Wonderland is one of those perfect ideas. It’s so malleable that you can pretty much make up whatever and it fits. The world serves as an escapist fantasy for all ages; children escape from their nagging, know-it-all adults. And for adults pretending to be children, they escape from the fact that they pay taxes. I’ve always loved the mythos of Wonderland but never had much love for the actual writing. While the imagination behind the stories is completely my shit, I’ve never been able to sit through many of Lewis Carroll’s words. It could also just be that I was not the target demographic, being that I’m an adult and also Lewis Carroll doesn’t actively want to fuck me. That being said, adaptations solve that problem neatly. If you take the original’s imagination and tell it through a different voice, I am all the way down. However, video games based on the Wonderland idea are surprisingly few and far between. Aside from a few flash games and some titles based on the Disney property, this is a well that is far from being tapped. One notable standout serves as the Alice franchise. From the mind of former id employee American McGee, these games take the base foundation from the books and put a late 90’s edgy filter on everything. I have a bit of experience with the original American McGee’s Alice, having made it through about halfway. It’s a fun piece of id engine jank and it’s very clear that it was made for the computer. However, for sequel title Madness Returns, the game feel is completely different. And it’s very apparent that this was a console-centric title, for better and for worse.
Alice: Madness Returns had a pretty tumultuous gestation period. The original Alice was developed by series lead American McGee while under the employ of EA. After that game released back in 2000, a series of firings and studio closures frustrated McGee to the point where he disavowed EA and left overseas to seek his fortune. Standard break-up stuff. Then some other stuff happens, an Alice film is kicked around between studios for a while, McGee births a handful more companies, and the earth spins. Then, in 2009, EA revealed that a sequel to the original Alice is coming out. And to the shock of anyone who’s been paying attention, it’s being headed by American McGee! They must have patched things up enough that both parties were willing to work together. So McGee, along with his Chinese-based company Spicy Horse, plug away at their game until 2011 when this impossible title is finally released to the public. A story for the underdog, for sure. While all video games are miracles, this one is a little more of a miracle than most. But now that it lives, was it worth resurrecting this series?
Yet More Looking Glasses
Alright, to really get into this game’s story, we have to go over the ending of the first game. In the first title, Alice suffered a spot of insanity after the rest of her family perished in a house fire. Being placed in an asylum and barely emoting outwardly, she would dive into the Wonderland in her head and try to set about putting the pieces of her mind back together. After going through a whole journey, she defeats the Queen of Hearts and comes to terms with what happened, literally packing up and leaving the asylum behind. So, how did the team continue on from what seemed like a pretty definitive end in the first title? By unpacking trauma. This go around, Alice finds herself in dire straights yet again. Taking place a year after the first title, Madness Returns finds Alice under the care of a Dr. Angus Bumby, who spends his days hypnotizing children under his watch into forgetting traumatic memories. It turns out Alice hasn’t fully gotten over her traumatic past, she’s just more functional. Still scarred from the house fire that took the lives of her family, Alice wanders the halls of her orphanage, not really too sure what to do about her current situation or the handful of people in her life who seek to exploit her. Then, after a particularly traumatic episode, Alice finds herself back in Wonderland. The familiar Cheshire Cat greets her, tells her that everything is messed up, then tasks her with fixing it. And then you’re off, visiting different lands and slashing up different people.
Analogy is the bread and butter of Alice in Wonderland adaptations. Real-world people bleeding their way into Wonderland and contorting into a flanderized version of themselves is most of the appeal in the first place. So in that way, the plot of Madness Returns is not nearly as important as its premise. All that really matters is getting us to a weird place and seeing some weird things. And this game definitely delivers on that angle. As a decidedly darker take on the property, Madness Returns is able to tackle some highly charged symbolism but still with an air of whimsey to it all. Alice’s neglectful caretakers end up influencing her Wonderland, whether as characters themselves or just with environments that call back to them. For example, the family lawyer’s obsession with Asian history ends up weeb-ifying parts of Wonderland, in what must have felt like a self-tell from Mr. Move-To-Shanghai-And-Start-A-Game-Company himself. All in all, it’s pretty good stuff. And I don’t claim to be the smartest person in the world, so I’m sure I missed a good amount of symbolism throughout the rest of the title. I will say that although the main threat of the game is present at all points, it feels like the story doesn’t really get going until it’s almost over. You’re tasked with fixing the problem, and every person you meet tells you how big the issue is. But then, when you actually get hands-on with the threat, the game is over. It feels like the game was far more interested in showing off its Wonderland residents by way of Francis Bacon and just crammed in the actual plot at the last minute. And weirdly enough, it still kind of works. Don’t get me wrong, the story and themes, especially for the time it was released, are challenging and interesting. But on the other hand, seeing these seemingly disconnected parts of Wonderland is also really appealing. Ultimately, Madness Returns feels like a game that’s at odds with its story, like it would have just been happy enough to be a funhouse that you go through. And while that may well be, I’m glad to have been able to experience the story, even if it was tucked away in the margins.
