Harry Potter 3

Harry Potter 3
Title screen from the 2003 version
Developer	Vast Fame?
Console	Game Boy Color
Date	2002
Sound engine	Konami (Parodius)
Alternate names/hacks	Harry Potter 3 2003, Harry Potter 3: Shen Qi Zhi Guang Lun

Harry Potter 3 is a shoot 'em up for the Game Boy Color released in 2002.

Despite the name, its plot is loosely based on that of Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone, with graphics in the introductory cutscene taken from the official Game Boy Advance game of the same name.

1 Development & versions
2 Gameplay
3 Trivia
4 References

Development & versionsEdit

The game contains signs of being developed by Vast Fame - leftover menu graphics from Zook Hero 2 are in the ROM. However, unlike other Vast Fame games, it does not use their usual Mega Man V sound engine; instead the sound engine, and all music in the game, is taken from Parodius by Konami.

The currently dumped version, called "Harry Potter 3 2003", is a title screen hack - the original is called "Harry Potter 3: 神奇の光輪" (Shen Qi Zhi Guang Lun)^[1], which roughly translates to "Harry Potter 3: Mystical Halo", despite there not being any such object in the game. The original version has a 2002 copyright date, although this is removed from the hack.

GameplayEdit

The game is a horizontal shoot 'em up featuring Harry Potter flying on a broomstick - there are four different weapons, each of which can be upgraded twice by collecting the same type of power-up again. Unlike many similar games Harry has a life bar and so can take multiple hits.

Another gameplay screenshot
Added by Taizou

As in Zook Hero 2, enemies drop powerups at random, which may be a weapon scroll, a book (which acts as a bomb), a heart, or an extra life, which means the player's lives can be maxed out relatively easily.

The game has 16 stages in total; the latter 8 use the same graphics as the first 16, but the layouts, palette and enemy placement are different, and all 16 have a unique boss, which mostly appear to be based on characters from the book. Normal enemies are more diverse - comparable to those in games such as Parodius or Twinbee - including octopi, disembodied walking hands, mini horses that shoot lightning bolts and even Pac-Man ghosts.