Petra, on the other hand, is an entirely original character, which works in introducing unfamiliar players to the expanded universe of Oz. Transportation is handled by flying creatures called Gumps, which here have a head of an elk and the body of a sofa. The Nome King is now a (mostly) reformed barkeep, Jack Pumpkinhead is a smuggler, and the Shaggy Man is a mechanic. The city is ruled by Queen Ozma, and her police force is led by Jinjur, who has a long standing grudge against Petra. Baum wrote over a dozen books set in the same universe, and Emerald City Confidential makes good use of them. While most will be familiar with the characters from the Judy Garland film, Frank L. The Wizard of Oz has been reduced to coaching magic fights at a low class coliseum outside the city. The Scarecrow is an enigmatic royal advisor clad in a classy white suit. The Lion is now a high powered lawyer who works for criminals. The major of appeal of Emerald City Confidential is seeing how all of the famed characters from the Oz universe have been reinvented. (Most will remember the famous “I’m melting!” death of the Wicked Witch of the West, but Glinda the Good Witch has also passed away sometime in between.) Only by resurrecting these fallen figures can the magical power of the kingdom be restored, and help stave off a war with the Phanfasms, a race of savage beast-humans. As to be expected, the story goes much deeper than a missing persons case, as soon Petra learns that the entire kingdom of Oz is in a state of unbalance due to the deaths of the witches. She is propositioned by Dorothy Gale (yes, that Dorothy) to find her missing fiancé?, a man by the name of Anzel. The heroine is Petra, a down-on-her-luck ex-military woman who’s taken to the private detective business in hopes of finding her missing brother. With all of these somewhat off-kilter reimaginings, it almost feels like Emerald City Confidential, Wadjet Eye’s detective noir take on the world of Oz, is the least crazy of the bunch. From a video game perspective, there’s an early text adventure for various home computers, a bog standard side-scrolling platformer for the SNES, a Japanese fantasy RPG for the DS ( RIZ-ZOAWD, known as The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road in America), and a Castlevania-ish hack-and-slasher for the PlayStation 2 ( OZ, known as The Sword of Etheria in Europe). Beyond the world famous 1939 film, there have been numerous adaptations to stage plays, cartoons and television series. The Wizard of Oz has been a gold mine for alternate interpretations.
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