Traveller's Tales again displays its attention to fine detail as, for example, you find you cannot shoot Dolores Umbridge with a spell if you bump into her while wandering Hogwarts (your missiles simply divert around her), as to do so would surely see you expelled. At the same time, there's a willingness to allow you to be playful with the mythology - one scene inviting two players to have Professor Snape and Potter join one another on a seesaw ride in the playground.

This is comfortably the most stylish of the Lego games too, with flashback scenes rendered in de-saturated colours, while one Panzer Dragoon-esque fly over the River Thames early in the game is directed with wonderful flair. Indeed, Lego Harry Potter captures the essence of J. K. Rowling's stories in a way no other licensed game based on the mythology has managed - a testament to the team's directorial skill as well as their implicit understanding of what makes the series so beloved of children.

Nevertheless, there are times when the realisation sets in that, if you were to remove the copious collectible shopping lists, there would only be a slender game left. The lifeblood of the Lego games is the incessant pursuit of the collectible (and the way that gaining one collectible enables the capture of the next), and almost every interaction within the game feeds into this broad aim. Succumb to these demands and agree to fill in the litany of blanks (100-odd characters, 60 students in peril, 200 gold bricks, 24 school emblems and 20 game-enhancing cheats) and you will have fun curating your collection towards completion. But if your brain isn't wired like this, and blanks in a collection are less a gauntlet than a space to shelve your ambivalence, what's left is relatively slight.

Within the Lego legacy, however, Harry Potter Years 5-7 is arguably the strongest entry. The lack of ledges means that, in contrast to the Star Wars titles, falling to a coin-spilling death is a rarity for younger players, while Potter's world is filled with enough diversity to make every excursion feel unique and interesting.