Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Preview

Since the popular books by J.K. Rowling where first adapted to film, EA Games has been launching video games based on the Harry Potter series. EA’s latest entry to the Harry Potter franchise will follow the upcoming film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. While the film was recently pushed back to a summer 2009 release (the film was originally going to be released in November 2008), the game is still scheduled to launch this November. We were recently on hand to take a spin on the Wii version of the game at EA’s recent press event at their Redwood Shores and see how the game will once again take players back into Hogwarts.

Being developed with the Wii as the lead console, Half-Blood Prince is going for a more user-friendly route than previous Harry Potter games. The game uses the system’s motion controls very well, allowing kids to get into the game quickly and easily. The game’s wizard battles were shown off, and required simple motions to pull off a variety of spells.

One area that was showed off at the EA event was a section of the Quiddich game. The controls in this were pretty easy to grasp, as you simply had to point the Wii remote at the screen and guide Harry as he chased the Golden Snitch through a series of rings.

Another area shown was the potion making minigame. Almost like Cooking Mama, you’d have to use the Wii remote to pour your ingredients, stir them, and prepare your potions.

Half-Blood Prince is shaping up to be a fun and easy to play entry to the Harry Potter series, and should appeal to the younger and more casual set of Harry Potter fans.