Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Review — Magic or Mindnumbing?

It’s surprising that the obscure yet beloved wizard sport of the Harry Potter universe, Quidditch, never made its appearance in 2023’s Hogwarts Legacy, but we’re finally given a dedicated snitch-chasing, goal-scoring game to whet our wizarding appetites.

Quidditch Champions comes from Unbroken Studios, who helped co-develop Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League with Rocksteady Studios. The game is essentially a fully-focused Quidditch experience; there’s no career mode, manager mode, or anything like that — this is very much a switch-on-and-play experience. There is a tournament mode to sink your teeth into some consecutive matches, but in terms of a deeper, longer variation, there’s not much on offer besides multiplayer. It’s not a bad thing, but a story mode or some sort of deeper custom experience tying into the overarching Potter universe would’ve been a nice touch.

As for the gameplay itself, you play from a third-person perspective but have the ability to switch between your six Quidditch team members on the fly, adjusting from attack to defence pretty quickly. Snapping to players who are involved in the action always keeps you immersed in the frenetic pace of the match rather than watching from afar, but it can be a little overwhelming to orient yourself between switches.

A variation of the rules is how the golden snitch works. In the novels and films, grabbing the snitch would end the match, but in Quidditch Champions, it awards your team 30 points. So, it’s more of a game-swinging strategy to give you the upper-hand, rather than ending the match, which is an interesting way to keep the competition flowing and give losing teams a chance to fight back.

While the Quidditch arenas are fairly large, it has to be said that you do feel quite boxed-in during matches. Invisible walls around the crowd boundaries keep you from whizzing over the audience or chasing the snitch around Hogwarts as you saw in the movies, so, you’ll have to be content with sticking to the perimeter of the arena. It was kind of expected, but having the ability to travel a little outside the bounds of the field would’ve added to the fantastical nature of the experience.

Tinkering with your team, adding perks and buffs to your various players, and upgrading and purchasing new brooms (each with their own speed, durability, and agility ratings) makes the constant adjustment to your strategy and tactics a bit more nuanced than what the game initially appears to be, which is some surprising depth that true Potter-heads will appreciate.

Quidditch Champions is very fun and very easy to play, and die-hard Potter fans will love that they finally get a true Quidditch experience. But some of the more fantastical limitations and lack of extensive modes might make this more of a game to play at your next Harry Potter hangout, rather than something you seriously sink your teeth into.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and PC.