On March 19, 2025, I read a report in Morning Brew that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had purchased another company called Wiz for a cool $32 billion. I did a double-take not because of the price or the note that “[t]his is Google’s largest acquisition yet–more than twice as much as its next-priciest purchase, Motorola…” Instead, I did a double take when I saw Wiz. I never heard of this Wiz. The only Wiz I am familiar with is the now-defunct electronic store (granted its spirt lives on in P.C. Richard & Son). The Wiz as in “Nobody Beats the Wiz.”
I am old enough to remember actual The Wiz locations, including one in downtown Brooklyn. While most of my video games back in the day came from Toys ‘R Us (also mostly defunct), some came from The Wiz.
I noted in an article on the video games that left the biggest impression on me that my first console was a Sega Genesis, which I received in 1994. Several months later in 1995, I received a Game Boy on a short trip to Texas. My first Game Boy game was Kirby’s Block Ball, a Breakout clone featuring Kirby. I apparently enjoyed that game well enough to want another Kirby game, not knowing anything about the mainline Kirby series which has featured in an article I wrote about video game aesthetics. Thus, my second Game Boy game, also received in 1995, was Kirby’s Dream Land. I distinctly remember getting Kirby’s Dreamland at The Wiz in downtown Brooklyn.
Unlike most of my old games, I still have my Kirby’s Dream Land cartridge and it still works. (I previously demonstrated that it is the genuine article.)
I received Kirby’s Dream Land 2, which I included in my big impression game article, not long after the original Kirby’s Dream Land.
I probably obtained Kirby’s Dreamland 2 at The Wiz, but I am not 100% confident about that in the same way I am about the original.
I know I got some other games from The Wiz. I want to say that Mario Golf for Game Boy Color was among them. But Kirby’s Dreamland with the gray-scale Kirby on the box is the one I remember distinctly.
