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"  Also available on: PS3, Wii, PC, DS, PSPDeveloper: Traveller&amp;#039;s TalesPublisher: Warner Bros.Genre: Puzzle-adventure The LEGO games have taken everyone by surprise. Despite only turning five years old this year, it is already one of gaming&amp;#039;s biggest money spinners, overtaking heavyweights Halo and Resident Evil with sales of over 46 million worldwide. After tackling mega franchises Star Wars, Batman and Indiana Jones, it&amp;#039;s now Harry Potter&amp;#039;s turn to be transformed into a pile of bricks, and in the year when the final motion picture and a theme park is released, its timing is impeccable. As the title suggests, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 follows the first four years of Harry, Ron and Hermione&amp;#039;s tenure at Hogwarts, from the humble beginnings of choosing a wand at Diagon Alley to the deadly Triwizard Tournament. Although the game is split up into directed chapters, the trio are free to explore Hogwarts throughout, which acts as an ever-present hub world that continues to evolve as new spells are learnt and key story events transpire, giving it a centralised and far more organic progression than any other LEGO game previously. It also feels full of life, with students clapping your brave achievements and donning Santa hats at Christmas time. Once you make your way through student-filled corridors and courtyards, lessons and plot-specific outings have you solve puzzle scenarios by assembling or destroying objects with magic. You can swap between the trio at any time (or have a friend assume them in co-op) to use student specific abilities, such as flying across ledges as the broom-wielding Harry, deciphering ancient symbols with Hermione or directly controlling Ron&amp;#039;s pet rat Scabbers in dingy toilet piping. More often than not you have to use a combination of these abilities alongside standard spells to progress through each gauntlet of obstacles. While solving these puzzles is made simple due to the hands-off nature of using magic - it&amp;#039;s literally a case of walking up to a highlighted object and holding down a button - the way in which set pieces lead on to each other with flurries of animation is incredibly imaginative, and you can&amp;#039;t help but become lost in toying with even the most mundane of objects, whether it be lighting torches like fireworks or firing shots at bathing wizards living in paintings. While it does ramp up the complexity as the adventure progresses, the enjoyment comes mostly from the energy and flair in how each solution pieces together more than anything else. While the progression between pivotal plot-points is swiftly handled, there are occasional issues that can halt the flow of exploration. Occasionally you&amp;#039;re asked to construct a set of stairs by manually assembling bricks with the analogue stick, but the imprecise and sluggish controls make it a lengthy and arduous process. In fact, targeting in general is a bit of a bother, where objects are only highlighted by proxy, so picking out a particular item from a clump can be frustrating. And despite the general simplicity of each scene, there are points where you reach an absolute standstill, and when there are no hints available, it&amp;#039;s a case of pacing the room and trying every spell in your repertoire until you just happen to chance upon the solution. While the aiming is riddled with problems, the presentation is top notch. The cutscenes are all terrifically animated and genuinely amusing, with slap-stick humour and cute grunts for voices, and it&amp;#039;s certainly the most madcap and light-hearted portrayal of Harry Potter seen to date. While it struggles to portray the intricate plots of each book, it does enough to refresh your memory of what should be going on, with a dollop of humour thrown in for good measure. The familiar soaring music as you explore Hogwarts is also a particular highlight, and for once the LEGO format makes perfect sense considering the licence, with magical abilities that can explode and rebuild things at every opportunity. As introduced in LEGO Indiana Jones 2, there&amp;#039;s a whole level creation suite to be toyed around with. There are also literally hundreds collectables and side objectives, from rescuing perilous students in each chapter to finding bonus characters, and it demands copious amounts of replayability as you discover new spells. Drop-in drop-out co-operative play makes tinkering with every scene that much more enjoyable, while collecting studs is just as addictive and therapeutic as it&amp;#039;s ever been. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is simply a delight to play through. The level of complexity and challenge makes it a perfect bridge for younger and older players, especially in co-op, and it offers stacks to do when the adventure is over and done with. The humour riddled throughout does a superb job of making the licence feel fresh and imaginative all over again. It&amp;#039;s a game that&amp;#039;s undemanding to play, well-rounded and above all, seriously good fun.  &amp;amp;gt; What do you think of the game? Share your views "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/review/a236430/lego-harry-potter-years-1-4-360/>