Alice in Wonderland – DS

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This was one of the games I borrowed while Brad and I were traveling. I was lucky enough to have someone offer to lend it to me while we were staying in this location which I will not slip up and expose. I can’t call this game a complete disappointment because I wasn’t expecting all too much out of it in the first place. Most games that are brought about because of a movie tend to fall short with the whole gaming experience. I do admire the decision to not stick strictly to the script (try to say that five times fast . . .) It’s basically a platformer with a bunch of puzzles thrown in and you have to use your characters strategically to manipulate the situation to your advantage.

When I first picked the game up within five minutes I wanted to put it back down again. Despite what the title might allude to nowhere in the game do you play as Alice. She’s basically one of those annoying characters that follows you around, slows you down, makes obnoxious noises, and really just makes you want to leave her in a pit somewhere because she’s always in the way. I’ve never been a fan of this approach. I have yet to see a game that manages to add a secondary character that follows you around without making you want to slap them around a bit. I mean how many times have you tried to figure out if you could slap or stab the thing following you? I’ll admit there are some games that have pulled it off better than others. A Boy and his Blob for instance, I was impressed they managed to pull off the extra character without making me want to strangle the thing, it also helped that Blob was incredibly cute, but that’s not the point.

If you have issues with the whole dumb blonde stereotype I’m telling you right now that it’s probably not a good idea to play the game. I felt that was Alice’s whole purpose in the game, to reinforce the dumb blonde stereotype.

Okay, I’m being a bit negative. I will say that after playing the game for about . . . oh I don’t know . . . an hour maybe? It gets a lot more interesting. It basically gets more interesting the more characters are added to the equation. The last two additions seemed to have a lot more thought put into them then the first two. I enjoyed the art style and the animations, I could tell that was thought out a good deal. The puzzles got cool and the abilities were really neat. Despite the fact I constantly just wanted to pick Alice up and throw her, it was pretty cool all around.

However, they completely downplay the Queen of Hearts, MAJOR disappointment for me because I loved her character art. Not to mention the Queen of Hearts seems like the type of character you would really want to exploit in a game. I mean she’s a raving, self obsessed, whiny baby. How many people would LOVE to just throw a flamingo golf club at her? It’d be awesome.

The White Queen creeped me out majorly. They made her about as obnoxious as Alice. I was waiting for her to pull out an insanely large lollipop, stare at you with empty eyes, and just giggle. Creepy giggle, not cute giggle, creepy.

Of course through this entire game I was thinking “Well it keeps getting better. The gameplay is getting better, the characters more interesting. I’ll bet the final boss fight is going to be AWESOME!”

In short, that was THE most disappointing boss fight EVER. I figured they’d bring puzzles into it, no. The characters’ abilities? Not so much. Not to mention Alice decides to go run into a corner and shiver with fright. For some reason I got the feeling I was actually going to be able to USE her character. I need to stop expecting so much from games. However, I think I now fully understand how those guys/girls in movies feel when the obnoxious tagalong decides to make their job harder. I mean if it weren’t for wanting the game to continue I would have just let Alice get eaten. That would have made my life so much easier.

I just wonder how a game that seemed so close to getting it right could go so so so SO wrong. The art was cool, the plotline decent, the gameplay was interesting, but none of that matters if the final boss fight is HORRIBLE! I could have beaten that part of the game with one hand and blindfolded. I could have probably beaten it if I decided to use my nose instead of the stylus. I mean geez . . .

In short, this game is just a time waster. If you don’t want to think or deal with anything intense then buy the game, WHEN IT IS ON SALE! (write that down)

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62 Comments

  1. FairlyObvious

    “old” is the key word there, I was simply referring to more recent games 😉 Way back when they used to do a beautiful job . . . *sigh*
    And Brad says I need to play Kirby’s Epic Yarn game, maybe that will restore my faith in secondary characters . . .

  2. davismouse

    Hey everybody I found a snake I think it might be a garter snake it looks like a mini boa constrictor. What do I feed it and how do I take care of it????? Plz anser somebody plz.

  3. jesus_minime

    @Davismouse: I’m sorry you may not realize what website you’re on right now. Not that we don’t care about finding awesome snakes and the like. But don’t you think your posts are getting a little too off topic to really be worth posting on this specific site? Yahoo answers might be a better place to post your none FPA/videogame related questions.

    @Fairly: Oh look! is that what i think I see? a review of a game you DIDN’T like? *applauds* I think these were only restricted to good games! glad you’re opening up your views here. Now Not only do i know which games to get, but also the ones to avoid! Could life get any better? all that knowledge at ones fingertips. it’s amazing. thanks for all of your awesome reviews and please keep them up. even if I don’t get half the games you suggest it still provides me with some great rants to read! 😛

  4. wingdemon

    okay, i found out that most of my friends DO NOT have this game, which is surprising, but on the bright side, my dads gonna buy a Prof. Layton game (i dunno which, hopefully one i haven’t played) and he said i could “borrow” it.

  5. peterw

    I can’t imagine an alice in wonderland video game being good, especilly on DS { to everyone who has a DS, only buy the games that were made only for the DS the other are just cheap 2D copies of the ones that were made for TV consoles }
    @fairly, are you gonna make that report of halo reach? I’m planning of getting it.

  6. wingdemon

    @PeterW, i was gonna get Halo Reach, but somethings happened at school, and now my Xbox is in my parents closet…locked…

    @Fairly, and everyone else…kinda, do you have a PSP? do you recommend any DS & PSP games i could play?

  7. Brad

    @wingdemon: Peacewalker is incredible, same with Valkyria Chronicles 2. I enjoyed WipeOut and Daxter, but I didn’t beat either of those. All of the Syphon Filter games are solid, but I was a huge fan of the first one, so I might be biased. God of War was good, but I think the repetition isn’t as bad in a handheld game. Anything by Ready At Dawn or Sony Bends is a safe bet.

