Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions improves the wizarding sport's weird rules but still feels badly imbalanced

When Hogwarts Legacy released to rousing success in 2023, many people were upset that the wizarding world's favorite sport, Quidditch, wasn't available for students. Months later, we learned that a dedicated Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions multiplayer game would provide us with the magical athletic experience we'd previously been denied. 

I've spent a few hours playing Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions to get a feel for its controls in both single-player mode and multiplayer mode. It will never attain the heights of Hogwarts Legacy and is very flawed, but it can be fun for big Harry Potter fans. 

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Deluxe Edition

Take part in multiplayer and co-op Quidditch matches while playing as your own character or as one of the familiar characters from the Harry Potter books. This game is available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. 

Buy for Xbox: Best Buy | Amazon 

Buy for PC: CDKeys | Newegg

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions — What is it?

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions - Official Trailer - "Welcome Students!" - YouTube

Watch On

Genre: This is an action sports game that allows players to mount brooms and play the wizarding world's biggest sport from the Harry Potter books. 

Gameplay: Players create custom characters and control multiple people on their teams. Goals are scored by Seekers catching the tiny flying Snitch or Chasers hurling a larger Quaffle ball through hoops. Each score is worth 10 points. Other players known as Beaters can smack painful balls called Bludgers at opponents and can even knock players off their brooms. Finally, Keepers play the goalie role and attempt to guard their side's hoops from being scored on while directing other teammates. You can experience this game in a single-player against the computer, in online player vs. player (PvP), or in online co-op. Up to three people can play on one team. 

Price: Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Standard Edition has an MSRP of $29.99 and can be purchased at most major retailers. Alternatively, you can purchase the Deluxe Edition for $39.99. It comes with 2,000 Gold as well as a cosmetic pack for the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin Hogwarts Houses.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions — What I like

Image 1 of 4

Quidditch Champions does a good job of easing players into the game's controls. The starting tutorial opened by teaching me how to ride my broom and ensured I got the hang of it by instructing me to fly through hoops. A fun part of this tutorial is that it takes place at The Burrow, the Weasley's home, and even incorporates the Weasley family members (including Molly). Their iconic blue car can even be seen out front of their rickety house. 

Once I was comfortable enough on a broom, the game then took me through each Quidditch position one at a time and explained the specific controls. As part of this, I created custom characters until I had a full team of unique flyers.

Overall, the main flying controls are intuitive and easy enough to pick up. However, rather than being in control of one position, each player in a 3v3 match is always in charge of two players: Keeper and Chaser, Beater and Chaser, or Seeker and Chaser. Whenever I swap to one of my characters, the other one is controlled by the computer.

I spent time playing each of these roles and found that playing Beater is far more difficult than playing Seeker and Keeper. You see, Beaters need to constantly be in use, while Seekers only have to be active when the Snitch is in play, and Keepers only have to pay attention when they're about to be scored on. It's very imbalanced and doesn't feel like an equal distribution of work.

On a different note, any sports person will tell you that Harry Potter's infamous Seeker position is pretty broken. That's why I was happy to learn that Snitch scoring rules have been changed in-game. For those who might not know, in the books and movies when the Seeker catches the Snitch it scores 150 points (the equivalent of 15 Quaffle goals) and almost always leads to that team winning a match. Really makes you wonder what the point of the other players is, then. 

Thankfully, Quidditch Champions balances things out far better by only awarding 30 points to Seekers who catch the Snitch. Moreover, the Snitch isn't always on the Pitch, so Seekers can't go after it right from the start. In Quidditch Champions, the Snitch can be caught multiple times in a match, but it first requires that the Seeker accurately fly through enough golden hoops to build up a gauge to make the Snitch catchable. These changes ensure that Seekers aren't the only important players on the field.

Quidditch matches are held at one of four places: The Weasley Burrow Garden, the Hogwarts pitch, Triwizard Schools, and the Quidditch World Cup arena. Familiar characters from the books such as Lee Jordan, Fred and George Weasley, and Rita Skeeter serve as commentators and add an extra level of fun to the game.

As far as online matchmaking goes, it doesn't take too long to set up. Players are dropped onto a warm-up field before the match truly starts. Teams then play until the timer counts down or until one side scores 100 points. After playing a match, I'm rewarded with XP, which can lead to leveling up and unlocking Season Rewards.

My team members all have skill trees, and spending skill points allows them to improve their skill in ways like making them move faster when carrying the Quaffle, giving them faster throwing speeds, and more. There is also a lot of gear in this game, including different brooms. These brooms have different stats and can be leveled up using Moonstones to make them faster, easier to maneuver, or more durable. This means that players at higher levels have significantly better character and gear stats, which allows them to outplay lower-level players easily.

Image 1 of 5

There are a lot of fun cosmetic elements to Quidditch Champions, but accessing them requires Gold and Winged Keys. Unlike some other multiplayer games, these forms of currency can only be earned in-game and cannot be purchased with real-world money. Characters such as Hermione Granger, The Weasley Twins, and Draco Malfoy can be purchased with this digital tender. Additionally, players can purchase hats, clothes, emotes, brooms, hoop scoring effects, and more. 

If that wasn't enough to make you want to come back and play each day, there is also a Challenges page where you can find Daily, Weekly, or Career goals. Ticking these off helps you earn XP and Winged Keys. 

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions — What I don't like

Image 1 of 3

As a new player in Quidditch Champions, I became acutely aware of the level gap between players. When I was at level 6, I noticed that some opposing players were at level 25, 38, and 42 — miles ahead of my own weak build. This meant that my broom and character were both much slower and didn't have nearly as many perks. To say the experience felt imbalanced is an understatement. It's no wonder I got knocked off my broom so often.

It would have been better if this game offered skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). That said, I know that as of time of writing that there aren't that many people consecutively playing this game (only 909). So, it might not be feasible to incorporate SBMM with such a low player count.

Another thing I really don't like is that the game requires you to be online, even if you're playing the single-player mode against the computer. I was unfortunate enough to figure this out due to an internet outage in my area. It was mid-match when a notice popped up on the screen saying, "Login Failed You are not connected to the server. Please check your network connection and try again later. For more information contact WB Games Support at Support.WBGames.com."

After getting kicked out of my online game, I attempted to play a single-player round offline against the computer, and that's when I discovered that Quidditch Champions won't allow you to play unless you're online. There is absolutely no reason that a game should require you to be online unless you specifically intend to play online multiplayer. Needless to say, I was unable to pick the game up for several hours until my internet was fixed.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions — Should you play it?

The team at Unbroken Studios did a decent job of fixing the original Quidditch rules to make it so the game feels more balanced for everyone on the Quidditch Pitch. It's also fun working to unlock cosmetics and characters without the temptation of spending real-world money. Perhaps one of the best things for Harry Potter fans is that Quidditch Champions allows us to see iconic characters and locations from the series.

However, it's hard for me to recommend Quidditch Champions fully when gameplay feels so imbalanced. You'll be playing against people who are all at extremely different levels. Not to mention, the actual positions don't feel like they offer an equal distribution of work for players. This game could really use some fine-tuning and adjustments.

• RELATED: Xbox Game Pass games list