Harry Potter is everyone’s favourite teen wizard. The success of the franchise is beyond belief. To put it into numbers, the books have sold over 500 million copies. Not only this, but the films have grossed over $7 billion. With this kind of success the franchise has seen all manner of spin offs and adaptions. Today, it’s the weird and wonderful Harry Potter card games that we are most interested in. We will try not to include games that are just Harry Potter licensed versions of the original, for example, Harry Potter Uno because we want to discuss original games in this article.
What is the Harry Potter Card Game They Play in the Films?
The Harry Potter Card game played in the film are trading cards which you got as a reward for buying chocolate frogs – a bit like a kinder egg! These cards displayed pictures of famous witches and wizards and gave a short biography of them. While it wasn’t a game per say, it was a source of much excitement between the younger Hogwarts students – like a Panini World Cup sticker collection.
The Chocolate Frog cards only appear in the novels up until the Order of the Phoenix, this is probably because J.K. had slowly changed her writing style which was aimed mostly at children to a wider audience. In addition, the books take a darker turn as they become more about the ultimate battle against good and evil.
There are between 101 and 134 chocolate Frog Cards depending what you consider as cannon and if you are including video game and other media. The cards discuss all manner of the world of Harry Potter and are broken down into the following categories:
- Famous Witches and Wizards Cards
- Famous Vampire Cards
- Famous Giant Cards
- Famous Goblin Cards
- Famous Hags Cards
- Famous Quidditch Player Cards
- Dragon Cards
- Beast Cards
Notable cards include: Albus Dumbledore, Count Vlad Drakul (which inspired Dracula), and everyone’s favourite Ron Weasly.
Cards against Potter!
Cards against Potter, and similarily cards against muggles, is a cards against humanity inspired Harry Potter game. The beauty of party games is that they are straight forward and anyone, of any skill, can play them. This being said, it’s clearly an adult themed game with cards detailing yeast infections and the like. I would not recommend it as a Christmas present for your young niece.
The game is marketed as incredibly offensive and hilariously funny, but reminding the audience it is an unofficial parody of Harry Potter. I think objectively in any case the content is funny, if you are a fan of the franchise you will find it hilarious.
Cards against Potter Contains 252 total cards so you will have plenty of variety from which to choose. I think Cards against humanities inspired games have just about enough originality to be considered a game in their own right, rather than a clone. The game has overwhelmingly positive reviews, so worth picking up if: a) you are a Harry Potter Fan, b) a fan of the Cards against Humanity formula.
Harry Potter Greatest Wizards and Witches
Harry Potter Greatest Wizards and Witches is another borderline addition to this list. It brings Harry Potter to the Top Trump universe. I think what makes it unique enough to be on this list is the stats are Harry Potter specific. Stats include: First Year at Hogwarts, Wand Length, Family Tree, Fear Factor, and Top Trumps Rating. The game also gives a fun little Top Trump Fact File on the character. While its not ground-breaking information, it is a nice touch for sure.
Characters include fan favourites such as Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, and Bellatrix Lestrange. I favour this Top Trump version above the “book specific” editions, such as, Prisoner of Azkaban Top Trumps or Goblet of Fire Top Trumps, because it uses characters across many different books rather than just being limited to one.
As simple as it is, the game is under £10, so it is certainly not a wallet draining experience.
Harry Potter Trading Card Game
As the old saying goes: “if a franchise is big enough, someone will build a Trading Card Game out of it”. Harry Potter is no exception. The Harry Potter Trading Card Game is unfortunately a bit of a hero to zero story. Released in 2001 off the back of the film franchise, at one point the game was the second bestselling toy in the United States. However, this success was short lived and the game is now out of print.
Limited to a two player format, the win condition of this game was to force your opponent to run out of cards from their deck first, which is common amongst most trading card games. Strangely though, this is the only win condition. When players damage each other cards are lost form the deck.
There are eight different types of cards:
- Lessons: These provide power, which is used to play other cards.
- Spells: Have a given effect and are then discarded. They may reinforce your other cards do damage outright.
- Creatures: Have health points and deal certain amounts of damage, some may not though and have effects, like spells.
- Characters: Have special abilities and stay on the field of play, unlike spells.
- Adventures: These force your opponents to meet a condition to remove it from play.
- Items: Stay on the table when played, they may have effects or grant extra power.
- Matches: Condition cards, the first player to fulfil the condition gets a “Prize”.
- Locations: Cards which have the same effects on both player, such as Diagon Alley.
Use these in clever combination and victory will be yours!
Harry Potter Who Is it?
Harry Potter Who Is It is a final honourable mention on our list. Whereas Cards against Potter was aimed at an adult audience, this one is clearly aimed at a younger audience as demonstrated by the art style. This is all about guessing, Players pick a character and take turns asking yes or no questions – a bit like 20 questions. There’s a lot of variety in characters, 72 in total. Really worth it for young fans of the franchise.
Harry Potter Card Games: Bogey Flavoured Jelly Bean or Chocolate Frog?
Harry Potter has seen all manner of licensed products. I think the most original game on this list is the Harry Potter Trading Card game, but that is true of the genre because a lot of planning goes into creating a trading card game franchise. While it is now out of print, it did see a revival in 2015 and a small tournament scene. The future is still very much open for Harry Potter card games. While I do not think that there will be many games based on the fantastic beasts universe – whose reputation has been somewhat tarnished recently – I do think Harry Potter card games will make a comeback. It is a beloved franchise and when it comes down to it, makes a lot of money.
