LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 & LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7

If any of you never got your letter to Hogwarts when you were 11, fear not for you can still go to Hogwarts with the LEGO Harry Potter games that were released back in 2010 and 2011 respectively.  Each game lets you learn new spells and potions that you use as you play through the 8 movies- since year 7 is split into 2 movies, as Harry Potter and his friends and defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort.  The first game, LEGO Harry Years 1-4, has a massive open world with the Hogwarts Castle, which is very easy to get lost and wonder how you ended up wherever you are, with no easy way out.  The open world for LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 has more free-roam in areas like: the wilderness that Harry, Ron, and Hermione go camping in while on the run from Death Eaters, the Hogsmeade Village, and the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts.  You can still explore the Hogwarts Castle in LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7, but it is not as big as it was in the first game.

Below is a chart of the different abilities, spells, and potions that you can learn in the 2 LEGO Harry Potter games:

Spells	What Game	How to Unlock	What it Does
Wingardium Leviosa	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Taught in Professor Flitwick’s Charms lesson at the very beginning of Year 1. Automatically unlocked in Years 5-7.	Your most basic spell, used everywhere, to basically do everything, from building, moving stuff, to turning things on or off.
Lumos Solem	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Taught in Charms in Years 1-4, and becomes one of your default spells after your first class in Years 5-7.	Acts as a light in dark places, can also get rid of Devil’s Snare.
Immobulus	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Taught in Professor Lockhart’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class in Year 2	Use it on Cornish Pixies, to defeat them, also can be used on enemies to temporally stun them.
Riddikulus	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Taught in Professor Lupin’s Defense Against the Dark Arts in Year 3.	Used to defeat Boggarts, by making what you fear something ridiculous and humorous.
Expecto Patronum	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Harry Potter learns this spell in Year 3 from Professor Lupin to defeat the Dementors that are at Hogwarts looking for Sirius Black. In Year 5, the spell is taught to the members of Dumbledore’s Army when Professor Umbridge refuses to teach spells.	Used to repel Demenators.
Reducto	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Taught in Professor Mad-Eye Moody’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class in Year 4. The spell is retaught to you in Year 6 by Flitwick in Charms. Guess Flitwick didn’t trust you learning the spell from a fraud.	Destroys metal objects, and other objects, great for fighting things in the Forbidden Forest.
Avada Kedavra	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Only Dark Wizards can use this spell.	Instantly kills someone, and will give you a one-way ticket to Azkaban Prison.
Diffindo	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Taught in a Charms Lesson in Year 5 by Professor Flitwick.	Used to cut out red LEGO walls and objects, while following the pattern that the spell wants.
Aguamenti	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Taught in a Charms lesson in Year 6 by Professor Flitwick.	Shoots water from the end of your wand that can give you money, characters, or gold bricks.
Legilimens (Focus)	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Harry Potter attempts to learn this spell from Professor Snape in Year 5 to block out Voldemort. Only very powerful Wizards can use it.	This spell is used to read minds, and see what people want.
Potions	What Game	How to Unlock	What it Does
Strength Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Made in your first Potions class with Professor Snape in Year 1, and made it Year 5 early in the game to get out of a classroom.	Temporally gives your character super-strength.
Polyjuice Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Made in Year 2 to sneak into the Slytherin Common-room to find out more about the attacks, then made again in Year 7 when the Order disguises themselves as Harry Potter.	Allows you to change your character into someone else that you have unlocked.
Ageing Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Fred and George make this potion to put their names in Goblet of Fire in Year 4 because they are not old enough.	Gives your character a beard so they can cross age lines.
Invisibility Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Able from the start of the game.	Turn invisible to sneak past people.
Exploding Potion	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Able from the start of the game.	A potion that when completed will blow up other LEGO bricks in the area.
Skele-Gro	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	This potion is made by Madam Pomfrey in the Year 2 level, Dobby’s Plan.	Regrows Harry Potter’s bones after they are completely gone in his 2nd Year because of Professor Lockhart.
Draught of Living Death	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Taught in Professor Slughorn’s Potions Class in Year 6.	No real usage, besides turning your character into a skeleton for a short period of time.
Special Abilities	What Game	How to Unlock	What it Does
Pet	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Characters with pets can use them to go through special tubes to unlock new areas.
Dig	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Characters with a shovel, or animals with paws can dig up dirt to uncover hidden objects.
Transfiguration	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Change your character from a human into a dog, rat, beetle, werewolf, or cat depending on which character it is, to unlock new items.
Strength	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Has this ability unlocked from the beginning of the game.	Pull on orange handles to open doors and other objects.
Rune	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Hermione, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Grindewald have this as an ability that they have from the beginning.	Characters with a blue textbook can use it to help them decode ruins, which unlock all sorts of things.
Invisibility Cloak	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and Years 5-7	Harry Potter gets his father’s cloak for Christmas in Year 1 from Dumbledore, and has had it ever since.	Turns Harry Potter invisible, but also limits his abilities while so using it.
Time Turner	LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4	Hermione unlocks this at the end of Year 3. McGonagall and Dumbledore also can use the ability.	Turn back time at clocks to unlock more items.
Deluminator	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Ron gets from Dumbledore at the beginning of Year 7.	Ron Weasley can use the Deluminator to move light from one lantern to another, unlocking new areas, and other surprises.
Weasley Boxes	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	All members of the Weasley family can use these boxes.	Open the boxes to unleash surprises to clear areas.
Handbag	LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7	Hermione unlocks this ability at the beginning of Year 7.	Hermione can use her handbag with a very intense carrying capacity to unlock new items.

