Quidditch World Cup game

[Iggy McSnurd]

Iggy here:

Ok all, a few more notes about the "Quidditch World Cup" video game, for
those of you who wish to know.  (Those who don't, can just skip past
this letter.)


It takes collecting 65 "Quidditch Cards" to unlock the Bulgarian team,
so don't expect to play them anytime soon.

When you defeat a team on their home field, you unlock it as a location
to play an exhibition match.

The "team special moves" take special conditions to unlock.  The card
for it in the "view cards" section of the inventory menu will tell you
what those conditions are.  (There are usually multiple ones to meet,
but the first one or two are usually pretty automatic... it's the final
one you'll probably need to look up specifically.  For example, to
unlock the English team's move, the last one is scoring 20 goals in one
game.  For the US, it's using 3 special moves in a single game, IIRC.)

The team moves are pretty hard to do sometimes, so be patient.  Once you
earn the ability to do one during a match, you may have to try a couple
of times before you get it... but most of them are worth watching.
(Even if you're on the receiving end of one... like watching Krum do the
Wronski Feint as the major part of the Bulgarian team's move.  The US
team pulls a "Harlem Globetrotter's" sequence that's *really* cool to
watch.)

The one thing that, IMHO, is unfair about the moves, is that some teams
score twice with their special move, and some only score once.  (I still
haven't found any aspect that balances it out... like the teams that
score once charging up the move faster...  If there is one, it's pretty
well hidden.  If there isn't, then it's kinda unbalanced.)

When you win the World Cup with any team the first time, you unlock the
Queerditch Marsh option on the menu.  Selecting that option allows you
to play an exhibition match on the original field.  On the downside, you
can only play as the Hogwarts house teams.

There are things in the "specials" option of the cards that require that
you do things like win the cup at higher skill levels and such, and some
options where it doesn't matter what skill level you're on.  My
suggestion is to unlock everything you can at the Nimbus 2000 level
(challenging at times, but pretty easy once you get the hang of it...
like when I played as the English team tonight, and beat Germany 580 to
30...)

An important bit of advice here:  If you're like me when you play, you
will end up clenching on the controller.  (Your left thumb, and the
joints in your index fingers will begin to ache after a while.)  Play a
match or two, and give your hands some time to rest, if you tend to grip
the controller hard while in the middle of a match.

The longer you hold down an action or shoot button as a Chaser, the more
power and speed you put into your throw.  So your best bet is to begin
charging up your shot as you look for a target, and then release.  On
the downside, you need to make sure you find a target (moving left or
right with the left analog stick) quickly, because if you hold down the
button too long, the game takes the shot automatically.

Two of your most valuable skills to learn are how to tackle quickly, and
how to feint your goal shots.  Charging your shot as you head towards
one ring, leading off the Keeper, then quickly switching your aim as you
take a power shot is *very* effective.  Developing these two skills is
why I manage to score so well, and the opposing teams rarely even gotten
a chance to shoot ay me goals.  (I think my Keepers are getting kinda
bored... to tell the truth.)

The higher your score is compared to your opponent's when the Snitch is
spotted, the more of an advantage you have over the opposing Seeker.
For example, in the match against Germany when England led by 430pts
when the Snitch was spitted, my Seeker's "turbo meter" was almost the
entire height of the screen, and the German Seeker's meter was almost
non-existent.

Don't worry too much about using the "circle" button to catch the
Snitch.  I've noticed that if you actually manage to actually hit the
Snitch with your Seeker, the game will often have them make a catch
attempt automatically.



I think that covers enough for our first lesson.  *grin*

Iggy McSnurd