TGS 2008: Riz-Zoawd Hands-On

TOKYO--The anagram wasn't the only thing that caught our attention at the D3 Publisher booth during the 2008 Tokyo Game Show. Four distinct characters walked side by side toward a huge castle, and if you didn't recognize the cast instantly, then you must have missed out on one of the most enchanting movies in American cinema. The tin man, the lion, and the scarecrow accompanied Dorothy toward the castle, but before we knew it, we were pretty sure we weren't in Kansas anymore.

Dorothy and her little dog, Toto, were now standing in a wooden walkway surrounded by a lovely countryside. What's interesting is that Dorothy's movements are tied to a trackball. You use the trackball at the bottom of the screen by spinning it with the stylus. If you swipe up on the screen quickly, Dorothy will start to run until she bumps into something and slows down. There are small left and right arrows to rotate the camera and another button to interact with Toto or other characters. The controls seemed simple enough, so we made our way down the path in hopes of finding the yellow brick road.

We quickly encountered a wolf that wouldn't get out of our way, and we were taken into a battle screen. The wolf appears on top and your party members are listed at the bottom, and beyond the damage number that appears onscreen, there isn't much interaction in terms of the fight. There were symbols on the screen for us to tap, which made fighting easy. A symbol of two swords crossed was what we figured the attack command would be. We had the scarecrow and the lion with us, so between the three of us we were able to vanquish the wolf and move on, only to encounter several hostile sheep with mushroom caps on their heads and bats with piglike faces.

Once we came to the end of the path, we hit a switch that opened a gate behind us. There was all of Oz to explore, but unfortunately we had to put our journey on hold. Riz-Zoawd is a very attractive game on the Nintendo DS, and it's not because Dorothy is wearing a cute, maidlike outfit, either. It is a bit strange to see her blue and white dress lose a few inches off the bottom, and the usual white lace or tulle beneath her dress is now black. To top it all off, there is a big red bow at the front. From what we've seen of Oz, the scenery is beautiful and makes you feel like you are off in a magical land--which was probably the intent.

We are curious to see how this game will turn out and wonder if there will be a North American release. Right now, Riz-Zoawd is scheduled to be released on January 1, 2009, in Japan.