As you can see from the chart above, basically everybody in the games have the exact same abilities. There is really no difference between an adult Wizard like Mad-Eye Moody, and the spells that a regular student knows. Professor Dumbledore is supposed to be one of the most powerful Wizards of all-time, but he has no special abilities at all.  Some of the abilities and missing elements that could have been interesting to have in the games are: being able to use Mad-Eye Moody’s eye to uncover secret objects, being able to play as Fawkes the Phoenix bird of Dumbledore to fly around, being able to create your own Animagus character, play as Firenze the Centaur, have Divination quests that you can do with Trelawney and Firenze, and a map.  Also since there is no taking characters in the games, it can be hard to know where to go next in the story sometimes especially since the LEGO games alter quite a bit from the movies and books to make it more kid friendly.

LEGO Middle Earth: LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO the Hobbit

LEGO Lord of the Rings- Relive one of the greatest fantasy adventures of all-time, with dialogue straight from the movie. Play as your favorite characters: like Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Samwise the Brave, Frodo Baggins, Merry and Pippin, along with characters that you couldn’t care less about like: random orcs, different versions of elves, Gondor and Rohan soldiers, and the really creepy bad guys like: Sauron, the Nazgul, Sméagol, and the Mouth of Sauron.  Some new features in the game are the ability to forge new weapons, armors, and other random items at the Blacksmith shop in Bree with the Mithril bricks that you have collected across the world of Middle Earth. Another thing is that you now have a backpack where your character can store up to 8 items which includes your character’s default items.  One of the annoying things with the backpack element in the game is your weapon default setting – turned off – meaning you have to manually select the weapon when you want to fight or destroy something.  This gets very annoying quickly.  Another really disappointing thing in the game is the fact that all of the swords, bows, and wizard staves all look very generic, and it is impossible to tell the difference between Aragorn’s sword and a regular broad sword used by the regular soldiers.  Gandalf’s staff is just a stick that can shoot light beams, and Legolas’s 2 bows look the exact same.  There are 18 story levels in the game, 6 for each of the 3 movies.  Some of the levels don’t really capture the epicness of the moment in the movie, like the Battle of the Black Gate where you are just fighting trolls and not the whole hordes of Mordor, or the total omission the Battle of Gondor, or the Cleansing of the Shire from the end of the Return of the King book, which could have made an interesting bonus level in the game.

Character Profiles

Aragorn- heir to the throne of Gondor, but Aragorn does not want to accept his birthright because one of his ancestors failed to destroy the One Ring of Power. He spent much of his life (he is 87 years old) in the wild, and living with elves. But once Frodo starts his quest to destroy the Ring, he heads home to Gondor to reclaim his rightful throne, and brings peace to much of Middle Earth. His weapons and abilities in the game include his 2 handed sword that he used for much of his life and his sword Anduril, which was the legendary sword that was broken, that can destroy evil.

