OK, chances are this review is being read by a worried parent who knows their little cherub loves Harry Potter.

Perhaps they're wondering whether they will actually enjoy the game, whether it's got suitable content, or don't really mind because 'a videogame is just a videogame'?

So let's cover that first before we go into detail that will bore any non-gamer - Harry Potter is a solid game that's suitable for anyone over three years old and is good enough to challenge your average seven or eight year old. Mum or dad may need to stand by to help out in case there are tears and tantrums - though if your child can program your video recorder and you can't, you may need to have them stand by when you're playing to avoid your tears and tantrums.

Be warned, parents, lots of games based on licenses can be lazy, lots of games for kids can also be tepid in terms of how they play - rightly or wrongly, shooting and violence forms many of the basics of gameplay and developers have to work really hard to make something challenging, fun and yet suitable for youngsters. The good news is that the developers of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets have done just that - it's a thoughtful, enjoyable hoot. OK - onto some specifics (parents may just want to move right and along to the shopping basket at this stage; here come the geeky details!)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a 3D third-person adventure (i.e. you see Harry as opposed to seeing things from Harry's point of view), which closely follows the plot of the book, whilst taking most of its visual clues from the film. After a trip to the Burrows - home of the Weasleys - for some basic training in how to move Haz P around and do spells, it's time for a goblin throwing mini-game, then off to Diagon Alley and onto Hogwarts where the bulk of the game is set.

The controls are easy to pick up, the left stick moves Harry around and the right one changes the camera view - though inexperienced gamers should be fine leaving the automatic camera viewpoint to work its, ahem, magic. On Xbox, to take that console as an example, the left trigger targets opponents and the right trigger puts you in a first person view so you can have a look around. Not designed as an alternative viewpoint, this just allows you to have a brief marvel at your surroundings - and marvellous they are too.

The look of the game is simply incredible, especially if you're a fan of the film. The accuracy, based on the movie sets is one thing, but the game's locales simply drip with atmosphere. Coloured light streams through stained glass windows, transparent ghosts float around Hogwarts and even when you get hold of a Nimbus Two Thousand and fly around the school of witchcraft and wizardry the game's visuals remain smooth and appealing. Obviously the PSone version struggles to keep up with these fancy looks, and the Xbox version takes all the prizes with its prettiness all the versions are worth a peek.

The game is split up into Harry's busy days at Hogwarts. Whilst the main plot begins to slowly cook away - the discovery of petrified people, the voice that only Harry can hear - Hermione, Ron and Haz P lead their day-to-day lives. Which, as fans will know, is anything but ordinary.

Hogwarts is basically a huge hub-world in the game - an area from which all the levels, mini-games and quests spring off from. Huge and labyrinthine, it features the moving staircases, which really move, and the portraits, which sadly don't move when you're just wandering around. The Grand Staircase leads off to lessons, Defence Against the Dark Arts with Gilderoy Lockhart and Transmutation with Professor Minerva McGonagall and so on. Every day Ron or Hermione - or failing that your Rememberall, a kind of mystic filofax - will instruct you which lesson you need to attend. Each lesson has its own challenge, whether it's a course that must be finished in a certain time on your broom or a puzzle-laden mini-quest to learn a new spell.

After the lessons are done, it's up to you whether you wander Hogwarts and its grounds, collecting wizard cards and Bertie Bott's every-flavour-beans. The main plot of the film also kicks in with the Chamber of Secrets being opened, Dumbledore being under threat of losing his headmastership of the school and all hell generally breaking loose.

If you're single-minded the game can be finished fairly quickly, but HPATCOS (catchy acronym, eh?) rewards exploration, collection and participation in the mini-games. Collectable items range from the beans (which can be traded at Fred and George's makeshift joke shop for useful items) to quest items which will come in useful - such as owl treats to motivate Hedwig into action - to the Wizard trading cards, which are just nice to collect. That gives us older gamers something to obsess about, as lots of secrets and side missions must be completed - not to mention a bit of swapping and bartering with the kids in the corridor - to get anywhere near a full set.

All this collecting and secret-finding gives the game lots of replay and with its automatic jumping, puzzle solving gameplay the game could be considered a kind of Zelda-lite; it's like the N64 Zelda Ocarina of Time but with less fiendish puzzles - and before we get flamed by hardcore Nintendo fans - and less groundbreaking. But it is fun and an orgy of Potter-esque activity that's going to thrill young Haz P fans on Christmas morning. And who could ask for more than that?