The irony is not lost in knowing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, easily one of the greatest creative phenomenons of recent years, is left in the hands of Electronic Arts, a company constant criticized for their lack of originality. Fans of the boy-who-lived have ridiculously high and picky expectations, too, making it no small feat that EA has consistently managed to develop surprisingly entertaining video-game adaptations of Rowling's universe of magic and muggles. The production values have been brought up another notch on each successive sequel, and you'd be hard pressed not to see where it's all going when you're playing The Goblet of Fire, the next of Potter's adventure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This year, Hogwarts is playing host to the legendary Triwzard Tournament, where one student from Hogwarts and two visiting schools are chosen to participate in three dangerous tasks testing the limits of their wizarding skills. Somehow, though, Harry Potter's name is picked -- despite the fact that someone from Hogwarts is already participating! Unfortunately, the Goblet of Fire constitutes a magically binding contract, which means Harry has no choice but to try and survive the tasks. The Goblet of Fire is a massive, 700+ page novel that's experienced some trimming in surviving the transition to film, and EA's video game follows the path Warner Bros. has paved. Even though the video-game medium provides the perfect opportunity to explore the subplots removed from the movie version, the reliance on the film's assets means EA has unsurprisingly kept close to their vision of Goblet of Fire. Interestingly, though, because the film doesn't provide enough creatures for the developers to fill the levels with, they've actually pulled enemies that weren't in the Goblet of Fire, but were developed by Rowling herself. A nice touch for fans.


These games are straightforward action adventures, but there's the right combination of basic puzzle solving sewn into the action, and the stages are just long enough to avoid tedium. The Goblet of Fire places a fantastic emphasis on teamwork; the books and movies are actively playing up friendship dynamics between Harry, Hermoine and Ron, and now the video games are following suit. In order to move heavy objects, all three characters will need to cast spells simultaneously, and different characters attacking enemies together will produce spells that wouldn't happen with another combination. Combat progress is definitely best achieved this time around by teaming up, too; one character can lift an enemy up, while the others wail on it with jinxes. The auto lock-on means you'll be tossing jinxes at the wrong enemy much of the time, but combat's basic enough so you're basically ignoring who you're firing at and bashing on the jinx button all the time.

By far, the best addition to the Goblet of Fire is the multiplayer element; this time around, people can jump into the game at anytime. Even if you're in the middle of a mission, someone can jump in as whoever character you're not, help you pick up a few Triwizard shields, and drop out with the press of a button. It really encourages on-the-spot multiplayer that's not normally present in these types of games, and works great for older players working through the game with a son, daughter, or younger sibling. Basically, it makes you wonder why it wasn't in the other games, and even though there are times when the game switches to single-player as Harry tackles the Triwizard tasks, much of the Goblet of Fire is multiplayer friendly.