Wiz 'n' Liz

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Wiz 'n' Liz
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Psygnosis
Developer: Raising Hell
Supporting companies: Krisalis Software (audio)
Sound driver: Krisalis sound driver
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1994-01-06 T-113026 US ▼ (Sega Channel) 1994-06-01 SUBsub EU 1993-09 T-113026-50 DE 1993-11 T-113026-50 UK 1993-11-26 £39.9939.99 T-113026-50 SE (Rental) 199x AU 1993-11 $99.9599.95
Non-Sega versions Amiga
ESRA

Wiz 'n' Liz is a sidescrolling action game released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1993. It was also released for the Amiga, although the Sega Mega Drive version is technically more refined. During development, the game was known as Wizzy 'n' Lizzy.

Gameplay

The game features multiple stages that can be accessed in any order the player likes from a hub world known as "Home World". Difficulty level selection has a great influence of the duration of the game - the Apprentice level has 8 easy levels, while the Wizard and Sorceror levels are longer. Two characters are selectable: the male magician Wiz and his female counterpart Liz.

The game takes a minimal violence approach. The goal of each stage is to collect the "wabbits" scattered around the level as quickly as possible. To do so, the player must first grab magical letters that form the name of a spell that will facilitate catching the wabbits (the spells themselves are generally very obscure words); once all of them have been caught, the player must find the exit out of the stage. They must do all of this in a limited amount of time; fortunately, they move quite fast, and extra time can be collected from wabbits. and jump. Each world ends with a screen-filling boss. This is the only time attack spells are available, which are performed using the button.

The game has an elaborate score system. After collecting all letters, the wabbits drop stars, extra time etc, which can be collected in the remaining time, not too different from the system NiGHTS into Dreams employs. Collecting special "BONUS" letters will cause a bonus round to start after completing all the rounds in a level, tasking the player with collecting as many grey wabbits and items as they can. Harder difficulty levels add in more obstacles for the player to watch out for. Some wabbits will drop invisible letters that will remove a letter from the spell, and some wabbits will explode which will make the player lose all of the spell letters collected so far. When a wabbit is about to explode, it will flash white, and a fairy will guide the player to the shortest route to the wabbit.

Spells

After completing a magic word during a level, catching wabbits will release fruit and vegetables. Collecting enough to fill the Magic bar will award a magic ingredient that can be taken back to Home World, where the player can put two ingredients together in a cauldron to create magic spells with all sorts of effects. Some spells unlock additional features and mini-games, award the player with points, time or stars, or other effects. If the player does not use an ingredient they have collected, it will spin faster and eventually expire after a few levels.

There are 14 types of ingredients to use for a total of 105 possible combinations, as listed here:

