Video Game Review: ‘The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’

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CHICAGO – Timed to coincide with the 70th Anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz” and its accompanying Blu-Ray collector’s set, the world created by Frank L. Baum is getting its own Nintendo DS role-playing game. Sort of. “Beyond the Yellow Brick Road” uses elements of both what we know and love about Oz and what gamers enjoy about RPGs to make an odd hybrid that could appeal to both genre newcomers and diehard fans.

The elements of “Beyond the Yellow Brick Road” that stick to the books and movie are mostly in the characters and some of the settings. The player, naturally, starts in the role of Dorothy, as she is whisked from her home in Kansas and deposited on the Yellow Brick Road with her little dog too.

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road
Photo credit: XSeed Games

In the opening level of “Beyond,” the player will pick up three predictable teammates - Strawman, Lion, and The Logger - and it makes one wonder why the quartet at the heart of “The Wizard of Oz” haven’t been used in an RPG format before considering how often groups of four fighters comprise the set-up for the genre.

The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road Photo credit: XSeed Games

Not only does each member of your team have a different fighting strength known as their “Affinities” (Dorothy inflicts most damage on ghosts, Strawman water creatures, Lion shell creatures, and Tinman plant creatures), but they have different “Ratios,” which makes for an interesting turn-based fighting system. When an enemy is encountered, the player must choose the best team to send into battle, keeping their ratios in mind. Four fighting slots can be chosen but while Dorothy and Strawman take up one turn, the stronger Lion takes up two, and the even stronger Logger takes up three. Come up with any combo of four (2 Dorothys and a Lion; 4 Strawman; 1 Logger, 1 Dorothy; etc.) and head in to battle. Enhancing the strategy is the fact that characters not chosen to fight won’t take damage. If Lion is hurting, maybe you should leave him behind while you attack the giant anemone.

And yes, like you, I didn’t know there were giant anemones in Oz. As the game progresses, it starts to feel less and less like what you know and love about the legend of Oz and more like a pretty standard RPG. As you’re fighting giant crabs and mystical creatures called HiJinks, the tenuous connection to Baum’s work gets paper-thin. But the story does feature its own unique variation on the Wizard and four witches, one for each holiday.

“The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road” could have been like so many other tie-in games for family films and done the bare minimum to appeal to their mostly young followers. Most titles like this don’t take into account trying to appeal to older fans with the young ones and “Beyond” is admirable in its attempt to bring something for everyone. Most notably, the structure of the gameplay is easy enough for players of any age to learn but the game is surprisingly deep and even difficult, making it a challenge that older gamers should seek out.

Finding the balance that results in a user-friendly RPG that also appeals to players who are looking for the depth of their favorite title is quite a challenged. “The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road” rises to that challenge. The gameplay gets repetitive and the backgrounds/enemies can be truly uninspiring, but it’s a surprisingly accomplished and detailed title when it probably didn’t have to be to make Oz-aholics swoon.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com