Harry Potter 3 (Vast Fame)

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 2

Harry Potter 3 is a shoot 'em up game 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.

Development & versions

This game shows 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 the Mega Man V sound engine; the sound engine, and all music in the game, is instead stolen from the Game Boy version of Konami's Parodius Da!.

The original version, which has a 2002 copyright date, is called "Harry Potter 3: 神奇の光輪" (Shen Qi Zhi Guang Lun), which roughly translates to "Harry Potter 3: Mystical Halo". It is also called "Harry potter 3: mystical realm", which comes from a review or talk about the harry potter movies.

One dumped version, called "Harry Potter 3 2003", is a title screen hack. The copyright date is removed and the eponymous hero's portrait on the title screen is laterally inverted. Another dumped version of the game, called "Harry Potter 2", has all the narration text translated into English, albeit poorly.

On the V.Fame 8-in-1 multicart is a shooter based on Journey To The West called West Story. It uses the same gameplay engine as Harry Potter 3 as well as the same stolen soundtrack.  While Harry Potter 3 predates West Story, the latter game's inclusion on a Vast Fame multicart does confirm that the aforementioned company was at least partially involved in the development of the Harry Potter game. This is supported by the fact that the art style for West Story's title screen bears a resemblance to the art style used by Vast Fame's game artist, Zhu Zhenxin.

Gameplay

Gameplay screenshot.

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. 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 8, but the layouts, palette and enemy placement are different, and all 16 have a unique boss, each of which 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 the ghosts from Pac-Man.

Gallery

Another gameplay screenshot.

Li Cheng version's title.

The English New Game release's title. Note that the copyright's intact.

Cutscene from the New Game version.

Screenshots of the original release taken from Sky League.

Boxed copy of the New Game release.

Scan of New Game's Harry Potter 2 and Li Cheng's Harry Potter 3 carts.

Trivia

• The game was fan translated under the name "Harry Potter and the Mystical Halo".