Item 1	Item 2	Effect
Apple	Apple	Awards a bonus letter.
Apple	Strawberry	Opens the door that leads to the levels at the start of a new game. If the door is already open, 50,000 points are awarded instead.
Apple	Banana	Opens the Ye Olde Magic Shoppe. If the shop is already open, 50,000 points are awarded instead.
Apple	Orange	Randomises the player’s collected ingredients. If no ingredients are available, the ingredients used are refunded for stars.
Apple	Carrot	Awards 5,000 points.
Apple	Potato	Friendship spell. The opposite character follows the player for the next level only.
Apple	Cabbage	Doubles the player's remaining time.
Apple	Mango	Awards 75 extra stars.
Apple	Lemon	Awards 100,000 points.
Apple	Onion	Awards the Magic Ruby. Collect all four Magic Gems to play a Super Bonus Round.
Apple	Pear	The player is followed by a duplicate of their character for the next level only.
Apple	Cherry	Awards 150 extra stars.
Apple	Avocado	Skips/re-opens Grass Land.
Apple	Mushroom	Activates fruit returner.
Strawberry	Strawberry	Awards 10 seconds extra time.
Strawberry	Banana	Awards the Magic Diamond. Collect all four Magic Gems to play a Super Bonus Round.
Strawberry	Orange	Opens the “Splat Those Dudes” mini-game.
Strawberry	Carrot	Doubles the player’s score.
Strawberry	Potato	All wabbits turn red for the next level only.
Strawberry	Cabbage	All wabbits turn green for the next level only.
Strawberry	Mango	Opens the “Wheelspin” mini-game.
Strawberry	Lemon	Opens the “The Colour of Magic” interactive demo.
Strawberry	Onion	Makes a rain cloud appear above the player character’s head for the next level only.
Strawberry	Pear	Opens the “Phew, What’s That Pong!” mini-game.
Strawberry	Cherry	Doubles the player’s stars.
Strawberry	Avocado	Allows the player to play two bonus rounds after collecting all bonus letters.
Strawberry	Mushroom	Awards 1 point.
Banana	Banana	Lemmings appear all over the place for the next level only.
Banana	Orange	Nothing happens.
Banana	Carrot	Awards 50 extra stars.
Banana	Potato	Opens the Ye Olde Hint Shoppe. If the shop is already open, 50,000 points are awarded instead.
Banana	Cabbage	All items are 50% off in the Ye Olde Magic Shoppe and Hints Shoppe until the next level is completed.
Banana	Mango	Skips/re-opens Temple Land.
Banana	Lemon	Makes more time icons appear in the next level only.
Banana	Onion	Opens the “It’s Waining Wabbits!” mini-game.
Banana	Pear	Makes more point icons appear in the next level only.
Banana	Cherry	Makes tortoises appear that award bonus points when collected for the next level only.
Banana	Avocado	Awards 45 seconds extra time.
Banana	Mushroom	Slows down the timer for the next level only.
Orange	Orange	Awards 1 point.
Orange	Carrot	All wabbits turn blue for the next level only.
Orange	Potato	Opens the “Snakes Alive!” mini-game.
Orange	Cabbage	Nothing happens.
Orange	Mango	Awards 25 seconds extra time.
Orange	Lemon	Opens the “Take a Chance!” mini-game.
Orange	Onion	Awards 30 seconds extra time.
Orange	Pear	Awards 40 seconds extra time.
Orange	Cherry	Skips/re-opens Lunar Land.
Orange	Avocado	Awards 10,000 points.
Orange	Mushroom	Opens the “Tube Skiing” mini-game.
Carrot	Carrot	Opens the Sound Test.
Carrot	Potato	Awards 20 seconds extra time.
Carrot	Cabbage	Nothing happens.
Carrot	Mango	Turns all collected ingredients into bananas. If no ingredients are available, the ingredients used are refunded for stars.
Carrot	Lemon	Awards 80 extra stars.
Carrot	Onion	Prolongs the life of remaining ingredients. If no ingredients are available, the ingredients used are refunded for stars.
Carrot	Pear	Opens the “Wabbit Invaders” mini-game.
Carrot	Cherry	Awards 1 extra star and 100,000 points.
Carrot	Avocado	Awards 5 extra stars.
Carrot	Mushroom	Makes more stars appear in the next level only.
Potato	Potato	Skips/re-opens Wood Land.
Potato	Cabbage	The player gets a Game Over. The game admits it was joking and brings the player character back, continuing as normal.
Potato	Mango	Awards the Magic Emerald. Collect all four Magic Gems to play a Super Bonus Round.
Potato	Lemon	Opens the “Guess Those Words” mini-game.
Potato	Onion	Nothing happens.
Potato	Pear	Opens the “Gold Rush” mini-game.
Potato	Cherry	Skips/re-opens Mine Land.
Potato	Avocado	Skips/re-opens Snow Land.
Potato	Mushroom	Awards 250 extra stars.
Cabbage	Cabbage	Opens the “Letter Basher” mini-game.
Cabbage	Mango	Awards 25,000 points.
Cabbage	Lemon	Prevents invisible letters from appearing for the next level only.
Cabbage	Onion	Awards 5 seconds extra time.
Cabbage	Pear	Skips/re-opens Dead Land.
Cabbage	Cherry	“Enter the Shadow Lands!” Blacks out the foreground layer for the next level only.
Cabbage	Avocado	Awards 50,000 points.
Cabbage	Mushroom	Opens the “Wabbitoids” mini-game.
Mango	Mango	Time icons collected in the next level are worth two.
Mango	Lemon	Awards 75 extra stars.
Mango	Onion	Skips/re-opens Desert Land.
Mango	Pear	Awards 100 extra stars.
Mango	Cherry	Awards 1 second extra time.
Mango	Avocado	Nothing happens.
Mango	Mushroom	Awards 250,000 points.
Lemon	Lemon	Reverses the state of the player’s bonus letters.
Lemon	Onion	Awards 100 points.
Lemon	Pear	Stars collected in the next level are worth two.
Lemon	Cherry	Displays 68000 assembly code.
Lemon	Avocado	Awards 1 extra star.
Lemon	Mushroom	Awards 1 second extra time.
Onion	Onion	Wabbits are prevented from exploding for the next level only.
Onion	Pear	Upgrades collected ingredients to the next level. If no ingredients are available, the ingredients used are refunded for stars.
Onion	Cherry	Awards 20,000 points.
Onion	Avocado	Awards 125 extra stars.
Onion	Mushroom	Disables the foreground layer, rendering the next level invisible.
Pear	Pear	Opens the “Finders Keepers” mini-game.
Pear	Cherry	Awards 175 extra stars.
Pear	Avocado	Awards 200 extra stars.
Pear	Mushroom	Awards 50 seconds extra time.
Cherry	Cherry	Opens the “It’s Bouncing Bunnies!” mini-game.
Cherry	Avocado	Turns all collected ingredients into mushrooms. If no ingredients are available, the ingredients used are refunded for stars.
Cherry	Mushroom	Skips a level.
Avocado	Avocado	Awards all bonus letters.
Avocado	Mushroom	Awards an extra life.
Mushroom	Mushroom	Awards the Magic Sapphire. Collect all four Magic Gems to play a Super Bonus Round.

