Goblet of Fire is the fourth go at a Harry Potter movie game for Electronic Arts. This time around, their UK development studio included co-op play for three players at once. Harry, Hermione and Ron work together through levels based on and inspired by the Goblet of Fire movie. Having three wizards running around and casting spells at the same time allows for some interesting gameplay, but you'll only get to experience it if you have friends to play with.

Most of the game is made up of the team of three Hogwarts students running around, casting jinxes, charms, and other spells on the environment and enemies. One or all of the characters can be controlled by a human, and you can choose different characters for each level, given their strengths and weaknesses. Ron is great with jinxes (the main attack of a wizard), while Hermione is good with charms. All three will are always present at the same time, regardless of the number of human players present. So, if you're playing alone, the computer will control the other two characters.

The co-op structure makes for some clever gameplay tactics. Spells have different effects against different enemies. For instance, simply jinxing a dugbog will fell it after a few swipes at it with your wand. However, if you levitate the dugbog first, then have someone else jinx it in the air, it'll spin into obilivion with far less effort. Double-team moves change depending on what is being attacked. In an erkling's case, a double-team jinx will turn it into a pumpkin-head scarecrow. All the different spells and spell combinations become more powerful the more you use them, but the only way to really upgrade them is to keep attacking the same kind of enemy repeatedly. Not being able to choose what spells you want to cast is disappointing.

For inanimate objects such as rocks, blocks, or gates, pressing the B button will automatically cast the appropriate charm on whatever you are targeting. Rocks will levitate and can be moved anywhere, and rusty gates can be pulled open with magic. It's not as simple just point-and-shoot, though, because you may need to "steer" the stream of magic coming out of your wand with the control stick to make it more effective. Some charms aren't powerful enough for just person one to cast it alone, so the others in the group will need to cast the same spell on the same object to achieve the desired result. An audible call for help will come out from the one who needs some extra magic power, which can make the situation pretty believable.

Casting all of these spells can be easily coordinated with two or three human players, but playing alone and relying on the CPU to cast attack spells when you need them is another story. For the most part, you're on your own if you don't have friend with you, since the AI of your team is pretty stupid. They can usually jinx enemies, but the only way to get out of sticky situations in a hurry is to use combo spells or crush things with levitated rocks, two things among others that your AI team will never do.

Control becomes a bit of a problem during battle as well. Targeting is essentially automatic, but you need to look at the object first. When an enemy comes from behind while you are surrounded, the only way to target them and retaliate is to either turn around directly into them, taking more damage, or walk away and turn around, which may not be an option. This kind of issue would be mooted if your AI partners recognized the situation and took care of the problem for you, but you're forced to deal with it yourself instead.

To be fair about it, there are only a few areas in certain levels that this problem will come up in. Most of the game is exploration and puzzle-solving, with the action sequences spread out through the levels. Aside from that, not all levels support a team of three. Just as in the movie, Harry Potter needs to go it alone and take on the Tri-Wizard challenges. These levels are the most enjoyable of the game because of how different they are from the stages designed for co-op.

The first task, against the dragon, has Harry fly around Hogwarts on a broom at high speed. The second task has him swimming around at the bottom of a lake and avoiding creatures and hazards. The third task has Harry running around the maze, but since he's alone instead of with dumb AI, the level is designed for that and is better off because of it. They're great levels to play through if you're tired of your AI partners getting separated from you and dying. It's too bad that these levels are shorter than the regular levels, though, because of how they are set up.

Level progression requires Tri-Wizard shields, which are found in levels or awarded for finding 10 mini-shields in a level or granted for casting spells well enough to level up your characters. There are extra areas of most levels that can only be accessed after completion or gaining a new ability to access them, so replaying levels is part of beating the game. The Hogwarts Exterior level, for instance, has four separate areas to explore and pick up numerous shields, but you'll need to wait until you've learned all the spells before you can get all them. Replaying an entire level may be required to find enough shields to move on, which can become tedious rather quickly.

Thankfully, there's a ton of other stuff to find and collect in every level. Finding all the mushrooms, shovels, gargoyles, and other stuff in the game will net you some extras, though they may be a little underwhelming given the work required to obtain them. The most important thing to collect throughout the game is every-flavor beans, which are dropped from defeated enemies and found in nooks and crannies everywhere. They can be spent on trading cards with stills from the Goblet of Fire movie that boost a character's abilities, which is very important later on in the game. There are a load of cards to unlock and abilities to use for each character, so there's incentive to get enough beans to buy the good abilities to help make the game easier on you.

Even if you're a collect-a-holic, playing this game single player isn't very rewarding. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was designed from the get-go as a multiplayer co-operative game. The trade-off is that you're going to miss out on a lot of the fun this game has to offer if you're a single player. There are some good parts where the single player is enjoyable, but the majority of the game just isn't designed for solo play. Overall, it's a fair attempt at a movie game, and you're not going to regret playing it if you do wind up with it. Potter fans and co-op nuts should give Goblet of Fire a chance.