Magic is a funny thing. When you're an adult, you know (or at least, you think you know) that no such thing exists - that every trick you see has a logical explanation, and a simple enough solution. Yet still, you'll come across things you just can't figure out. When you're a child, however, your imagination is much greater. You're more easily led, and in all honesty, there are few things that don't feel like magic. Yet whether you're young or your old, Wonderbook: Book of Potions is a game that'll have you constantly saying: how did they do that?
The sequel to last year's Wonderbook: Book of Spells, Book of Potions takes place once again in the world of Harry Potter, where you come across a magical book - the titular Book of Spells - written by one Zygmunt Budge. But this is no ordinary book - instead, contained within its dusty old pages are not only the recipes to concoct several potions, but the personality (or possibly spirit?) of Zygmunt himself. Guiding you as his pupil, it's up to you to follow his instructions as you concoct all manner of wizardly brews, in an attempt to enter a potions competition, to win the Golden Cauldron - something Budge is somewhat bitter about never having had the chance to do for himself.
Like the other Wonderbook games, though, it's less the talk of spells and wizardry, and more the book itself that makes the game feel like magic. All you'll need is a Wonderbook (oddly, you don't seem to be able to buy just the game on its own if you already have a Wonderbook - although at least that makes things easier for beginners), a Playstation Eye camera, and a Move controller to get going. Placing the Wonderbook on the floor in front of you, and pointing the Playstation Eye camera at it (a handy set-up guide plays when you start the game, talking you through everything you need to know), you'll soon see a mirror image of your living room on the TV - only instead of the Wonderbook, now you're sitting in front of the Book of Potions - and instead of a boring old Move controller in your hand, you have your first wizard's wand.
Choppy choppy.
What follows is a game that plays out less like a game, and more like the world's most spectacular, interactive pop-up book that'll turn your living room into a wizard's lair of hubble and bubble, with potions on the brew, ingredients to be mixed, and, most importantly, potions to be used. With seven chapters on offer, each of which has a different potion waiting to be brewed, there's plenty to be done, with each chapter following a fairly similar pattern.
Perhaps the easiest way to give you a good feel for what the game is like is to talk you through what one of the chapters involves. The third potion in the game is a beautification potion, which Budge, your narrator, believes will come in handy in the next phase of the Golden Cauldron tournament. Opening the book, you're greeted with two pages - one of which is glowing slightly. Pointing your wand/move controller at it and pressing the Move button, you'll trigger some words to fly out of the book, which are then read out by the game, and explain about fairies.
It turns out the little winged Tinkerbell alikes can provide you with a key ingredient for your new potion - their wings. Pointing your wand over at the next page and pressing the Move button, a lead will promptly grow from out of its pages, with several eggs dangling down from it. It turns out these are fairy eggs - and if you want them to hatch, you'll have to rotate the book to forward time. Turn the book round, and the leaf will rotate with it, in an affect that's bound to leave kids' jaws' on the floor - and that's impressive for adults too. Spinning it round, the fairies finally hatch - and it's then up to you to swap your wand for a magnifying glass (by pointing your Move controller at the magnifying glass on the floor), to have a good look at the fairies. With three key points to discover before you can move on, by the time you're done, you'll know everything there is to know about fairies - but then, you have to catch them.
Turning the page, your living room will be turned into a forest glade, with fairies darting about the place without a care in the world. Armed with a wizarding net, it's up to you to swing it around and catch as many as you can - although this is more awkward than it really should be. Although you can hold your net in exactly the right place, the fairies will just fly straight through it, mostly, unless you're swinging really, really hard. It's a bit hit and miss, and a reminder that while Wonderbook may be a lot more reliable than Kinect, it still has some problems of its own.
This game was awkward too - you're supposed to flick your wand to zap the things trying to eat your flowers, but half the time it simply wouldn't recognise what we were doing.
The fairies caught, it's then time to make use of their precious wings, although this isn't as cruel as it sounds. You don't actually have to pluck, or see anyone else pluck the fairies wings, and the factoid you unlocked in the last section does go out of its way to tell you that picking wings doesn't hurt fairies - it just makes them angry. Pick the wings up with your wand and place them into the mortar, and it's up to you to swap your wand for your pestle and give them a good mashing. Once they're suitably squished, all you need to do is puck the bowl up, add it to the potion, give it a quick stir, then add another potion and mix together. With the brew coming along nicely, it's time to add the heat, by pumping a pair of bellows with your wand as you attempt to keep the thermometer at a certain level.