Mini-games

	Splat Those Dudes
	The objective of this mini-game is to throw tomatoes at caricatures of Traveller's Tales staff members Jon Burton and Andy Ingram, scoring bonus points for each successful hit. To throw a tomato, the player must hold down , or to prepare a tomato, adjust their aim with the D-Pad, and release the held button to fire. The longer the buttons are held down, the higher the tomato will be thrown. The mini-game ends when the player has thrown all of their tomatoes, with bonus points awarded if the player has successfully hit specific targets without missing. Hitting Puggsy will not award any points, but using almost every tomato on him will award an extra life.
	Wheelspin
	This is a roulette that the player spins once, with the player winning whatever item the roulette stops on.
	The Colour of Magic
	This is an interactive demo where the player presses the D-Pad and the face buttons to paint all kinds of colourful patterns on the screen. To exit the demo, press  START .
	Phew, What's That Pong!
	It's Waining Wabbits!
	The player's character is in a flat field, and the objective is to catch as many falling wabbits as possible without letting too many hit the ground. By successfully catching wabbits, bonus stars will appear for the player to collect, and the longer the mini-game goes on, the more wabbits that will fall at one time. When the player misses 50 wabbits, the mini-game ends.
	Snakes Alive!
	This mini-game is a recreation of the Snake game, in which the objective is to move a snake around the screen using the D-Pad and eat the numbers that appear on the screen. The number will count down from nine, and will disappear to another part of the screen if it is allowed to reach zero. Eating the number will award points based on how high the number was, but will also make the snake grow larger. The mini-game lasts until the snake touches the walls or part of its body.
	Take a Chance!
	This mini-game is purely a game of chance. Three 10-ton weights hang above the screen with three bonus items (points, stars or extra time) appearing below each one, and the player must wisely choose which prize to take. When an item is collected, one of the weights will come crashing down. If the player chooses a prize that does not crush them, they can continue collecting prizes until they are crushed.
	Tube Skiing
	Sound Test
	This is simply a basic sound test which allows the player to listen to the game's sound effects and music at their leisure. The D-Pad is used to make a selection, and any of the buttons will play the selected sound. To leave the Sound Test and resume the game, select "EXIT".
	Wabbit Invaders
	This mini-game is a clone of Space Invaders in which the player must blast falling waves of wabbits without letting any of them reach the ground. As the wabbits get fewer in number, the faster they will move. When the player loses all of their ships or lets even one wabbit reach the ground, the mini-game is over.
	Guess Those Words
	In this mini-game, the player must guess what each of the game's spell words mean from a list of four choices. Before each round, the player can wager as many stars as they like, and will win more stars for correct guesses, but will lose their bet if they make an incorrect guess. The mini-game lasts for a total of five rounds.
	Gold Rush
	Letter Basher
	Wabbitoids
	Finders Keepers
	This mini-game is a memory match puzzle in which the game flips over grey wabbits and try to match pairs to win items. If the pairs match, the player will win the item. If a wild card (?) is drawn, a wabbit concealing an item that matches the first one drawn will automatically flip over, instantly winning that item. The player is given ten tries. After using all ten tries, the mini-game ends, and the game will allow the player to flip the remaining wabbits to see what they contain, but they will no longer win anything for doing so.
	It's Bouncing Bunnies!
	This mini-game tasks the player with using a trampoline to bounce the wabbits around and try to collect the numbers that appear on the screen. The number will count down from nine, and will disappear to another part of the screen if it is allowed to reach zero. Collecting a number will award a set amount of points based on how high the number was - the higher the number, the greater the point bonus. If the player lets 10 wabbits hit the ground, the mini-game ends.

