Don’t let those tiny plastic pieces fool you – LEGO Harry Potter is enormous! Taking the first half of Harry’s life at Hogwarts, it offers a gigantic adventure that has been brilliantly designed to challenge gamers of all ages.

Your journey takes in all the important locations from Diagon Alley to the Forbidden Forest, but you’ll also take a festive trip to Hogsmeade, and explore every nook and cranny of Hogwarts itself. Story missions are triggered while roaming the halls, with those helpful house ghosts always on hand to point you in the right direction. New spells are learned by attending lessons, just like a real pupil, and each new skill opens up areas of the map that were previously off limits.

Finishing the story isn’t too hard, but every step of the way you’ll be earning loads of LEGO studs, and it’s these that keep the gameplay going once you’ve experienced everything the first four books have to offer. You can brew up polyjuice potion and use it to transform yourself into any of the 167 characters hidden inside the game. With so many abilities at your fingertips, the real challenge of the game is finding every secret and unlocking every collectable. Hitting that magical “100% complete” milestone is what you’re really after, and that’ll keep you busy for weeks.

As always with the LEGO games, friends and family can pick up a joypad and drop in for a while, and there’s a seriously impressive level editor where you can flex those creative muscles and build your own puzzles and challenges, one brick at a time.

Fans of J.K. Rowling’s books, and the movies inspired by them, will especially love seeing famous moments from Harry’s story brought to life with cheeky humour, but LEGO Harry Potter has something for everyone. With more to do than most supposedly “grown-up” games, this will keep you busy all summer long!

10/10