Traveller's Tales has made quite the series out of its Lego video game adaptations. Since releasing Lego Star Wars: The Video Game in 2005, the developer has partnered with numerous publishers to round out that series, create two Lego Indiana Jones games, as well as give Batman and Harmonix's Rock Band the Lego treatment. Fans of the previous games in the series will feel right at home with the developer's latest partnership with Warner Bros., taking gamers to Privet Drive for Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4.

The formula remains largely unchanged. Players take control of Legofigs fashioned after the characters of the Harry Potter series. This primarily means Harry, Ron and Hermoine, but as with all of the Lego games, there are many more characters to discover and unlock, offering different strengths and weaknesses that play into the game's level progression. And like other Lego titles, there are plenty of objects to smash into millions of little Lego studs.

Whereas Lego Star Wars featured The Force, Lego Indiana Jones saw whips and guns and Lego Batman brought out the arsenal of gadgets, with Lego Harry Potter the primary difference is that magic plays a really large role. The young wizards all have wands, and as the game progresses, they learn how to cast more spells, which inevitably allow them to progress further through Hogwarts and the stories of the first four Potter films.

Thankfully, Traveller's Tales doesn't separate these on a menu screen as individual episodes, as with the second Indiana Jones title. Instead, Potter simply progresses through the stories of the four movies, while the Leaky Cauldron plays home menu base to jump in the action, head out to Diagon Alley to buy what seems like a limitless array of extras, or even go into creation mode.

Hogwarts, meanwhile, acts as home base once players (two can play the story co-op) jump into the story. The big success Traveller's Tales finds with Years 1-4 is in how fluidly the progression is built into the story and gameplay. As in the movies, the students attend classes. That's where they learn new spells and other techniques, and practice them to perfection before employing them in the levels that follow. It's a smart system, and helps the progression of the title feel natural, while not needing to stray much from the movies.

Also a smart move is letting the spells cycle (on Xbox 360) through the shoulder buttons, or holding "Y" to pop a wheel and choose which one is active. With the variety of spells available, Lego Harry Potter could have been quickly bogged down by a ridiculous variety of button combinations. Instead, toggling to one active spell helps keep things simple.

That's not to say the game is without faults, though. Many of the spells have to be aimed. This is done by holding down "X" and using the left analog to move a circle to highlight desired objects. It is sometimes hard to single out the right things, however, and levitating the right objects can occasionally be a pain. Other characters are often the victims of errant shots from the wand. The moving split-screen used in previous games is still in place. Theoretically, it's better than a static screen, but another game into the Lego series and it's still hard to get used to, often creating awkward camera views that don't help to complete objectives. And despite Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 being pure fan service, integrating gameplay almost perfectly into the stories, it's definitely a game only for people who are already well-acquainted with Potter lore, as the story will probably be incoherent to anyone else.

Still, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is fun, if not very innovative. It gets the Lego series back on track after the misstep of Lego Indiana Jones 2. And for Potter fans coming to the series for the first time, it does franchise proud.

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Want a second opinion? Check out Rafe Telsch's review of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4.