Even though patience is the mother of all virtues, let's not drag out the suspense any longer. Yes and with conviction, Alice in Wonderland on DS is a very good adventure game. Endowed with a real graphic sense, an endearing universe, handling and gameplay truly designed for Nintendo's portable console, the title developed by Etrange Libellules turns out to be a title that would almost reconcile us with generally failed licensing adaptations. The reason for this success: the total freedom obtained by the French studio to carefully develop its project. Here, we are not trying to stick to the film by imposing the formal delusions of Tim Burton on us. The DS version of Alice in Wonderland doesn't smell like a spinoff at all, to put on a toy store display between a Mad Hatter plush and the Red Queen's costume. Only the background is more or less respected, since it will be necessary to cross Wonderland to face the evil Jaberwookie. For the rest, the designers started from scratch, creating almost from scratch a universe, characters but also a story.
Alice, it's slipping
First surprise: in the game, you don't play as Alice. Indeed, if the golden-haired damsel is present throughout the adventure, she will never be directly playable. Conversely, you will simply have to assist him in his movements, make him cross all the levels of the game, helping him to cross precipices or to climb walls in order to find the different pieces of lost armor. Armor that will allow him to defeat the terrifying Jabberwokkie, a sort of enormous mutt that the Red Queen uses to terrorize the inhabitants of her enchanted town. So here you are with the choice to embody the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat or the Blue Caterpillar to bring the young lady to her destination. The principle of the game is quite simple: depending on the different obstacles encountered, you will have to carefully choose your character to take advantage of his special abilities. The White Rabbit will be able to make big jumps or play on time to destroy or rebuild the elements of the decor. The Hatter will be able to rotate the universe to access secret passages. Facing a wall, the Cheshire Cat will be of great help to you, in the same way that it can make certain obstacles visible or invisible. Finally, the Caterpillar will be able to reverse gravity, allowing you to walk on the ceiling. The puzzles will therefore be linked in a rather varied way, sometimes even forcing you to combine the skills of each of these characters in order to progress. In this sense, Alice in Wonderland is a good platform/puzzle game which, far from being totally trivial, will regularly make your brain work. Admittedly, the puzzles are never insurmountably difficult, but the whole thing shows enough consistency to remain captivating from start to finish without ever repeating itself. Plus, as if having to escort a blonde girl through levels infested with menacing shadows wasn't enough, you'll have to roam every corner of your map to unearth puzzle pieces. These coins will allow you to access new places in Wonderland and thus progress in your adventure. Sometimes, trickery will be required and you can place a piece in a place that is not necessarily suitable, just to temporarily unlock access to a part of the level. It's good to sometimes feel smarter than the game, even if you know very well that you're not! Finally, along with this "adventure" aspect, you will sometimes have to rub shoulders with some tougher than average enemies, in action battles that will bring a little touch of dynamism to the whole. It's not very complicated to overcome it, but the idea is there. Combining action, adventure, combat and puzzles, Alice in Wonderland is an engaging and never boring game. But the best is yet to come!
bells and whistles
As we said in the introduction, Etranges Libellules had carte blanche to develop this title and the result is a graphic approach that is very different from that of Burton. Something that is not really to displease us! Whether in the characters or in the level design, everything here is treated with a sauce that could be described as "kawaii", with a super-deformed 2D rendering, close to that of a Genndy Tartakovsky cartoon. The animations turn out to be both cute and hilarious (especially the little Alice who conveys a lot of small emotions just through her eyes) just like the facial expressions of the heroes, whom we therefore take pleasure in embodying. And since we are talking about fun, it should be noted that the game has two other strengths. First of all, the sound, which has been designed in the same way as the graphics and which is accompanied by orchestral music that is particularly pleasant to listen to. The handling "everything with the stylus" then also convinced us with a simple and instinctive handling. You point a direction with the pen to direct your character, you tap on the screen to kick, you make a diagonal to dodge and finally to interact with Alive, you click on it. It's certainly childishly simple, but devilishly instinctive and never hassle. As a result, the pleasure of playing is total and one would be tempted to think that the little guys from Etranges Libellules paid a better tribute to Lewis Caroll with this game than Tim Burton with his film.