In order to make things a little bit more interesting, each item has a "required amount" you need to add, which you can easily go over if you're not concentrating (or are finding the controls a bit awkward). You can tell how close you are to adding the ideal amount by a handy circle that pops up, letting you know how much more you need to add/how much longer you have to stir for, which is a nice touch if nothing else.
As the cauldron sprouts a foot and hops off (yes, this is Harry Potter), it's time to learn about roses, in a segment that feels eerily similar to the one about fairies. Rotate the book until the flowers bloom, give it a shake to make them lose their petals, and then examine the plants to learn more about them. Your harvest in tow, all you have to do then is pop the petals in to the now bubbling potion (giving a few a quick pop along the way), before chopping up a flower on a cutting board, ready to join the mix. Switching your wand for a knife, it's impressive how this works - slicing through the stem of the plant, you'll end up pushing bits of the plant around the chopping board accidentally, but you can use the virtual blade the slide them back together. Fancy.
After that, you're on the final straight, with the last item being one of the easiest - some unicorn hair. Turn the page, and a spiky bush with a trickling stream and some mushrooms magic themselves out of it. All you have to do is wait for the unicorn to arrive - although admittedly, this did give us some problems. Although the book hadn't been moved since we completed the last section, the voice kept telling us to "turn the book back round to the front". Which we did. Repeatedly. But no matter which way we turned it, the game wasn't having any of it. Eventually, after giving the book a bit of a shake (with it facing forwards), things carried on - but it still gave us less problems than Kinect has.
After the unicorn had arrived, it was time to give him a quick once over using our handy magnifying glass. Picking it up, much like with the fairies, you get to have a close look at three things of importance to unicorns - its horn, its mane, and, well, its blood (although you don't see it) - all you do is click on its leg). Once you've done that, the unicorn scarpers, and it's up to you to pluck the hair from a bush and drop it into the potion, before giving it another stir and another heat.
At this point, the potion is nearing being ready - so what better time to try it out? As a giant frog waddles onto the screen, the game asks you to pick up an empty potion bottle, and scoop up some of your new brew, before pouring it all over your budding volunteer. Does it make it beautiful? Well not exactly - but it does give it wind. Apparently, that means the potion's on the right tracks - and so onwards you go.
You can even waft the smoke away with your wand.
Turning the page, you're then treated to a story about the potion, where Budge shares one of the more memorable times he used it. More interactive than in the last game, there are hidden things that can be clicked on during these stories - and the obligatory "complete the sentence" sections where you have to choose what *should* come next. One of the funnier parts here is where the narrator complains that "I noticed my island was being circled by young [what] in boats". You have a choice between muggle women... and gorillas. Better yet, if you choose gorillas, it actually shows you a load of gorillas circling the island in rowing boats, which is sure to raise a smile with the kids.
Things finished up with a mini-game type section that saw us put our potion to good use. The story here is that, as part of the Golden Cauldron tournament, you have to pass across a field, without getting spotted by the red caps - angry little goblin creatures that are patrolling the area. Of course, being the sensible wizard you are, you spot there's an easier way out - a catapult, and your freshly brewed Beautification Potion. Filling some pots with it, all you have to do then is load it into the catapult, and fling them at the enemies, although this again isn't as well explained as it should be, considering the target audience. Moving your Move controller from side to side will adjust a line on the screen - to lock in, all you have to do is press the move button, when a circle (that tracks the distance) will make its way up the line. When that moves over a red cap, press the Move button again, and you'll fling a beautification potion his way - with the red cap being less than pleased with the results.
And although the potions change, the majority of Book of Potions follows a very similar theme - you'll learn about ingredients and creatures from the world of Harry Potter, be regaled with stories of potions gone by, and put them to use in mini-game like sections that don't arguably work as well as they really should. With only seven chapters on offer, this isn't a game that's likely to last all that long, although the budget price likely does reflect that. Whether you've played a Wonderbook game before or not, if you have a young Harry Potter fan, this is a game you'll want to pick up.
Format Reviewed: Playstation 3
