Wonderbook: Book of Spells

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I absolutely love this game. It is packed with new content from JK Rowling, and it delivers it in a fresh, exciting way. Hold your Move controller, and on screen it turns into a wand. The plain blue book appears on screen as an ancient spellbook. Turn the pages and watch animations appear as you learn to cast spells with your wand controller. You learn incantations, methods, and origins of the spells, and then you get to practice them before taking a test that requires you to use all of the spells learned so far.

The good things about it:

-You can log in using your Pottermore account, and access your own wand and house.

-There are about 20 spells to learn, some of which are new.

-The tests are incredibly fun, and feature a number of magical creatures.

-It was written by JK Rowling!!

-You can choose whether or not you want the narrator to read the book aloud to you.

-It is very interactive, and unlike anything that has ever been done before.

The bad things about it:

-There is no replay value. Once you work your way through, there is nothing else to do.

-You need a lot of lighting in your room, otherwise the game will glitch.

-The text that you are required to read sometimes seems a bit tedious, and it takes a long time, especially when all you want to do is just cast the spells.

-There is no free play mode to just cast spells.

-There is no multiplayer.

This game is seriously so much fun, and the technology is state of the art. Hopefully there will be a sequel with improvements, seeing how this is the first, and as of now, only, title for the Wonderbook.

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You are wandering around the restricted section in the library at Hogwarts when you happen upon a book of spells written by the famous witch, Miranda Goshawk. This will be your start in becoming a true wizard at Hogwarts.

Wonderbook: Book of Spells takes you through an augmented reality world of being in Hogwarts as a new student where you will learn all the spells required to become a great wizard.

The game is split up into five chapters with each one having two sections where you will learn anywhere from one to three spells. The book will explain how the spells were created in charming stories that will be told as a pop up book on screen. After all the spells are learned in a chapter you will be given the task of using all of the spells in the chapter to complete a task. Once the final task is completed you will also be given a rhyming conundrum to listen to which is regarding the skills required to become a great wizard.

The game is fairly easy to use with the PlayStation Move and Eye. The game recommends having you sit on the floor in front of your TV cross legged with the Wonderbook placed in front of you. You will then use the PlayStation Move Controller as your wand to cast spells with.

I don't have the ideal setup since my TV is above waist height and my chair is only a few feet away from my TV. I was able to place the Wonderbook on my lap and still use it rather well though. It does make casting spells with the Move controller somewhat difficult though since my arm was so close to the Wonderbook.

Another feature that Book of Spells offers is that if you have a Pottermore account then you are able to connect it with the game and your house along with your wand will transfer over. I do not have a Pottermore account so I was not able to see how well this feature operates with the game though.

Overall I have greatly enjoyed Wonderbook: Book of Spells so far and I would recommend it to fans of the Harry Potter universe or someone who is just wanting a new and interesting game to try out with the PlayStation Move. The game might be aimed at a younger audience but can still be enjoyed as an adult as well.

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I bought this game for my 7 and 9 year old kids for Christmas because they love all things Harry Potter. However, this game has been a pretty big dud around the house. Some reasons include:

(1) It's only one player so they can't play with each other or with friends.

(2) You have to follow the game script throughout. There is no free play, exploring or creativity allowed.

(3) The game was super easy for them to win and since there's no free play then it is basically over. No need for them to play again. And they haven't.

(4) Only movements are required to cast the spells so the pronunciation is pointless. Once the kids figured that out they rarely care about speaking the spells. Yet another limitation of the game.

In short, I wouldn't waste my money on this game. The initial promise of an original use of the move controller proved shallow and uninspiring.

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My son loved playing this, but was through it in 2 days. Wonderbook hopefully will have new games configured to it.

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Fun to play even if just once. I played with my kids, 3 and 4 year olds, and they had a blast seeing themselves on the TV using magic.