Gonna Need More Than A Croquet Mallet
Alice: Madness Returns feels very “of its generation.” Where the previous game was more of a third-person Quake-em-up, this is a third-person, action-adventure beat-em-up with a heavy emphasis on platforming. Back in the Xbox 360 days, if you weren’t a military shooter, odds were that you were standing in the middle of a crowd of mooks, throwing haymakers. But what’s here isn’t bad. The combat system is simple but open, giving you lots of options at your disposal and letting you play however you want. The dodge system is fluid and having (almost) every weapon be its own dedicated button pretty effortlessly throws you into a flow state of slashes and explosions. There aren’t many lazy enemies in the bunch, with most of them requiring a different strategy and tool to take down. All in all, combat is fun and the enemies are fun to beat up. Unfortunately, the combat system is the best part of the gameplay. The arenas where you fight these enemies, although they have fun backdrops, are all flat rings and make encounters bleed together. It’s not until the end of the game where Madness Returns really tests you with some creative layouts. In between battles, the game throws a lot of platforming at you. And I mean, gauntlets of platforming. Alice has a lot of mobility, with a quadruple jump and a float, all of which feels functional but still a little clunky. Madness Returns also foists upon you other diversions, from slide puzzles to slide sections. To be honest, these diversions always feel out-of-place and weird in the context of the rest of the game. None of them are ever difficult and some, like a rhythm minigame, are set weirdly far into the game and break up the momentum for no reason. I can understand the developers wanting to stretch the length of their game, but this is a title that really, really didn’t need it.
You see, levels in Madness Returns are really long. There are only a handful in this game and when you sit back and think about it, you don’t actually do much in each one. But every level takes about two hours to make your way through regardless. You can probably guess the culprit: the dogwater pacing. There’s just way too much filler. Platforming segments can sometimes go on and on, and by the end of the game, there’s not a lot of difference in the complexity. The only thing that breaks up the platforming is getting thrown into combat. But the issues with combat arenas all feeling the same only drag the experience further. Interesting backgrounds can’t distract from the fact that you’ve been doing the same knife-knife-finisher-dodge inputs for most of your time playing. And when it comes to the aforementioned gimmick minigames, I take no joy in being frank, but these segments just aren’t fun. Honest question for the class: Who, in the history of fuck, wants to do a sliding puzzle to recreate a picture? Because you’ll be doing it about three times if memory serves. In between Wonderland levels, you get a brief real-world segment and I loved these portions. You don’t actually do anything in these sections besides walk around, but any decompression from the monotony of the actual game was a welcome one. The best levels in Madness Returns use fun setpieces and weird NPCs to mask their kinda boring gameplay. Still, there are way too many long segments where you have nothing interesting happening to distract from the uninteresting gameplay you’re slogging through. When I think back to the gameplay of the first game, I feel a tinge of regret. The first Alice was pretty janky, but the bones were good and the game was constantly throwing new things at you. In Madness Returns, however, it seems like the team was just trying to stretch a few good ideas out over ten or so hours. And don’t get me wrong, they’re good ideas. But they are not load-bearing. These gameplay ideas are not equipped to keep a game entertaining for its entire run-time. However, where the gameplay falters, this game still has some secret sauce that picks up the slack and then some.
Take In The Sights; Isn’t It Hideous?
