You can spend roughly 20 hours in this lackluster adaptation of the land of Oz, but most of this time is spent mired in backtracking or wearisome, simplistic battles. The game's complete lack of depth and innovation will have you hard-pressed to find anything intriguing enough to pull you back for more--let alone keep you playing. The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road has decent core mechanics, but its mind-numbing mediocrity culminates in a lackluster experience troubled by a slew of irritants. The game is ultimately forgettable and provides little lasting appeal.
gamrReview's Xavier Griffiths: "Movie tie-in games have a reputation for being notoriously bad and shoddy, doing both a disservice to the original film and videogames as a medium. More often than not the movies that get adapted into videogames are high octane, action-oriented summer blockbusters and the aim is simply to extract as much money from the market as possible. Realistically no one expects games based on trashy films such as Catwoman, The Cat in the Hat, or Eragon to be good in the first place, but what about games based on films that have garnered recognition for the highest award in cinema?"
A list saluting horribly wonderful movie games like Street Fighter: The Movie and The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.
In a cluttered RPG market on the DS there isn't any real reason to recommend The Wizard of Oz. The new story is generic, the exploration hampered by unnecessary backtracking and the dreaded locked door puzzles. An interesting combat system is ruined by the default party actions and clunky menu navigation. This certainly isn't what L. Frank Baum had in mind, there aren't even any flying monkeys.
