In a nutshell, it's "Plants vs. Zombies" for fans of the Oz *book* series...and it's executed very well.
There's also the notion that if one were doing anything remotely relating to the land of Oz, then there must be a nod to the 1939 movie, right?
In this case, fans of the first Royal Historian of Oz's fourteen Oz books are being given the nod. Folks, you will find a lot of familiar names dropped as the indisputably gorgeous landscape of the marvelous land of Oz comes to life past the story panels that set up the premise of March on Oz. Before one dives in, however, there's a customization procedure to get through in creating the "traveller" that is whisked away by a green tornado to the magical fairyland, where the land is under siege by the Nome King, Ruggedo, who is being assisted by the Wicked Witch Mombi as he first changes his legions of Nomes into mechanized marauders(thereafter referred to as N.O.M.E.S., an acronym for Northern Oz Mechanically Enslaved Soldiers), and then deals with the Princess Ozma, hitting her with a spell that slowly changes her into a tree. With the preventive enchantments of Locasta, the Good Witch of the North(who, for some reason, is clad in red rather than white), required to hold off the wicked spell transforming Ozma, the traveller is called upon to command a "dream team" of pop gun-armed soldiers from the Munchkin and Winkie Countries, with Bunbury Cooks(Bunbury being the town full of self-sentient food featured in The Emerald City of Oz)…and Cayke, the Cookie Cook from The Lost Princess of Oz…to feed them all, in an effort to hold off 30 game rounds filled with various types of mechanized nomes. The traveller's overall mission? To find a magical artifact called the MacGuffin…entirely modeled after a certain Ark of the Covenant from a certain Lucas/Spielberg adventure movie…which is capable of breaking the spell changing Ozma.
From a design perspective, it's essentially an Oz-themed lane defense game along the lines of Plants vs. Zombies. This game, however, looks much, much nicer, and its music motif is equally well-crafted. Granted, for the actual gameplay, there's only one tune, and it's Leopold Stokowski's music from The Sorcerer's Apprentice, as featured in Disney's Fantasia. The story and "journey" segments use a nice little ambient tune that is reflective of the overall scenario: bleak, but with a glimmer of hope. Three difficulty settings are available, but be advised that the Easy mode will only get you through half the game before it forces you to re-start the game on its Normal mode. Fortunately, Normal allows you to hit up all 30 levels of the game's story mode…and once you figure the double-up strategies out, it's a bit of a breeze.
Fans of Baum's books will find a lot of recognizable elements within, and the game's own creations carry feasible explanations as well. The unit-restraining "Golden Thread", for example, was once a tailor before Mombi changed him. Fairies also lend a hand if you can afford the five-cake fee, with one offering fire support, and the other blasting the opposition with lightning. Jack Pumpkinhead cameos, but only to offer incendiary options to help hold off the attack waves.
If there had to be a gripe here, I'm afraid it must be the writing. Man, does it need work. It's way, waaaay too cheesy, particularly with the tongue-in-cheek nods to some of the legal issues of producing a game using the land of Oz as its basis. Take, for example, why Dorothy is a no-show here. She's apparently away helping the Wizard Rayme(as in Sam Raimi, director of Oz: The Great and Powerful) fight off the "Brothers Wr'nrs and their band of Loi-ers"(obviously a nod to Warner Bros. and their legal watchdogs). I wasn't too keen on the loose characterization of the Ozians, either, but I will make one exception: Cayke. Not only did I like her in-game characterization, but her character design as well, although I don't quite understand…and I realize this is a fanboy gripe, but I really like the books…why Cayke carries a spatula rather than a dishpan(especially since said dishpan is capable of flight, which would have added dimensions to an already beautiful-looking game), and why she bakes the "Angel-Food Cakes" that are the necessary mode of exchange for lane units rather than her in-book cookie preference(since she is, after all, a cookie Cook). I didn't quite understand the Bunbury Cooks, either. Bunbury, in the books, is a land of sentient food, with no sign of any Cooks. Yes, I know. The food had to come from somewhere, right? Hey…it's the land of Oz. All things considered, they could have had Cayke recruit fairies from the Forest of Burzee to replicate her cookie output. That would be more in tune with the books, and all the books beyond the first deserve a game to honor them by…and to be honest, all gripes aside, March on Oz comes closer than any game based on Oz that I have played thus far to honor the books Baum had written, and that's a definite plus. The folks at City-State Entertainment have also promised more material in the time to come relating to the game, and if you had purchased March on Oz? The upgrades will be free of charge.
One might, however, complain about the violence factor in a game based on a book series largely written for children…but folks? The game is bloodless. It's also of the cartoonish quality, too. Granted, you have gun-toting munchkins and Winkies, but come on…they fire pop guns. Absolutely feasible in the Oz scheme of things, considering Omby Amby(represented here as the "Green Soldier") is armed with a cork-firing pop gun of his own in the books. And the "Gun Trees" that come later? Those are acorns, not bullets. Pumpkinhead's bombs and the Green Soldier's rapid-fire gun are perhaps the only areas where one might level a pertinent violence accusation, but need I remind that the Nome King's hordes are not flesh-and-blood, but mechanized?
So in summation, if you don't mind the tongue-in-cheek nature of the writing, definitely add this to your iPad. It's definitely a step-up from Plants vs. Zombies. Especially if you're a fan of Baum's Oz books, and you're hungry for an interactive trip down the Yellow Brick Road.