To begin, Emerald City Confidential offers a pretty clean interface. Everything resides in the bottom graphic, taking up perhaps a tenth of the screen. Here you'll find sections for the Pause/Play toggle, slots for inventory, a central marquee for messages pertaining to the Quest at hand, and a row of jewels that represent the finished status of each Quest undertaken. The rest of the screen is given to the hand-drawn art and animation.

It does my old-school gamer heart some good to see actual hand-drawn sprites take the stage. Never having been a great fan of the 3D cutscene, there is a charm and accessibility to traditional animation that's immediately appealing. It's also the perfect medium for the point-and-click adventure, given that everything is seen through the flat-plane window of the interface. The sprites do just as much as they need to, and character is easily conveyed through simple short-frame animations.

Now, given that this is an Oz universe, you might expect to find some outlandish takes on the series's characters, a la the American McGee approach. However, the artists have taken a much more economical approach with regard to character design. This is good for several reasons. First, it allows the player to focus on the story, rather than on the visuals, beautiful as they otherwise are. Second, a goofy character roster would detract from the Noir ambiance. Third, there's really no way to outdo the visuals of the original series of books. (Side note: if you haven't read them, go pick up the first few novels right away; they hold up very well.)

While we're talking about design, it should be noted that the backgrounds are quite lovely and lush with their palettes. They manage to retain much of the whimsical nature of the series while attempting to update the look with an eye toward hard-boiled fiction. Things have been bad in Oz for a while, we're given to understand. After all, it's been 40 years since Dorothy first arrived, according to some brief conversational exposition. But, like the character looks, the artists restrain themselves from going too dark with it all.

Speaking of characters, within the short time I played, I ran across either in person or in reference: Dorothy, the Lion, Scraps, the Scarecrow, a Gump, Tik Tok, Professor Wogglebug, Glinda, Ozma, Cap'n Bill and Trot, General Jinjur, Ruggedo the Nome King, Jack Pumpkinhead, and busts of Frank L. Baum and D. Lewis Gilbert themselves in the Royal College. All stops: pulled!