Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day.
During the great mascot wars of the 90’s, many companies tried to make the next great mascot character. Some were successful like Battletoads or Earthworm Jim and have had a lasting legacy. Some were… less successful, like Bubsy, for example. Many, though, have simply been forgotten. Whatever the reason may have been, these characters just never caught on and have mostly been left behind by time. Today’s game is a game from my childhood that falls into that category. Today’s game is Wiz n Liz: The Frantic Wabbit Wescue, developed by Raising Hell Software released in 1993 for the Amiga and the Sega Genesis.
Wiz n Liz is an arcade style platformer where players must travel to different zones in order to save all of the missing wabbits. Yes, that is what they’re called throughout the game. Once players choose which zone they want to play, they have a limited amount of time to grab wabbits which drop items. Some wabbits will drop letters which must be collected to form a magic word, listed at the top of the screen. Once the word is complete, players must collect all the remaining wabbits in the level and then rush to the exit door to end the level. To complete the run, players must complete each zone and then a final boss battle against a large creature.
The amount of time a player has left travels with them between each zone so it’s important for players to move as quickly as possible during each zone. Stopwatches can be picked up which increase the amount of available time at the end of the zone and when things are looking desperate, a glowing orange orb may appear which grants a quick boost of time. Running out of time results in a death. In between zones, players show up in a hub area where minigames can be played and fruits collected in zones can be mixed together with a variety of outcomes.
These days, it’s pretty rare to hear anyone talking about this mostly forgotten game. It’s hard to say if it was the two old wizards that didn’t catch on with kids or if it was the actually quite difficult gameplay. Maybe a sequel was never actually intended at all. Whatever the case was, Wiz n Liz never saw life outside of this single game, although it’s developer, Raising Hell Software, would change its name to Bizarre Creations and create a number of well known titles through the 2000’s such as the Project Gotham Racing series and Geometry Wars.
Thank you so much for listening! If you want to hear more about Wiz n Liz, follow me on Twitter @vg_oftheday for trivia about the game. Archives and transcripts for each episode are up on videogameoftheday.com. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!
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Devin "Katosepe" Sloane is a long time gamer and host of the show Video Game of the Day. He firmly believes Darklands is the pinnacle of gaming achievement and this is a hill he will die upon. Where his nickname came from is a secret to everybody.