I’m not afraid to say that this game is entirely style over substance. And it works. It works so hard. The art style is Madness Return’s greatest selling point and, let’s be honest, most likely the reason that you even clicked on this article. The game looks great. There’s a certain style here that is intoxicating; being gory, sexy, dark, and overall goth. It feels like this game was created with a singular focus on selling as many tees and keychains at Hot Topic as possible. Frankly, it is of an era. It feels obvious to evoke Tim Burton at first glance, but underneath the AAA polish, there’s the beating heart of a scrappy punk that’s made it. In that way, this game reminds me much more of Jhonen Vasquez, leaning much closer to Johnny The Homicidal Maniac than Invader Zim. All of Madness Returns’s designs brim with personality and expression but are also twisted just enough that you can never be entirely relaxed around them. Whether it be in Wonderland or the real world of London, everyone is bent in a way that puts you at ill ease. Pair that with the stellar animation work on display, and you have a world filled exclusively with people you would not want to meet in a dark alley. It’s all dreadfully wonderful. Beyond the characters, the environments are also inspired, with almost every level selling its ideas effortlessly. In Wonderland, there is symbolism dripping from each corner. There are environmental details and bits of unspoken storytelling that paint a world that has history beyond what you see in your brief time passing through. But beyond all that, it just looks cool. In dressing up these levels, Spicy Horse showed their prowess and even had room to flex. They tackle the monumental task of imagining a world where imagination is infinite. Through set pieces and level progression, they constantly up the ante and then keep going. I really can’t gush enough about how this game looks. So if there is no other sentiment that you take from this writing, just know that Madness Returns looks pretty alright. Also, Alice gets new dresses whenever she enters a new location. And that’s just cute.
On the topic of presentation, the world and voice acting complement each other very nicely. Taking place in Victorian-era London, everyone sounds the part. Just so long as all those parts are all from Mary Poppins. There’s an exaggerated and theatrical tone to everyone, like they’re hamming it up for the camera. Since I am both unsure of regional dialects as well as an ignorant American, I’m just gonna call it cockney. And to my burger-eating ass, it’s all wonderful. The dirt and grime that coat everything else in Madness Returns infects the characters as well. Every person has this gruffness to them, casually tossing out cruel and terrible remarks without a care for who might overhear. The characters in Wonderland also bring that signature manic quality in terms of voice acting. Obtuse writing paired with blown-up characterizations frequently lead the denizens of Wonderland to talk around Alice, rather than engage with her directly. Alice is perpetually talked down to and frustrated by the people she encounters, whether in the real world or otherwise. No one takes her issues seriously and although she is strong-willed, you can tell that it gets to her. You’re in the same boat as a player, so this really puts you in Alice’s headspace. I just want to know about this stupid train that I’m supposed to catch, but this idiot and his walrus friend won’t stop talking about getting their stage show together. But this chaotic energy is exactly what I would expect from a world like this. And in its own way, that’s beautiful. There are many video games out there, but only a precious few feel like they’re a whole world trapped inside a tiny disc. And in that regard, Madness Returns more than clears the bar.
We’re All Mad Here
Madness Returns is one of those games that we don’t see much of anymore. It’s a game that’s just ok. With more and more money being poured into games, big-budget titles today are polished and tuned to whatever the focus group wants. There’s nothing horribly offensive about this game as a product, but there’s no part of the gameplay that’s gonna have someone jumping out of their seat to play it. Yet beyond all the mechanics, the style behind Madness Returns elevates the entire experience. This is a game that threw all its budget into environmental design and character art. You’ll end up doing essentially the same gameplay loop for its entirety, but the wallpaper is so nice that you don’t notice. With all the best parts of Madness Returns being the parts you either just look at or listen to, it really makes you think about what could have been if they managed to make that Alice movie. But there is something sort of enticing about playing a game that is just dumb fun. It knows what it is, you know what it is, so just sit back, unplug your brain, and enjoy the flashing colors. In the end, I can’t help but respect a project that was so single-mindedly focused on showing cool ideas on screen. With all its faults, I’m still going to think about this game from time to time. And being able to sift through the mess and pick out pearls that are meaningful to you seems pretty in line with what Wonderland should be.
If you want to see Alice’s meat dress for yourself, you can find the game here. Honestly, it’s pretty pricy, so I would recommend trying to find it digitally if you can. Even though I enjoyed this game, I dunno if I $80 dollars enjoyed it, so use your own discretion.