Legolas- an elven prince from the land of Mirkwood, who was part of the events of the Hobbit, despite not being mentioned anywhere the book.  Legolas and the dwarf Gimli originally start off as rivals, but eventually become very close friends, even say that they would die for the other, rebuilding the friendship between the races that has not been there for several generations of Middle Earth. His weapons and abilities include, his twin daggers, his regular longbow, his new bow given him by the Lady Galadriel, he able to high jump, walk on deep snow, tightrope walk, and keen eyesight.

Gimli- son of Gloin one of the dwarves who went on the quest with Bilbo to reclaim their homeland, the mountain Erebor. Gimli is a very powerful warrior, and very adept with his axes and hatchets. Like Aragorn and Legolas, Gimli is also a member of a royal family, since his dad, cousin, uncles and other random family members are lords of different Middle Earth Mountains.  It was Gimli’s idea to take the Fellowship of the Ring to try to visit his cousin Balin in the Mines of Moria, but that didn’t end well.  His abilities and weapon in the game include, being able to travel through the small hatches to access new areas, can be thrown by certain people to have Gimli break certain walls with his axe and body mass, and he has only one single bladed axe, instead of a double bladed one like he uses in the movies.  In fact in the movies, he uses several different types of axes and hatchets are completely omitted from the game.

Gandalf- one of the 5 Wizards or Istari, who are stewards over different regions of Middle Earth, Gandalf is given the responsibility to protect the Shire, which is why the Hobbits there are very familiar with Gandalf the Grey and his famous fireworks during such occasions as the birthday celebration for Bilbo (and Frodo). Gandalf is one of the oldest beings in all of the world of Middle Earth.  He was thought to have been killed by the Balrog in the Mines of Moria, but he was brought back in greater power as the White Wizard, being able to tip the scale for the free peoples of Middle Earth in their cause to defeat Sauron the Great Eye. His weapons and abilities for both variants include his staff that can cast magic and act as a light in dark places, his sword Glamdring, which is one of the great swords to fight evil, and he arrives precisely when he means to.

Boromir- son of the steward of Gondor, Boromir is one of the captain of Gondor’s armies who was sent to Rivendell to be one of the members of the Fellowship of the Ring.  Boromir wanted to try to use the Ring of Power against Sauron to protect his homeland from invasion from Mordor, but the Ring is not able to be wielded except by Sauron himself. The Ring nearly drove Boromir to the point where he almost killed Frodo.  Boromir died a hero’s death defending the Hobbits Merry and Pippin from the orcs. His weapons and abilities include his shield, sword, and horn of Gondor that can be used to stun enemies for a short period of time.

Frodo Baggins- the adopted nephew of Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins is given the task to take the Ring of Power to Mordor and the destroy it once and for all to save the peoples of Middle Earth. Frodo’s weapon and abilities include the elven shortsword Sting, an elven cloak to help keep him hidden from the enemy, the Phial of Galadriel to light up dark areas, his Mithril vest given him by his uncle, and go through small hatches.

Samwise the Brave- the gardener, best friend of Frodo Baggins, and the one who never left his side literally or figuratively.  If not for Samwise the Brave, Frodo would have never made it to Mordor and destroyed the Ring.  He singlehandedly took on a tower full of orcs just to rescue Frodo from Sauron’s clutches. Another great moment is when he carries Frodo up the rest of Mount Doom when they are both very exhausted from their journey.  Sam’s weapons and abilities include a frying pan that can be used for cooking quests and hitting with, a shovel for digging and planting, a tinderbox for starting fires, an elven rope, and go through small hatches.

Merry- a cousin, close friend, and member of Frodo’s companions until Merry and Pippin are captured by orcs.  Merry and Pippin are always getting themselves into trouble both in the Shire and on their journey across Middle Earth.  Merry joins the fight with the Riders of Rohan when a mysterious person grabs him and places him and haves him go into battle with them.  Merry has a shortsword, a fishing pole, and can go through small hatches.

