LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

We're shown a handful of the early spells. A lightning bolt attack works much like Star Wars' blasters do, sending out a puff of energy that knocks LEGO to pieces, possibly with slightly sharper auto-targeting than series veterans might be used to. Wingardium Leviosa works much like the Force powers, too, allowing the player to interact with objects, turning those flapping piles of bricks into quirky pieces of LEGO machinery, or even letting you fling irritating NPCs out of the way.

If it's starting to sound a little lazy, there are a few surprises in store. The LEGO physics model has been reworked - characters now send blocks skidding along the floor while they wade through them, and exploding scenery scatters in a more satisfying manner. At the crux of the recalibration, however, is the new "magical building" system, which gives the player the chance to use the levitation spell to move certain bricks about as they wish, rearranging and experimenting with them at will.

Coupled with the Crystal Skull's separate builder mode, it's one of the first few occasions in which a LEGO game actually tries to capture the feel of playing with LEGO. Inevitably, however, it has to be fairly tightly controlled, and the opportunity for freeform building will mainly be popping up for specific puzzles - such as constructing a wall to get to a selection of studs at the top - rather than being available for use in any situation. Seeing as wider implementation's tempting but probably game-breaking, it seems like a wise restraint, and if it's the genuine joys of construction you're after, there's always the forthcoming LEGO MMO. Or, you know, actual LEGO.

Finally, we're shown flight, handled in a typically no-nonsense manner, with the left stick controlling horizontal movement, while the jump button takes care of height. Like magical building, your broomstick use will be fairly strictly rationed, but with nice large arenas and plenty of clever touches - switching characters between Harry and Hermione will see your skills seriously impeded as you're placed in the hands of a weaker flier - it's a lot more interesting than another trip on a reskinned Snowspeeder.

With four books' worth of plot to wade through, over a hundred characters to unlock and thousands of colourful things to investigate, smash, and generally mess around with, Traveller's Tales is clearly onto another huge hit. Its template might be a little too familiar to pass as genuine magic any more, but at its heart this looks like another competent and witty outing: a near-bottomless pit of collectables for OCD children, and a pitch-perfect exercise in global branding.