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The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road looks great for an RPG on the Nintendo DS, but it's not without its problems.

Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, the new RPG by Japanese developer Media.Visions, is definitely something most of us didn't see coming, but why not? L. Frank Baum's turn-of-the-century story, with its high adventure, colorful setting and close-knit party of diverse protagonists makes it a natural for gaming, especially for an RPG. And with the whole series of Oz stories to draw upon, developers have before them a vast creative resource. The thing is, the developers of “BTYBR”, while making an entertaining enough game, have failed to fully embrace the fictional richness of the series and ended up somewhat shortchanging both gamers and Oz fans alike.

The game's narrative only bears passing resemblance to the original story. Here, rather than from a kindly aunt and uncle, the tornado sweeps Dorothy and Toto (who you can rename if you want) away from the lonely, hollow existence they've been living since Dorothy's parents died. They land on the yellow brick road and a voice tells them to go see the the Wizard of Oz (who incidentally, looks like the love child of Katamari's King of Cosmos and that terrifying doll from the 70s movie “Trilogy of Terror”). Along the way, they pick up the Scarecrow (called the Straw Man), the Lion and the Tin Man, who for some reason in this version, is like Monty Python's Knights who say “Ni!” and can only shout “Hva!”
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