Candy Crush meets Harry Potter.
Harry Potter: Puzzles and Spells is a Mobile Phone Game based on the Harry Potter film series. Each film is broken down into a number of different plot points, each constituting a level which has a set number of puzzles that must be completed in order to advance to the next.The game is a Match-Three Game in which each puzzle has a set number of moves to complete. Gems of various colors are swapped to remove them from the board, as well as creating special items when certain combinations are matched. Additionally, special obstacles are added to many boards which must have a set number of matches made around them to clear, sometimes triggering other obstacles to be added. Several characters also appear as icons which, if dropped to a place where they can be removed, will trigger some effect on the board. For instance, Harry's icon causes a number of gems to turn into a needed color, while Dobby's causes some gems to turn into random items and Ron's causes rockets to remove gems from the board.
The game was developed by Zynga and is published by Portkey Games.
Provides examples of:
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Devil's Snare and Dementor's Ice will spread into adjacent squares unless you take out at least one affected square with a match or item.
- Anti Poop-Socking: You only get a set number of lives, although you can bank up to 15 extra lives as you advance through the game. Each life regenerates after a set amount of time, and you can ask your team to donate you lives.
- Attack Animal: Downplayed. You can set a particular magical animal as an assistant, which can clear a portion of the board when triggered and also add items onto the board.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: It's not necessary, but you can purchase items, gold, and extra lives with both in-game gold and real money.
- Character Customization: You can create a custom avatar for your player profile, with options to change facial details, hair color and clothes, along with adding glasses. You can also select your house and wand.
- Combo: Matching set numbers of gems will generate items which can help you clear the screen faster:
- Matching a 2x2 or 2x3 group of gems creates a Winged Key which will home in on something needed to clear the round and either remove it or reduce its count by 1. If two or more keys are beside each other, swapping any two will launch all of them plus one extra. If a key is swapped with a Severing Surge or Bombastic Bomb, they merge, float to somewhere else on the board, and then go off.
- Matching 4 gems in a row in a line or column creates a Severing Surge which will clear all the gems in that row or column. If two Surges are beside each other, swapping them clears the row and column where they meet. Swapping a Severing Surge and a Bombastic Bomb has the same effect as swapping two Surges, but also clears the gems in the two adjacent rows and columns.
- Matching 5 gems in a 3x2 stack or L-shape creates a Bombastic Bomb which blows up a 3x3 space. Swapping two side-by-side Bombs blows up a 5x5 space.
- Matching 5 or more gems in a row or column creates a Charmed Bag which will remove all the gems of one color from the board. If it's beside an item, swapping it and the item will turn all the gems of one color into that item, which will immediately activate. If two Charmed Bags are beside each other, swapping them together clears the gems on the board.
- Falling Blocks: The gems and most character icons drop from the top of the board, although in some rounds, they travel through a Floo network and drop in other areas of the screen.
- Framing Device: Each level is themed as the cover story for some publication in the wizarding world, such as The Quibbler and Wizarding World Weekly, reporting on the plot point from the associated movie that's connected with that level.
- Holiday Mode: Around Christmastime, the game's opening screen will show something Christmas-themed from the films. For instance, in 2021 the opening screen shows Harry, Ron and Molly standing together in front of a fireplace and a snow-covered Christmas tree.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Some stages have gems on a moveable track which advances after each move. This can move items exactly where you need them or put them just out of reach depending on how the board changes.
- Level Ate: In some stages, parts of the board are covered by stacks of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, which must be cleared away as a win condition. The game will announce the flavors of the beans as you clear them, along with a crunching sound and an occasional "Mmmm!"
- Player Nudge: If you let the game sit long enough, gems that make a playable move will highlight themselves and move slightly. Items will also do this if they are the only available move.
- The Prankster: Enforced when the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes event is live. As teams finish puzzles, they earns points toward prank boxes which, when enough points are earned, send a random prank to another team which can help or hinder a player in a puzzle.
- Schizophrenic Difficulty: While some levels are labeled Hard, there's no real rhyme or reason as to whether or not any given stage is going to be easy or difficult to complete.
- Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Deliberate—the player is essentially progressing through each film in the series by completing puzzles. Also, as the levels progress, game mechanics related to the plot point from each movie that a level is associated with are introduced. For instance, when the levels start to cover Chamber of Secrets, one level is themed around Lockhart's first appearance as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and introduces Cornish pixies which have to be knocked out and collected as a win condition. Much later, a level themed around Harry's fight with the Basilisk introduces the Basilisk as a board obstacle.
- Smart Bomb: The Charmed Bag removes all the gems of one color from the board. Depending on the board's win conditions, simply double-tapping it will either remove the gem color that's needed or a random color. If it's swapped with a gem, it will remove that color, and swapping two adjacent Bags clears all the gems on the board.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Along with the Bombastic Bombs:
- The Reducto spell explodes large stone blocks on the board.
- Hitting dragon eggs enough times will cause them to hatch. The baby dragon will then burn the shell, causing an explosion the same size as two Bombs swapped together.
- The Swarm: Some stages have cages which contain Cornish pixies, which must be cleared as a win condition. Once the cages are hit enough times, they break and release the pixies, which spread across the board and "sit" on gems, occasionally shifting places on the board.
- Whammy:
- Some of the HP characters that pop up in-game are there to clog up the board:
- Dropping a Gilderoy Lockhart icon to the bottom of the screen causes a number of photos of Lockhart to appear on the board; these cover a 2x2 area and can hide items.
- After the first Basilisk is cleared from the board, subsequent Basilisks will petrify a handful of gems when they show up. These stones must be cleared with items.
- If a Lucius Malfoy icon reaches the top of the board, Lucius will cause a handful of gems to turn into fireballs which must be cleared with items or adjacent matches. However, if the Lucius icon is dropped to the bottom of the screen, it will turn into two Winged Keys.
- Some of the prank boxes you can get from other teams have detrimental effects. For instance, the Dungbomb will reduce your assist creature's meter by 10, while the Chattering Teeth will eat an item on the board.
- Some of the HP characters that pop up in-game are there to clog up the board:
