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Eleven years ago on my birthday, American McGee, a game designer introduced the world to his own dark, sinister version of Alice in Wonderland; American McGee’s Alice which developed quite a cult following, along with a fair amount of critical and commercial success. His grim, macabre version of Alice took place a few years after Through the Looking-Glass. Alice narrowly escapes her burning home, only to listen to the cries of her family as they’re incinerated while trapped inside. She then retreats back into Wonderland, albeit not the wholesome and light hearted version we’ve previously known as a coping mechanism. The original game left many questions unanswered, and American McGee and his studio, Spicy Horse finally decided to answer them, while bringing Alice’s story to a close after lengthy hiatus.

Is it worth your time and money to return to Wonderland again, and discover the truth behind the death of Alice’s family? I certainly think so. Madness Returns [which is set exactly a year after its predecessor] opens with Alice mid therapy session with her psychiatrist, Dr. Bumby, who encourages her to let go of the painful memories and guilt she harbors over the loss of her family ten years earlier. The game boasts some really great cinematics, with selectively colored black and white ink sketches not unlike the actual drawings you’d see in Lewis Carroll’s source material. Alice is finally free after spending 10 years in Rutledge Asylum, but is still left wondering about the truth behind her family’s demise. The game’s rendering are MUCH improved over the previous installment, but don’t see their true potential unless you’re playing the PC version, on a very game worthy PC.

Alice is beautifully rendered herself. From her varying range of dresses, to her flowing hair, the character model is exquisite. The costumes in the game are beautiful, and Miss Liddell has a plethora of dresses to choose from, a new one for each area. Her animations are smooth, and her hair has some of the best physics I’ve seen in many a game. Unfortunately, only some of the environments match Alice herself in their aesthetics. The first Wonderland area of the game, The Vale of Tears was rich in color and detail, while one of the later areas; A Samurai themed world later in the game looks pretty unpolished throughout. It’s textures are bland and didn’t seem to have much care put into them, while the colors are extremely pallid. When recreating something like Wonderland, it’s disappointing that the developers didn’t devote more time or imagination to every area, as the source material certainly gives a lot for creative freedom. The immersion, while great in some regards wasn’t entirely consistent either. You might find yourself faced hitting quite a few invisible walls in Madness Returns. What annoyed me the most was the inconsistencies with the walls as well; In the Queensland was able to jump up on ledges in one of the Chess rooms, but unable to in a subsequent room of identical design.

That being said however, I felt that these intrusions didn’t detract from my enjoyment too much; Madness Returns has very solid platforming mechanics without being tedious. On a personal note, I’m actually quite picky about what platformers I’ll dedicate any of my gaming time too; I find many to be clunky and either too redundantly straight forward, or overly convoluted in an attempt to create depth. I found that Madness Returns found a really fantastic balance between the two; the platforming challenges the player is face with felt rewarding, and required some planning, without being frustrating or overly simple. When you do make a mistake, the game’s auto-save feature puts you back right where you died; which prevented the game from becoming repetitive. Madness Returns integrated the lore of Lewis Carroll’s work beautifully as a game experience as well; Alice will have to use her “Shrink Sense” (Shrinking Violets, “Drink Me” Shrinking Potion) to reveal hidden platforms or pathways throughout the level. There are breakable obstacles with her very appropriate Teapot Cannon sub weapon, as well.

In addition to the Teapot Cannon, Madness Returns boasts a creative arsenal of weapons, which can be used in a variety of situations and manners. The signature Vorpal Blade from the first game returns as your primary weapon of choice. Other weapons from the previous installment have been replaced; but with creative and fun counterparts. You get a Hobby Horse for powerful, wide range attacks. A Pepper Grinder, to shoot enemies from afar with; The Clockwork Bomb, which comes complete with a pocket watch detonator, and the Umbrella, which you can deflect projectiles with. Rather than forced rigid combat aspects, players can use any of these weapons to combat enemies. You can choose to keep your distance and take down opponents with your Pepper Grinder, or beat enemies into submission with powerful Hobby Horse strikes. These weapons are of course, only present in the Wonderland portion of the game however, which is the majority of the game. The plot shifts according to Alice’s on goings in Victorian London, centered around the Whitechapel District.

After her release from Rutledge Asylum, Alice is trying to live as normal of a life as she can. Under certain circumstances, she finds herself falling back into Wonderland, which is apparently in grave danger. An “Infernal Train” poses a threat to Wonderland, complete with an eerie, abandoned station in every realm. Alice discovers saving her sanity can also save Wonderland, so she sets out to do so, along with discovering the nature of the train, and what it symbolizes. As Alice ventures through Wonderland’s twisted scenery, she discovers memories revealing hints about the truth behind her families’ deaths, and her descent into madness. What occurs in Whitechapel impacts Alice’s hallucinations and descents into Wonderland. Without wanting to spoil much, while I enjoyed the plot, I felt it the narrative was a bit scattered and erratic, yet haunting and engrossing. This may have been intentional on the part of the creators, to reflect Alice’s own insanity, which I can respect. The Cheshire Cat’s cryptic bread crumb trail of hints is present in this game too, and works nicely in tandem with the memories you discover. Some parts of it are deliberately vague, and while each character you encountered in the original game seemed to represent something, it’s difficult to discern what some of them symbolize now, yet some of these figures also tie in nicely with details we already know.

Game play feels similar to a Zelda title, which is enjoyable in most regards. Alice’s Will meter is now gone (since weapons don’t rely on Will, and only the Pepper Grinder and Teapot Cannon have cool down restrictions) and her HP is now represented by red roses, not unlike heart containers. Combat is centered around finding enemies weakness’, striking at the correct time and dodging with your extremely pretty butterfly teleport. The combat is built on EA’s Unreal 3 Engine, which makes it pretty solid to play overall. The combos are fairly basic, you can transition from your Vorpal Blade and chain into your Hobby Horse. But if you were expecting a combo system on par with games like Bayonetta, you won’t find that here. Alice is also unable to attack while in air; a decision I felt could have made the game more strategic if included. And while its predecessor was more tailored for playing with a mouse, Madness Returns seems geared for a controller, and I felt maybe a little more development in combat could have supported the newer control type too. There are also quite a few mini games, primarily puzzles scattered throughout Wonderland as well. A lot of these are actually optional, but some of them are pretty fun and provide a nice reprieve from the denizens of Alice’s mind. The Oriental Grove chapter features a fun 2D side-scrolling mini-game that feels like a throwback to older adventuring titles, with a very interesting water color art style.

The talented Chris Vrenna of Nine Inch Nails, who composed the soundtrack for the first game has also returned. I felt the music in the previous installment was better than this one, but still enjoyable and supported the atmosphere and tone of the game nicely (Especially in the House of Cards area in the Queensland.) Most of the [appropriately talented] original voice actors have returned as well. What really makes the game a solid package for me is the free copy of the original American McGee’s Alice. Exclusively available on the PC when it was released, gamers like myself can finally enjoy it on a home console (either PS3 or 360, each version of the game will come with a voucher.) I will admit, the controls don’t compliment a basic controller too well, but the game is still very fun to play, and completes the experience for those of us who didn’t have gaming PC’s in the early millennium.

Overall, I feel Alice: Madness Returns, while lacking in certain departments is still a quality title. I feel that some of the issues present don’t detract from the unique experience the game offers you; a very solid platformer with some interesting weapons and a variety of game play mechanics, complete with mini-games. There’s even a set of DLC dresses and weapons available for the game as well. I definitely enjoyed the game, but it’s source material offers so much creative freedom, I felt they could have done even more with it. It has some brilliant ideas and concepts, but could have executed them in a more polished, refined fashion in some departments as well. I would still highly recommend this game to any gamer looking for something to shake up the monotony of current generation games that are afraid to try anything new, or fresh.

I cannot wait to get my hands on trying Alice: Madness Returns. While we don’t have too much information on the title, we did get a brand new trailer sent to us today. Of course I had to post right away. Let us know what you think of the trailer and what you think about a return to the Alice story.

“You never know what you’ll find wandering around Wonderland.”

