Alice in Wonderland for Nintendo DS is a puzzle-“platformer” that doesn’t have you directly control Alice. Just like the PC/Console counterpart, which is pretty odd. Instead you play as one of the Wonderland’s inhabitants, unlocking more as you progress.
The game uses almost exclusively touch screen controls. You move around by holding the stylus in the direction where you wanna move. There is technically platforming, but it’s automatic – you automatically jump up a ledge or forward from one ledge to another. You’re constantly followed by the titular Alice, and you’re supposed to guide her and help her out. You can tell her to stop and she will automatically stop following you if she can’t reach you, you’ll usually have to help her forward. Don’t let her hanging for too long, or she might get captured by Red Queen. Unfortunately, I think she is the biggest issue of this game – having to constantly help her climb up ledges or jump over gaps becomes a bit of a chore, and doesn’t amount to fun puzzles or anything of the sort. Speaking of puzzles, there are some simple ones, involving abilities of the characters you play as. Hold any button to bring up their action, for instance, White Rabbit can alter the flow of time with his pocket watch, which works for certain things – like making a plant grow by fast-forwarding its flow of time, or when playing as Mad Hatter, there are certain points where you can change the perspective, which allows for way forward or hidden secrets. Nothing is too evolving or challenging.
There’s also some combat portions where you have to defeat Red Queen’s troops, hell-bent on capturing Alice. You can tap the enemy to attack them or swipe up or down to make directional attacks. You can also block and dodge roll. Lastly, you can use character’s special power which depends on who you’re playing as, which can slow down an enemy or deal significant damage. The combat is honestly not too bad, the game slowly introduces new enemies to contend with, like ones that charge at you and you have to block them to stun them, then deal damage, or armored ones that wield a massive shield – roll past them and attack from behind. You also have to watch out for Alice, as the enemy may approach her while she’s cowering in a bush and drag her to a portal, which you’ll have to rescue her from. Unfortunately, these combat encounters are frequent enough to become a tad repetitive. Also, the basically reset after you reload the save, so you may have combat at one and the same location multiple times.
The game has a metroidvania-like structure. As you progress, you unlock more characters with unique abilities and new abilities for said characters, which open more avenues for exploration. Off the beaten path, you can find bonus pictures, which add new art to the gallery, which even include how some models are constructed, which sheds a little light on behind the scenes stuff, which is always neat. Or, the chest will contain health or energy expansions. And if played on DSi, there are exclusive colored chests, which task you to find a few different colors with the camera, which unlock more bonus pictures. As for the main progression, there are armor pieces and puzzle pieces. The map has been broken into multiple pieces that fit certain slots. There is one interesting moment later on where you are seemingly stuck, but the game tells you that you can arrange the puzzle pieces to activate the door that would lead to a different piece of the map. An interesting idea that could potentially lead to new shortcuts and clever uses. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out any clever arrangements after that one instance – the puzzle pieces are limiting in how you can fit them together, so this system ends up being a bit of a wasted potential. And it won’t matter in the end, as you’ll be given an ability to teleport to any of the doors on the map for the endgame, in order to obtain all armor pieces for the final showdown.
The graphics are stylized and unique, reminds me of flash games in a charming sort of way. Here are a couple of examples: 1, 2. The music on the other hand is a bit more average, it’s mostly just ambiance and not that memorable.
Overall, Alice in Wonderland for Nintendo DS is a mediocre adventure. Babysitting Alice isn’t very fun, and the puzzles are mostly basic. The combat is decent, but it does become repetitive after a while. There are some interesting ideas but they aren’t well utilized. It ends up being a middling licensed game, in the landscape filled with middling licensed games.
The game uses almost exclusively touch screen controls. You move around by holding the stylus in the direction where you wanna move. There is technically platforming, but it’s automatic – you automatically jump up a ledge or forward from one ledge to another. You’re constantly followed by the titular Alice, and you’re supposed to guide her and help her out. You can tell her to stop and she will automatically stop following you if she can’t reach you, you’ll usually have to help her forward. Don’t let her hanging for too long, or she might get captured by Red Queen. Unfortunately, I think she is the biggest issue of this game – having to constantly help her climb up ledges or jump over gaps becomes a bit of a chore, and doesn’t amount to fun puzzles or anything of the sort. Speaking of puzzles, there are some simple ones, involving abilities of the characters you play as. Hold any button to bring up their action, for instance, White Rabbit can alter the flow of time with his pocket watch, which works for certain things – like making a plant grow by fast-forwarding its flow of time, or when playing as Mad Hatter, there are certain points where you can change the perspective, which allows for way forward or hidden secrets. Nothing is too evolving or challenging.
There’s also some combat portions where you have to defeat Red Queen’s troops, hell-bent on capturing Alice. You can tap the enemy to attack them or swipe up or down to make directional attacks. You can also block and dodge roll. Lastly, you can use character’s special power which depends on who you’re playing as, which can slow down an enemy or deal significant damage. The combat is honestly not too bad, the game slowly introduces new enemies to contend with, like ones that charge at you and you have to block them to stun them, then deal damage, or armored ones that wield a massive shield – roll past them and attack from behind. You also have to watch out for Alice, as the enemy may approach her while she’s cowering in a bush and drag her to a portal, which you’ll have to rescue her from. Unfortunately, these combat encounters are frequent enough to become a tad repetitive. Also, the basically reset after you reload the save, so you may have combat at one and the same location multiple times.
The game has a metroidvania-like structure. As you progress, you unlock more characters with unique abilities and new abilities for said characters, which open more avenues for exploration. Off the beaten path, you can find bonus pictures, which add new art to the gallery, which even include how some models are constructed, which sheds a little light on behind the scenes stuff, which is always neat. Or, the chest will contain health or energy expansions. And if played on DSi, there are exclusive colored chests, which task you to find a few different colors with the camera, which unlock more bonus pictures. As for the main progression, there are armor pieces and puzzle pieces. The map has been broken into multiple pieces that fit certain slots. There is one interesting moment later on where you are seemingly stuck, but the game tells you that you can arrange the puzzle pieces to activate the door that would lead to a different piece of the map. An interesting idea that could potentially lead to new shortcuts and clever uses. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out any clever arrangements after that one instance – the puzzle pieces are limiting in how you can fit them together, so this system ends up being a bit of a wasted potential. And it won’t matter in the end, as you’ll be given an ability to teleport to any of the doors on the map for the endgame, in order to obtain all armor pieces for the final showdown.
The graphics are stylized and unique, reminds me of flash games in a charming sort of way. Here are a couple of examples: 1, 2. The music on the other hand is a bit more average, it’s mostly just ambiance and not that memorable.
Overall, Alice in Wonderland for Nintendo DS is a mediocre adventure. Babysitting Alice isn’t very fun, and the puzzles are mostly basic. The combat is decent, but it does become repetitive after a while. There are some interesting ideas but they aren’t well utilized. It ends up being a middling licensed game, in the landscape filled with middling licensed games.