    And if anyone tries to tell you that the ‘PSP has no good games’ thing is a lie, they’re lying :/

    Fairly’s played more DS games than me, so maybe she can give you a better list, but to start with: Any of the Castlevanias, though Order of Eclesia is my favorite, the first Trauma Center, Chrono Trigger, if you haven’t played the SNES one, and I’m a huge fan of Metroid Prime Pinball, though I’m not quite sure why…

    @pompos2: MAYBE I WILL.

  8. Pandebus

    uhm…. Brad, if I press ‘i’ in the header FPM disappears, and I only see him when he’s on the wall… 0,o I do see the smoke however when he lands.

  9. DaxterSpeed

    @Brad: Care to send me your psp go so I can play some Daxter? (Not that you would.)

    Man, I’d love to play some Daxter. I’d really really love to play any good PSP game. That little machine is so interesting. (Or as VG would have said, Interseting.)

  10. BE FANCY

    It’s friday night….Where is the report?

    @ Brad Can you please tell us when we are getting the next progress report.

    Thanks you

  11. jeogeo

    Okay, so this has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but two things about the fancy pants man at the top of the website.

    (1) The door that fancy pants man comes out from doesn’t erase completely, and when you go through it, it goes to error 404, not found

    (2) When you go all the way on either side of the screen, fancy pants man turns into cutie pants, but still orange

    Just thought you’d like to know.

  12. davismouse

    People REALLY need to stop telling us about the cpg glitch it’s really annoying.
    POLL: what is your favorite Pokemon?
    Mine is Pichu, Pikachu, and Raichu.

  13. Miss Little Girl

    thats what i said! anyway there is obviously a wide majority who knows about it and one day we’ll go and see it’s fixed and brad has heard way too many times! go over the comments, see how many people know? it’s very big so brad should have it always on his mind lay off!

  14. Pandebus

    no, my glitch isn’t the stupid CP glitch. really, when I press ‘i’ FPM disappears. I’d send you a screenshot, but that aint proof, cuz I can photoshop.only thing you can do is go on the newest Safari for mac and press ‘i’ in the header. it’s really, really weird 0,o

  15. BE FANCY

    @pandabus I’m on windows and that invisable glitch happens to me too. It’s no big deal. Just don’t press i …. duh!

    Argh! SATURDAY

    no report … 🙁

  16. Miss Little Girl

    *dances* woohoo! saterday! nothing to do… nothing to do…
    and tomorrow me and my artsy self are gonna paint with my art teacher! we do more laughing than anything else though, rofl!

    and btw there is no cutie pants fancy glitch *waves wand* it never happend!

  17. peterw

    @AJ32 stop wasting valuble comment space. :mrgreen: 😈
    Riddle: I am the beginning of sorrow and the ending of sickness.
    you can not express happiness without me, I am always in risk but never in danger, what am I ?

    • FairlyObvious

      @peterw – You know if they wanted to make that riddle completely correct it should be the beginning and ending of sickness . . .

  18. Ralambos

    Edited by FairlyObvious –

    I can already tell that I’m probably not going to like you . . .
    Please do not spam, excessive comments will be deleted. Also, this is not a post to complain about progress reports.

  19. davismouse

    YES!!! LOGGING IN WORKS NOW!!!!
    fairly is right, dont type stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the post. And this post just happens to be about Alice in wonderland ds, so…
    LETS TALK ABOUT IT THEN!!!!! >:(

  20. davismouse

    i tried to log in at Gravatar but it didn’t work. 🙁
    @everyone: what country do you live in?
    party in the USA! 😀 (that’s where i come from)
    its nice knowing people from other countries. 8)

  21. Julius

    The only game I can think of that pulls off the “Follows you around” thing is the original Pokemon Yellow. Yes, pikachu got a tad annoying at times, but it was fun to have the little yellow fuzz ball following you around. I liked that you could turn it off by putting Pikachu in the PC, though…
    Anyway, thank you very much for the review, Fairly!!

  22. BE FANCY

    @ davismouse I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and that’s where I’m living right now. Yeah my dad’s side of the family is like from the south of Ireland but my mum and her side of the family is from America. She was born in Texas. So, yeah I’m Irish and American. I’ve been to America on holiday a few times and I definitely prefer America over Belfast. I want to go to college in america and I want to start a family there and stuff. 🙂

    PS. Does anyone know when Brad is gonna pst something or why he’s taking so long to make a report and not telling us anything about it?

  23. Marco polo

    @davismouse,

    I was born in Italy but my mum and dad are Irish.
    We only stayed in Italy for 2 years, and then we moved to Ireland.

    So technically I’m Irish.

  24. Aubrey

    Wow. No offense to the people from lesser countries, but I’m from Oompaloompaland. Just kidding. I actually live with Santa in the North Pole. In fact, I’m Mrs. Claus

  25. Pieman

    Well, according to scientists, humans appeared out of nowhere
    (this is when religion kicks in) in Africa, then our ancestors migrated into the rest of the world, so we’re all African (and related to each other…..ugh.) 😀

  26. FPM is awesome

    My cat died…*Sniff*…And I was her bezzie too.=( I left it late actualy she died last month. She was a tabby called Eric.(She was a girl too!)It’s the second cat I’ve lost. They used to both were called Eric until one was changed to Polo he died of liver desiese (spelling!) Eric had cancer 6 times. They were both put down…*wimper*.

  27. peterw

    that frown was by accident, this is what I wrote : (word) : (but without gaps) thats how you make simple ones but the : ones are more interasting :wicked: = wicked
    also sorry for double commenting it wouldn’t let me edit someone has to fix that

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