YMMV / LEGO Harry Potter

• Anti-Climax Boss: Voldemort is ridiculously easy for the Final Boss of Harry Potter: Years 1-4. His entire boss fight consists of defeating a few Death Eaters and the occasional Beam-O-War between Voldemort and Harry, where you need to button-mash your way to victory.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: The games are based more on the movies than the original books; though since these are the Cliffs Notes versions of the plots anyway, the difference is rarely noticeable. However, some characters and scenes from the books that did not make it into the movies, such as Harry using red sparks during the Forbidden Forest level of Year 1 and Professor Binns and Hestia Jones being playable characters, are featured.
• Ho Yay: Ron under the influence of a love potion. In the book, he babbles about Romilda Vane. Here, he fawns over Harry... and Professor Slughorn.
• Porting Disaster:
  • The PC version of both Years 1-4 and 5-7 are prone to crashing and freezing at certain points in the game, making it impossible to progress further. Years 5-7 also lacks the Downloadable Content from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.
  • The Wii version of 5-7 is almost just as bad, as it also freezes incredibly constantly. The worst part is a glitch with Aquamenti, where if you shoot it at any fire that you can't put out, the game automatically freezes. This makes certain levels ("A Not So Merry Christmas", especially) near impossible to complete without being very careful. As the Wii couldn't receive game updates like the other consoles, a later pressing of the game fixed this issue.
  • The Vita version of Years 5-7 can have the framerate drop to abysmal levels; why this happens is unknown, since the original PSP version runs just fine.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The mandrakes. As soon as you pick them up, your movement speed slows to a crawl and you become unable to jump, which is particularly aggravating when you have to transport the screaming mandrake across a large area or can't find the pot you're supposed to put it in.
• That One Level:
  • The Forbidden Forest levels in Harry Potter Years 1-4. Not particularly hard levels, but there are a lot of LEGO flowers and bushes lying around and if you want those LEGO studs for True Wizard (not to mention buying unlockables), you need to spend a good amount of time destroying all of them. Fortunately, if you are not above cheating, using the Multiplier red bricks makes this a lot easier.
  • The bonus level in Years 5-7 can easily become this. You need to find 1000000 studs, by wreaking havoc in a small Lego town. Near the end of your goal, you probably have destroyed all of the obvious places, resulting in you running aimlessly around the level, searching for these last few studs. You can't cheat your way out of it by turning on Stud Multipliers.
• That One Sidequest: The Slytherin Crest in the "Magic Is Might" level of Harry Potter 5-7. Not only is it hidden behind a pillar, but you are being chased by Dementors so you have very little time to detour for it. Plus, if you miss it or get caught by the Dementors, it respawns you after the Crest, so you have to play through the entire level and redo the very long boss fight for another shot at it.
• Unexpected Character: Penelope Clearwater is a playable character in both games. This makes sense for Years 1-4, but not so much in Years 5-7 as she had graduated from Hogwarts by then, and she's a very minor character in the books, with more prominent characters who had also graduated such as Oliver Wood not returning for Years 5-7.

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