing a straight-up kids game.

The opening FMV is absolutely epic. Real time was spent on the storytelling aspect of the game, and it makes it so much more rewarding to play. There's an actual style, and an atmosphere, and an aesthetic to it that feels genuine and unique. It feels like if the Chamber of Secrets game just grew up.

No quidditch this time around, though, which is a bummer.

There are less gaps in the narrative now. Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets were almost laughable when it came to that, but these guys actually try to capture the story told as closely as possible. I know it's just because I've read the book and watched the film, but scenes towards the end actually managed to give me chills. I do feel like there was a lot of stuff cut from this game because of deadlines, which sucks, but that's life, and they made it work anyways.

And they even go beyond that. With the previous games, the game might veer off a bit to tell the story in a way that fits the game, but this game adds segments and story beats that aren't even in the book or the film.

Even if their creativeness in its storytelling, and video game making in general, just kinda dies down towards the end (because of deadlines, I'm guessing).

Plus, the game is just better now because you have Ron and Hermione with you for most of the game, and you can even switch to their characters. You even have them with you into the spell challenges, which is more than cool. However, because they follow you this time around, you can't really rely on following them to places, so you kind of have to figure out which doors you're supposed to enter yourself. But not only do you get to play as the three characters, you also get different specific abilities with each character, like Ron being able to see hidden doors, and Harry being able to jump (cool ability, bruv). But it doesn't stop there; the different characters also have character-specific spells. That's really cool.

Also, I adore the character models and animations.

They reuse a lot of music from previous games, which is actually kind of a positive because Chamber of Secrets has my second favorite video game soundtrack of all time. But it's also sort of a bummer because the original music that is here is really good. I especially love the more melancholic and not super happy tone of some of it. And the more mysterious and majestic, and less fun and adventurous, music.

I will say that the pause menu is frustratingly slow. And I don't like how voice lines are interrupted when you pause, and they don't continue when you unpause. And only being able to equip two spells at a time is a nuisance.

And the last act is way, way too short.

But I love this game. It's a good ol' time.