PLAY FOR TODAY: VIDEO GAMES / AARON BURGESS

Column #7: LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4, Ninety-Nine Nights II (N311) and Transformers War For Cybertron.

By Aaron Burgess

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, PC

Developer: Traveller's Tales / Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

ESRB Rating: E10+

Grizzled gamers tend to quibble about LEGO videogames' adherence to formula, but when you're dropping $60 on entertainment for your home's ficklest audience (the kids), there's something to be said for knowing what to expect. Considering there's been nary a dud in the three franchises that've already gotten the LEGO treatment-Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman-you'd have good reason to expect similarly high standards from the first LEGO Harry Potter entry. And you'd be right-and then some.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 lets you play as minifigure versions of Harry himself, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and over 160 unlockable characters from the book and film series. (Hello, Dobby!) As the name implies and LEGO tradition mandates, gameplay finds you exploring, collecting and battling through madcap plastic-brick versions of the first four Harry Potter installments: the Sorcerer's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the Goblet of Fire. But if you think the action starts on Number Four Privet Drive and ends with a boss battle vs. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, you're barely touching on the game's potential.

Roaming plays a huge part in how you experience LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, primarily because the levels you roam are themselves so huge. Jam-packed with unlockable secrets, Hogwarts castle feels as massive and mysterious here as it must be for a first-year wizard to explore. Diagon Alley offers limitless spells, characters, objects and other diversions to purchase-your currency, of course, being the zillions of LEGO studs collected during gameplay. And the Forbidden Forest's creepy corners conceal far more than just old Aragog-though defeating the spider boss is another challenge altogether. Meanwhile, LEGO games' trademark tongue-in-cheek humor brings levity to the levels and mirth to the mystery, even (and especially) in spell-casting battles.

Where the central characters in previous LEGO games had tools to suit their personas (Indiana Jones' whip, for instance), LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 takes this idea further with its rich spell system. As in the books/movies, each spell has a particular outcome, so depending on what you want to move, whom you want to battle or where you want to go, you could pull out, say, Wingardium Leviosa to blast bricks or levitate objects, Riddikulus to take down what scares you, and so on. The AI is solid enough to make single-player mode a blast, but the spell-casting options reveal even deeper possibilities when you play alongside a friend.

Even though LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 brings just a few new options to the table, the changes will be as welcome for LEGO videogame diehards as they will be for fans of the Harry Potter series. Just like the doors and stairs in Hogwarts, the game is never the same thing twice-which means it should keep you and yours plenty busy until Years 5-7 arrives.

Rating: 8/10

Ninety-Nine Nights II (N3II)

Platform: Xbox 360

Developer: feelplus / Publisher: Konami

ESRB Rating: M

The videogame equivalent of an old-school death-metal band, Ninety-Nine Nights II uses devices like plot and storyline as mere anchors for the hacking, slashing brutality that makes it memorable. Indeed, there's something almost beautiful about the conviction with which N3II (as it's also known) embraces its lowly "hack 'n' slash" status: With nothing else to prove, the game simply piles on the bloodshed, and the result is a surprisingly fun, if mindless, romp through some of the densest battles this side of Helms Deep.

Lord of the Rings references aren't just coincidental here, either. With humans (exemplified by lead character Galen) co-existing alongside ogres, goblins and elves, and a Sauron-like "Lord of the Night" and accompanying dark army encroaching on the game's fictional world, N3II applies a dark, Tolkien-esque shadow to its action. N3II, of course, compresses its Middle-Earth-esque universe to a series of increasingly bananas assaults bookended by a few minor plot points.

Repeatedly raising the ceiling on the horde-battle concept  just to smash through it again, N3II finds you taking on literally hundreds of enemies at once and reducing foes to viscera in a slew of blindingly fast, graphically rich (in every sense of the term) weapon and magic attacks. With assassins, thieves, warriors, nobles and more at your disposal, you get all the powers and attendant weapons of each character class-even if the end result is still the same. And with support for co-op play via Xbox LIVE, you can bring a real-life friend to the slaughter.

Rating: 7/10

Transformers: War for Cybertron

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developer: High Moon Studios / Publisher: Activision

ESRB Rating: T

If you've found your Transformers interest lagging thanks to either Michael Bay's heavy hand or any number of flaccid game or novelty spin-offs, Transformers: War for Cybertron might just be the lure that hooks you again. Set during Cybertronian wartime, eons before the original "G1" Transformers toy/cartoon family hit Earth, the third-person game simultaneously spackles some of the holes in Transformers' lineage while giving many favorite characters a new lease on life. Plus, it's really fun to play.

The game's two campaigns, Autobot or Decepticon, aren't just "good" and "bad" sides of the same experience-they're literally interwoven into the game's rich back-story, with the Decepticon tale serving as a prequel to the Autobot campaign. (The nobler among you, however, can choose to enter the game as Autobots.) Support for up to three players in drop-in/drop-out co-op play means that you can either tackle the game alone (a solid, but limited, experience) or get help from friends, each of you choosing a Transformer that suits the battlefield you're on-from earth to air. And, as you'll soon discover, the ability to transform to your environment plays a huge role in how you'll fare.

Though the control scheme stays constant across both modes, War for Cybertron takes on a completely different tenor when you move from campaign to competitive multiplayer. Tight action on well-designed maps, customizable and well-armed character classes, and multiple modes with support for up to 10 players make for an experience that borrows the strongest elements of top-tier titles like Halo and Gears of War while standing formidably on its own. Consider this one of the summer's biggest sleepers so far-even for those of you who can't tell Optimus Prime from prime rib.

Rating: 8/10

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Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com  / AIM: First2Letters