Wonderland Bakery is extending past yummy treats and into the world of Wonderland this weekend! On January 22-23rd, Wonderland Bakery will be hosting Alice in Wonderland costumes, production designs, effects and animations.

The Mad Hatter costume, worn by Johnny Depp will be on display. Also, visitors can have a picture taken against a green screen so that they can be placed into a scene from Alice in Wonderland.

“We are excited to partner with Walt Disney Pictures and Sony Pictures Imageworks to create this one-of-a-kind experience as we continue to share our passion with kids and their families at our newest location at The Grove,” said Allyson Ames, president and co-founder of Wonderland Bakery.

Wonderland Bakery is at the Grove in Los Angeles, CA. The event is open from 11am to 5pm. While you are there, make sure to try one of their delicious cupcakes.

Alice in Wonderland opens this weekend, but as if that wasn’t cool enough, Disney has announced that one of the trailers will be for Tron: Legacy and it will be in 3D and Imax 3D starting March 5th. That is going to be awesome.

If you are excited, check out the Tron Facebook page for their trailer countdown which will feature new images each day.

Tron: Legacy will be in theaters on December 17, 2010.

Alice in Wonderland

Not all of us can be in the UK for the live premiere of Alice in Wonderland, but at 10:15am(pacific) on GamingAngels.com you can watch the entire premier. See Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, and of course Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

Alice comes to theaters on Friday, March 5, 2010 which is still too far away for me. I’m definitely looking forward to watching how UK greets the Alice in Wonderland stars.

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Red Queen

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Disney Marketing is very fast. Right after the Superbowl ad ran, I received the new Alice in Wonderland trailer to post here. I love the new look of the battlefield and seeing more of the Cheshire Cat. In case you missed it, now you can watch below!

We also received the Prince of Persia spot which I’ll feature for you below. Enjoy!

Another week means more Alice in Wonderland information! This week we get a new video where the cast talks about the look and feel of the movie.

The new screenshots are added to the group of screens we already have below. This is the first time that we’ve seen images of the Caterpillar and it’s cool to see more pictures of the white rabbit. I love the Tim Burton Knave and Red Queen sketch. I love that it shows how much thought Tim has put into the project from the beginning and how he had a vision to run with.

Enjoy the new media and in case you didn’t know… Alice in Wonderland will be in theaters everywhere on March 5, 2010.

The new pictures will be near the end of the screenshots:

Disney announced a line of dresses from designer Sue Wong, jewelry from Tom Binns (the lovely keyhole & keys necklace pictured left is one of his masterpieces), Swarovski, and Stella McCartney, make-up from Urban Decay, and nail polish from OPI.

Most of the lower end pieces will be available at Bloomingdale’s and several other department and specialty locations. Apparel and jewelry will start at $50-$250, while limited run pieces will run $600-$1000, and you’ll have to go to an upscale boutique to find those items.

OPI’s nail polishes are set to retail at $8.50 and can be found at most beauty salons. The shades have been creatively named Absolutely Alice, Off With Her Red, Mad as a Hatter and Thanks So Muchness!

The Urban Decay’s Book of Shadows collection featured sixteen shades of eyeshadow, two pencils and primer and will set you back about $52. It can be purchased from Macy’s, Sephora, Ulta and Urban Decay in store or online.

Sue Wong’s Alice inspired dresses will go anywhere from $329-$609, and can be found at Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s as well as on Sue Wong’s website. Her pieces were influenced by characters and locations and have a lot of lace and and detail, yet look very elegant.

The Alice in Wonderland collections will be launching in February in anticipation of the movie’s release March 5th.  Make sure to checkout the Disney Store, Swarovski, Bloomingdale’s and the other shops mentioned if you must have any of these gorgeous Alice pieces.

Sue Wong's Red Queen Inspired Dress

Stella McCartney's Alice Bracelet & Necklace Charm Set

It’s getting closer to March 5th and I can’t wait! Disney knows that we want more and more information so they have created “Wonderland Wednesdays” where they will be releasing new interviews, pictures, and information until the film takes place. This week we received the pictures and the trailer below! Enjoy!