Emerald City Life

I'm a sucker for strange RPGs on DS. I loved The World Ends With You, I'm probably one of the only people to buy Atlus' Contact, and I literally jumped for joy when Bioware first announced Sonic Chronicles. So how did I manage to miss all the news about Media Vision's RIZ-ZOAWD? Well, it could be because of the strange name that tells us nothing about the game, but a little rearranging of letters makes things much more clear. Lets see..... just move the W to the beginning, the Z to the end, shuffle a few of the middle ones around, and we end up with WIZARD-OZ. Understand now?

Media Vision and D3 are the ones who brought this title to Japan, and XSEED have recently signed on to localize for Western release. For those unaware, Media Vision are the ones who brought us Wild Arms, and XSEED provided the Korg DS-10 Synth and the old-but-new Retro Game Challenge, so they have a fairly good track record with the console so far.

So what exactly is RIZ-ZOAWD, or as it's going to be know in the west, The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road? Well, it's a touch screen controlled RPG that closely follows the events of the movie. A virtual trackball is your main way of moving Dorothy, and the turn-based battles take place in first person, à la Dragon Quest. The four lands you travel through are based on the four seasons, and you will soon meet some familiar faces who will help you on your journey. They will even provide some useful abilities, such as the Cowardly Lion's run away move.

Of course, one question I can't answer is why I'm looking forward to this title so much. Maybe it's based on childhood memories and nostalgia, or maybe it's just because movie-based games tend to suck, and this one looks to be different (well, it should - they've had 70 years to work on it!). Either way, it's definitely going to be one to watch as we wait for it's release this fall.