Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland - Video Game Review for DS

When a popular movie such as Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland comes out, we expect to see a video game or two come out. For the most part, these games aren't very good, but every now and then developers will work hard to create a completely unique game that shares the film's name. This game, developed by Étranges Libellule for publisher Disney Interactive Studios, is full of surprises that make it something special.

Art Style

Tim Burton is famous for his wacky art style, but the first thing you'll notice about this game is that the artistic style doesn't reflect Tim Burton's more than in basic style, thought that's not to say that it isn't artistically pleasing. The characters are 2D and designed in a side-scroll cartoon style with a decisive Gothic style. Many of the scenes are in beautiful black and white with highlighting colors here and there for effect. The background is uncluttered and with somewhat gloomy colors that do remind you of Burton somehow.

Story

The game doesn't follow the storyline of the movie too closely at all. In the game, you control one of Alice's friends as your try to lead her though stages towards weapons and armor that she needs to defeat the Jaberwocky, a monster in Wonderland. The stages you go through are the areas of Wonderland that have been destroyed by the evil Red Queen. This queen is intent on getting Alice, so you mustn't leave her alone in the game. The game allows you to cycle between four of Wonderland's most beloved characters: the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat.

Gameplay

In the game, each of these characters have special moves and abilities which help you to navigate through the levels of Wonderland. The special abilities range from the White Rabbit's ability to freeze time, the Caterpillar's ability to invert gravity, the Cheshire Cat's invisibility, and the Mad Hatter's ability to warp reality. The game is in most senses a platformer/puzzle game and these abilities help players to solve the puzzles. When an ability is needed, a question mark with a certain color corresponding to each character will appear. Alice is a character to protect within the game. Most of the time she will follow behind you, but players are also able to tap her with the stylus to make her stand still if you need to go ahead without her. However, if left alone or stranded for too long, Alice will start crying, attracting the Red Queen's Troops. These troops are your primary enemy in the game and the fighting system is simple and pleasant. Players use the stylus for fighting but the developers also included neat features like blowing into the microphone to turn windmills for some puzzles as well as even pointing the DSi camera at certain colors to unlock certain doors. In order to complete her quest, Alice is looking for not only armor, but also puzzle pieces that help her to the next stage. These can be connected in interesting ways in order to make short cuts which makes the game interesting and different each time you play.

This game certainly has the ability to stand on its own. It lacks certain elements like in depth storyline and Time Burton style art, but if those things don't matter too much to you are you are just interested in playing a fun and interesting puzzle game on the DS with a taste of Wonderland then this game is the one for you. Reviewers are highly recommending this game, with scores as high as an 8/10.