“Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World” Arrives on Mobile

This week, to coincide with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Warner Bros. has released a long-anticipated mobile game called Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World. The game, officially released on November 17, invites users to enter the wizarding world and solve magical cases.

Fantastic Beasts: Cases From the Wizarding World enlists fans to join the Ministry of Magic and investigate unexplained happenings that could only be caused by magical creatures. In this hidden object game, players will rise from recruit to top Magizoologist as they unravel mysteries, discover hidden clues, interview witnesses, analyze evidence and cast spells while upholding the International Statue [sic] of Secrecy. Atmospheric music, beautifully illustrated enchanted environments and intriguing mysteries draw players into the wizarding world in a new way.

I don’t usually play many games – the Pokémon Go craze passed me right by  – but I was excited to play a mobile game based in the wizarding world. After all, anything to prolong time spent in the wizarding world is good by me – and the same applies, I’m sure, to our readers.

As the game loads, familiar music from the Harry Potter films plays. Make sure you have your sound up while you play since it really adds to the experience and is guaranteed to give you goosebumps.

The game combines familiar things with new characters and premises, such as Mathilda, your guide. Mathilda, who works alongside you at the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, talks you through your role and accompanies you on the cases. The first case, involving an injured Quidditch player, is called “Something in the Air.”

There’s lots to recognize, and the familiarity of the world made me feel instantly comfortable. There are references to familiar places and names, including St. Mungo’s, the Chudley Cannons, and the Leaky Cauldron.

There are many interactive elements – including finding objects and clues at the crime scenes, tracing spells, and piecing clues together. The clues that you find are gathered in your evidence file, and these allow you to identity traits of the beasts. The final stage is to identify the beast that corresponds to the clue. You can see some example screens in the gallery below.

As you can see in the pictures, at each crime scene, you have to find the objects listed. The quicker you find these, the more points and stars you’ll gain, which you need to explore clues. This means that you have to search scenes over and over to gain stars. While the objects that you have to find differ slightly each time, the more you explore the scene, the quicker you become at collecting the objects.

It was a little frustrating waiting to get more energy so that you could gain stars. You can buy more energy, but unless you have enough gems, this isn’t possible, and you have to wait for free energy. This of course helps to make the game lasts longer, but it can be annoying if you want to progress quickly and solve the case! The good news is that if you don’t play for a few hours, your energy bar refills and a notification pops up in your status bar, alerting you.

As the opening case, “Something in the Air” was easy to follow, with handy pointers delivered along the way to guide you to the conclusion. The second case, “The Smell of Fear,” is far more involved and takes a lot longer to complete, giving you much more to do.

There’s some great artwork, too, and the loading screens bring us some more of that MinaLima magic.

The screens were quite dark – but this is solved by turning your screen brightness up. This does drain your battery quickly, however! The game also takes a lot of space to install on your device, so make sure you’ve got lots available. The waiting times, for objects to be examined and for energy to refill, can be frustrating as well.

On the whole, this is a well-thought-out game, fun to play, and something that I see myself being sucked in to! Ultimately, just like Fantastic Beasts, this game combines the familiar with the unfamiliar and is a great addition to the wizarding world. If you haven’t seen the film yet, need something to fill the void, or are filling in time between viewings, then this is the perfect way to absorb yourself further.

Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World is available to download now on iOS and Android for free.