Brooke loves Clue: Harry Potter edition

If we were to ask readers to name the most popular board games in the world, we imagine the game Clue would be in the top 5.

The list would probably include Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, Scrabble, and Clue.

As such, we most likely don’t need to introduce you to Clue.

However, we do want to tell you about the version of Clue that we’ve played a lot as a family since we bought a copy last year — Clue: Harry Potter edition.

And perhaps the biggest fan in our family is Brooke.

Check out Brooke’s video review of Clue: Harry Potter to see why she loves it so much.

 

Why Clue: Harry Potter is a hit in our family

A few years ago we shared why classic Clue has been a favorite board game in our family for a long time.

First of all, up to 6 people and play. And for a family of 6, that’s right on the money.

But most of all, we love the deduction element of the game.

Trying to solve the mystery before the others players is simply a lot of fun.

Yes many people have issues with the dice rolling and being pulled into rooms you don’t want to go in. But overall, the allure of solving the mystery keeps us engaged every time we play.

Well, Clue: Harry Potter has all of that and more.

Having a house full of Harry Potter fans, I had a hunch this game would be a hit with our family.

And I was right!

Since getting the game, it hits the table on a regular basis and we haven’t played the original again (though I imagine we will at some point).

It’s a great mix of the game play we already enjoy with the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

As Brooke showed in her video review, we enjoy most of the new elements added into the game.

For starters, it’s fun to play as the heroes from Harry Potter. And even though the characters don’t grant any special powers, it’s fun to think of being those characters as you move around the castle/board.

The characters that do make a difference are actually the characters on the Help cards.

These are the cards that will help players blocks bad things that happen.

And believe me, you’ll definitely want to pick up a lot of Help cards along the way.

They can be characters, spells, or items. And the more you have, the higher your probability of being safe from losing House Points.

Why?

Because players can actually be eliminated from the the game by losing all their House Points.

Which I’ll mention below in the Gripe section.

That being said, they kids really enjoy having something else to do in the game besides just go in rooms and make guesses. If they come up short on a dice roll to make it to another room, they love being able to move to a Star space to gain another Help card.

And that becomes part of their strategy.

They also love rolling a die at the start of each turn to shift the passageways. Just like the moving staircases in the Harry Potter books, in Clue: Harry Potter, the passageways shift during the game.

There’s something fun about switching up which corner rooms you can move to because of the changing passageways.

We also all enjoy having Dumbledore’s Office in the center of the board with a couple extra cards for peaking at. Rather than making guesses, going into his office will guarantee you discover something new. And if you can get there before others, you can use it to your advantage for a while.

These themed additions are why Clue: Harry Potter hits our game table with regularity.

 

My Gripe

With that said, it’s time for me to gripe a bit.

The element I dislike the most about Clue: Harry Potter is the player elimination.

In some games I don’t mind player elimination — such as King of Tokyo or King of New York. But those are shorter games and they’re based more on luck.

When a game is centered on strategy (like deduction games are), being bumped from the game just doesn’t sit well with me.

We have yet to play a game of Clue: Harry Potter where people aren’t eliminated because they’ve lost all their House Points.

House Points are lost when a Dark Mark card is drawn. The card will say which characters lose House Points (or lose Help cards). It can be characters in specific rooms, boys/girls, or the person who drew the card. It’s random.

And drawing a Dark Mark card is at the whim of the dice rolls that happen at the start of every turn. So for no fault of my own, I could lose 5, 10, 15, or 20 House Points!

In Clue, I love trying to figure out the mystery. I’m drawn into the game and try to pull information from my own guesses as well as from what my opponents are guessing. It’s quite the accomplishment when you finally figure it out.

So to be tossed from the game before the end is a huge let down.

Anyway, that’s my gripe.

I still keep playing the game because it’s what the kids want to play. But I always have my reservations.

And now it’s become quite the joke — almost to the point of making bets on how long I can stay in the game before losing all my House Points.

So we get a good laugh out of it and have fun though.

Maybe I should take a clue from the kids and start gathering tons of Help cards rather than trying so hard to solve the case.

 

How does Clue: Harry Potter score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

With Brooke rating the game a 5 our of 5 in her video review, I know there will be lots of Clue: Harry Potter playing in our future.

And as long as she keeps pulling out the game to play, I’m going to keep taking advantage of the time to sit down to play with her.

One thing I didn’t mention earlier is that even though the original Clue game allows up to 6 players, the Clue: Harry Potter edition only allows up to 5 players.

If your family is into Harry Potter and games, then we recommend getting a copy of Clue: Harry Potter for your family. (Just make sure to stock up on Help cards…)