The Best Games Like The Wizard Of Oz

Key Takeaways

• The journey in The Wizard of Oz mirrors many video games, including Kingdom Hearts and Undertale’s themes of adventure and discovery.
• Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. incorporates characters from The Wizard of Oz, like Dorothy, in a fight against alien invaders.
• Banjo-Kazooie and Fallout New Vegas, inspired by The Wizard of Oz, have story elements reminiscent of Dorothy’s quest.

The Wizard of Oz is a timeless fantasy tale of a young girl who finds herself in an unknown land. Together with her newfound companions, they must travel down a yellow brick road to meet a wizard who can get her back home.

The journey in the Wizard of Oz has characters that each want to obtain something by the end of their travels. The most powerful being in the land is also a fraud who disguises himself in order to appear powerful, but doesn’t mean any harm. Ultimately, it is a battle between good and evil or, if you decide to go by the Wicked timeline, a battle between the good and the misunderstood.

8 Kingdom Hearts

Ruby Slippers And Keyblades

Believe it or not, the journey of the original Kingdom Hearts follows many similar tropes to The Wizard of Oz. They both star a character who wants more adventure in their lives. When a massive storm threatens his home, Sora finds himself displaced.

Now he must team up with a crew of colorful cartoon characters to find his friends. Like Dorothy, Sora discovers that he now holds an object of great power. For Dorothy, this is the slippers, while for Sora it is the keyblade. They are also watched carefully by the villains as they go on their adventures.

7 The Wizard Of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road

Discovering A Hidden Gem

If you like the Wizard of Oz, there is an obscure Nintendo DS game with surprisingly good design choices known as The Wizard Of Oz: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road. This game turns the classic tale into an RPG that has Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion teaming up to battle four different witches across Oz.

The game has unique designs for all the classic characters while also taking a few creative liberties with the plot’s locations and enemies. This is one of those games that slips under the radar only to be rediscovered years later. It has the courage to try something different with the story, with plenty of smart gameplay decisions and designs with plenty of heart in them.

6 Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

Literary Avengers Assemble

If you are a well-read person, then you might be surprised to find out that there exists a literary equivalent to The Avengers. This game is called Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., and it brings together characters such as Tom Sawyer, John Henry, and Peter Pan to fight a group of alien invaders.

Among the characters who are featured in this game and play a major role are Dorothy and her friends from The Wizard of Oz. In fact, the Land of Oz is also a location you visit throughout the game as you use the Necronomicon to figure out how to stop the invading force.

5 Fallout: New Vegas And Old World Blues

A DLC Inspired By The Wizard Of Oz

Fallout New Vegas and its DLC, Old World Blues, have many similarities to the journey that Dorothy took throughout Oz. In the base game, the Courier wakes up in a brand-new town and must make their way to the grand city of New Vegas where they can find what they have lost. This also includes the character of Mr. House who speaks to you through a green computer.

Fallout: New Vegas’s Old World Blues DLC adds a fresh story. In this DLC, the Courier comes face to face with the seemingly all-powerful Dr. Mobius after losing parts of their body. The game also references the Brain, Heart, and Spine multiple times throughout the adventure. The good old doctor is also not what he seems at first glance.

4 Banjo-Kazooie

A Jealous Witch

A yellow brick road? How about collecting yellow puzzle pieces scattered throughout the world? Banjo-Kazooie has plenty of similarities to the Wizard of Oz, including a villainous witch who wants to steal something precious from a young girl.

In this case, the witch Gruntilda kidnaps Banjo’s sister, Tootie, in the hopes that she can steal her youth and beauty. While Gruntilda is technically based on several different fictional witches, what makes her most like the Wicked Witch of the West is the fact that Gruntilda also has a good sister known as Brentilda. She even comes fully dressed in pink like Glinda the Good Witch.

3 The Wizard Of Oz 1993

A Surprisingly Difficult Kids Game

If you’re looking for a game that adapts the Wizard of Oz film from 1939, then you’ll find a movie tie-in game that was released for the SNES in 1993. The game allows you to take control of Dorothy and her friends, each with their own unique abilities.

Dorothy can kick and shoot stars from a wand, Cowardly Lion can slap and throw pillows, Tin Man swings his axe, and Scarecrow uses his rake. This is one of the most comically frustrating platformer games ever made with plenty of precision needed to stay on the right path. Many of the enemies are also inspired by the lyrics of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

2 Emerald City Confidential

Solve Mysteries In The Emerald City

The Emerald City in Oz is supposed to be a utopian city where nothing can possibly go wrong. Emerald City Confidential twists all that by taking the story into the wicked underbelly of Oz’s society. It’s a case of film noir meets the Wizard of Oz as you take control of a private detective named Petra.

In this point and click adventure, you’ll be solving mysteries and puzzles by interrogating the many unique faces found around Oz. This includes familiar characters such as Dorothy’s original companions as well as some original, that you might need to question for your detective work.

Nothing is as it seems in the Emerald City, but if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, you might just discover a hidden gem.

1 Undertale

Go Face The All Mighty Asgore

Undertale shares a few similarities with The Wizard of Oz in how the player finds themselves separated from the world they knew and into a world filled with strange creatures. To get back home, they are told that they will need to face the terrible Asgore. In fact, his name is even written in red when spoken by Toriel.

On the way to see Asgore, you meet plenty of characters that the protagonist influences. Because of their arrival, they realize that their happiness was within their grasp all along. When you finally face Asgore though, he is not the wicked king he’s been made out to be. Great and powerful, maybe, but wicked? Not really. In fact, he even offers you tea and reluctantly attacks you.