Pippin- a cousin, close friend, and member of Frodo’s companions until Merry and Pippin are captured by orcs.  Merry and Pippin are always getting themselves into trouble both in the Shire and on their journey across Middle Earth.  Some of the things that Pippin accidently caused were: the dragon firework in the Shire, unleashing the Balrog in Moria, and using the Palantir to talk to Sauron, but Pippin does redeem himself by saving Faramir and Gandalf during the Battle of Gondor.  Pippin has a shortsword, a bucket, and can go through small hatches.

Sméagol- one of the more complex characters in the Lord of the Rings series, he was originally a character very similar to a Hobbit before he found the Ring of Power the corrupted him and drove him mad. Now many years later, he has no friends, no teeth, no hair, and he hates himself and the Ring. Sméagol acts as the guide for Frodo and Sam so they can get to Mordor and destroy the Ring, since he is one of the few creatures to make there and back again. His abilities are going through small hatches and climbing special walls.

Saruman- once a great and mighty wizard, now a person who only cares about power and more power. Before Gandalf came back from the dead, Saruman was the White Wizard and one of the wisest beings in all of Middle Earth, and before he starting dealing in dark magic and working for Sauron. His abilities is being able to use his staff to light up dark areas and magic.

Sauron- the very personification of evil, and the forger of the Ring of Power, Sauron had a human body until his finger was cut off by one of the great kings of Gondor. Now Sauron is just a creepy looking eye that watches over any realm of Middle Earth that he chooses, usually the realm of Gondor to watch out for the Return of the King.

LEGO The Hobbit- Relive Bilbo’s journey from Hobbit that sits in his comfy armchair at the fire, to Master Burglar, and hero of many songs of Middle Earth. Like LEGO Lord of the Rings, there is the backpack, crafting and Mithril bricks, as well as the ability to collect pieces of loot that can be used to build new items at the blacksmith, progress in the story, or feed Bombur, so you can use his belly as a trampoline.  For some reason this game only covers the Unexpected Journey and the Desolation of Smaug, the Battle of Five Armies is completely omitted from the game, leaving the player at a very awkward ending with Smaug just going out of the mountain with no real wrap up to the story, and the LEGO Hobbit line was discontinued in 2014, 6 months after the game was released.  I wonder if the LEGO team started working on the game when there were only going to be 2 Hobbit movies instead of 3, guess we will never know.  The characters in this game are the 13 dwarves with at least 2 variants each, Bilbo Baggins with 3 or 4 variants, Gandalf the Grey, Legolas, Tauriel, Saruman the White, several random orcs and elves, and that is pretty much the character roster for this game.  Also with characters in this game, it is the first game where you can play as big characters like trolls, in fact you can even customize your own troll, horse, or warg if you really want to.

It really would have been cool if before the LEGO Hobbit line was discontinued if we could have gotten a LEGO Middle Earth game that lets you play through all 6 movies: the Fellowship of the Ring, the Two Towers, the Return of the King, the Unexpected Journey, the Desolation of Smaug, and the Battle of Five Armies.

LEGO Star Wars: the Complete Saga vs LEGO Star Wars: the Force Awakens

LEGO Star Wars the Complete Saga:

·        Released back in November of 2007, more than 10 years ago.

·        Play through iconic moments of the 6 Star Wars movies: Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

·        Play as your favorite characters and use vehicles from the Star Wars saga while you recreate classic moments however you want.

·        Character creator for this game is very simple: you can choose between Lightsaber, blaster, pistol, different styles of hat and helmets, caps, and what color you want for the body to be.

·        There is only one small hub for you to explore in this game, and that is the Mos Eisley Cantina, which is where to go to choose your different levels, buy characters, extras, and other stuff.

·        After collecting all 160 gold bricks, in the outside of the Cantina will be a giant fountain that will give you infinite money every time you come to it.

·        Aside from the story levels, there are quite a few different types of bonus missions:

§   Bounty Hunter missions- track down targets for Jabba the Hutt,

§  Character/ Mini-kit Bonus Missions- each episode has an area where you have to collect 1,000,000 studs while using the vehicles or characters unlocked, under the time limit. 

