The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is an interesting adaptation of the classic beloved franchise. Rather than focusing on the original material written by L. Frank Baum, the game has a brand new story that features most of the iconic characters from the series, as well as many new characters and enemies. Even though it is a role-playing game (which sounds weird for a Wizard of Oz title), it works very well and provides a satisfying and unique experience.

You start off as Dorothy along with Toto, arriving at the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road in the Land of Magic thanks to a tornado. As Dorothy travels the road, she meets up with the Scarecrow (referred to as Strawman in the game), Tin Man, and Lion. Rather than joining up automatically, you must first battle them before they will join your ranks. Eventually Dorothy and her party end up in the Emerald City and meet with the Wizard of Oz.

The wizard tasks you with defeating an evil witch and her daughters that are trying to steal his power. In order to do so, you must steal ten magical eggs to defeat each witch. Once this task has been completed, the wizard promises to grant each member of the party a wish.

The game is exclusively controlled with the touchscreen; none of the buttons on the DS are utilized. Movement is handled by a virtual trackball that is prominently displayed on the touchscreen. If you make slow swipes with the stylus the trackball also moves slowly, which in turn makes your character move slowly as well. Faster swipes will make the trackball move rapidly, which makes your character run. To access menus, you simply press the appropriate buttons on the touchscreen. All of the controls are easy to learn and very accessible; the only learning curve is getting accustomed to controlling movement with the virtual trackball.

In-game battles are in first person, similar to the Dragon Quest series. Attacks, item use, and spell use are all assigned with a menu interface. At the start of the game, spells aren't available until you find and defeat a character called Father Dragon and his siblings; once defeated, they teach each of your characters a spell. Each character is also strong against a specific type of enemy, and exploiting these strengths will often end battles quicker.

There are several unique battle systems in the game. The most interesting one is the Ratio System, which is used to decide what characters participate in a segment of the battle. Each character has a different ratio value that is dependent on attack strength. Dorothy and Strawman have a value of one, Lion has a value of two, and Tin Man has a value of three. The total ratio must equal four, and you are allowed to pick a character more than once. All characters that are chosen will be able to perform an action, and will be susceptible to damage from enemies during battle.

Another system is the built-in Suggestions System. The game automatically suggests actions during battle; for example, if an enemy is weak to a specific character's attack, the system automatically assigns the attack to that enemy. If you aren't happy with the suggestions, you can always override them with another action. While this feature sounds helpful, healing is always classified as a higher priority and will always be recommended, especially if one of the members in your party has low health or is knocked out. If you aren't paying attention this can be a terrible thing, especially if you intended to attack instead of heal. It can be very annoying, and unfortunately this built-in feature can't be turned off.

The presentation in The Wizard of Oz is fantastic. The game features some of the best 3D graphics on the DS platform. There is a lot of detail in the environments, and all the characters look colorful and fantastic; the one visual sore spot is that the battles are often bland and lacking any special effects. The soundtrack in the game is also very pleasant, with songs in each area perfectly reflecting how zany the game world truly is.

One disappointing element is the repetitive and generic nature of the level design. Each level in the game is very linear and almost identical; each level features many forks in the road, but many paths lead to dead ends with an item at the end, or yet another fork in the road. Luckily each fork features a sign that you can mark with specific symbols in order to aid you when you backtrack or need to revisit a level.

Ultimately, The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is a unique take on the franchise and an enjoyable RPG experience. If you are looking for a unique RPG and don't mind that the game deviates from the original Wizard of Oz story, then this title is highly recommended.