History

In the US, the game was released on the first day of Winter CES 1994; January 6th.

The game features cameo appearances from games published by Psygnosis. Fatal Rewind's main character appears during the Sega logo sequence, mixing two bananas will make Lemmings appear during a level, and Puggsy cameoes in the "Splat Those Dudes" mini-game.

The game was originally planned to have a feature where the player(s) could make Wiz and Liz fart by pressing + and is known to have existed in review copies, but was removed from the final release due to becoming a topic of controversy with the National Viewers and Listeners Association for "glorifying coarse and ill-mannered behaviour" to children.

Versions

Wiz 'n' Liz appears to be optimized for PAL systems both in terms of gameplay speed and music speed. As a consequence, the game runs uncontrollably fast when played on an NTSC system.

Production credits

• Design by: Martyn R Chudley
• Programming by: Martyn R Chudley
• Artwork by: Mike Waterworth
• Audio by: Krisalis Software Ltd
• Music by: Matt Furniss
• Driver by: S Hollingworth

Copyright Psygnosis Ltd 1993

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Wiz 'n' Liz/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #52: "November 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Game Players (US) #0612: "Vol. 6 No. 12 December 1993" (1993-1x-xx)
• GamePro (US) #54: "January 1994" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #16: "December/January 1993/1994" (1993-xx-xx)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #146: "January 1994" (1993-12-15)

Print advert in Hyper (AU) #1: "December 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 60 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 92 Consoles + (FR) PAL 89 Cool Gamer (RU) 80 Computer & Video Games (UK) PAL 81 Computer + Video Giochi (IT) PAL 81 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 72 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 60 Game Power (IT) NTSC 84 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 94 Hyper (AU) 84 Joypad (FR) PAL 81 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 69 Mega (UK) PAL 69 Mega Action (UK) PAL 81 Mega Force (FR) 88 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 85 MegaTech (UK) PAL 86 Micromanía (segunda época) (ES) PAL 80 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 85 Player One (FR) PAL 78 Power Unlimited (NL) 86 Sega Magazin (DE) 75 Sega Power (UK) PAL 78 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 79 Sega Zone (UK) PAL 88 SuperGamePower (BR) 60 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 61 Sonic Videogame & Fumetti (IT) 83 Todo Sega (ES) PAL 69 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 74 Video Games (DE) PAL 79 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 90

	79
Based on 33 reviews

Wiz 'n' Liz

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, FR (Blister pack)
Cover

Mega Drive, SE (rental)

Technical information

Main article: Wiz 'n' Liz/Technical information.