§  There are also levels from the previous LEGO Star Wars games that were altered for the Complete Saga, like Podracing and the Gunship levels. New bonus levels include: Anakin’s Flight, and another level where you are collecting 1,000,000 studs, but without a time limit.

·        Character abilities in LEGO Star Wars the Complete Saga are: shoot, jump (regular, double), Lightsaber, grapple, access panels, explosives, hover, Force powers (Light, Dark), small hatches, slap, and others.

LEGO Star Wars the Force Awakens:

·        Released almost 2 years ago back in June of 2016, 6 months after the release of the Force Awakens movie.

·        Play through the events of the Force Awakens as your favorite new characters like: BB-8, Poe Dameron, Rey, Finn, the new versions of Han Solo, Princess Leia, and many others, as you take on the First Order and save the Galaxy (again.)

·        New abilities and features in this game include: dialogue straight from the film along with new audio recorded by the actors, dogfights in iconic and unknown Star Wars ships, blaster battles, multi-builds, command troopers, Lightsaber throw, and many others.

·        The characters in LEGO Star Wars the Force Awakens, are not just from the Force Awakens movie, but there are characters like Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker who are in the game as “carbonite bricks” characters, meaning who find their brick somewhere in the Galaxy, and then defrost the brick to unlock them for free play. There are a total of 35 “carbonite bricks” spread across the Galaxy that allow you to unlock awesome characters from the main Star Wars universe.

·        LEGO Star Wars the Force Awakens includes additional content for the Clone Wars and Rebels TV series, LEGO Star Wars the Freemaker Adventures, the Prequels, the Jedi order, Jabba’s palace, and the Empire Strikes Back. Nearly every character that appeared in the Complete Saga video game, appears in the Force Awakens game, either in the main game, or as additional content, except for: Rebel trooper (Hoth), Lando Calrissian (Bespin) the Force Ghost versions of Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker, and Yoda, and other minor characters.

LEGO Star Wars the Force Awakens Hub Worlds:

·        Jakku- a very large desert, as well as Rey’s home world that she was left on when she was just a little girl.  This planet has the largest open world for you to get lost in since there is not much on Jakku, except for some ruins of a fallen Imperial Walker, and a downed Star Destroyer.  There are characters and missions to do like the other planets, but that is basically it.

·        Takodana- home to Maz Kanata’s Castle, which is basically the new Mos Eisley Cantina.  The planet free roam is the ruins of the planet after the place was assaulted by the First Order, trying to get the map to Luke Skywalker inside BB-8.  The characters and missions that are on this planet are a mixture of heroes, First Order, and 3^rd parties.

·        D’Qar- the Rebellion/Resistance’s new base of operations, or at least for the Force Awakens story.  This planet is very reminiscent of the Rebel base on Yavin IV from A New Hope with the “temple” structures, the geography, and the music. There are many missions to do here for the different Resistance leaders and many characters to unlock, also this planet is where you go to build your custom characters, and defrost the carbonite bricks found throughout the Galaxy.

·        Starkiller Base- part planet, part superweapon, Starkiller Base is the First Order’s version of the Imperial’s Death Stars.  Most of the missions and collectibles on this planet are related to the First Order and other bad guys like the Emperor, Count Dooku, and many others.

·        Millennium Falcon- one of the most iconic ships of all Science Fiction, this hub is mostly just a few hallways with miscellaneous items to destroy.  2 points of interest in the Millennium Falcon are the holo-chess table bonus level, and unlocking the “classic” Han Solo through a little “asteroid challenge.”

LEGO Star Wars: Complete Saga and Force Awakens Character Variations

• Han Solo
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Princess Leia 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
• Luke Skywalker 
  
  
    
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
• Obi-Wan Kenobi 
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
• Chewbacca 
  Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader 
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
   
  
  
• Jango Fett 
  
  
  
  
  
• Boba Fett 
  
  
  
  
• Lando Calrissian 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Darth Maul 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga and the Force Awakens Character Grids