‘Madness’ not badness

When “American McGee’s Alice” came out in 2000, it was more than the first M-rated game published by industry giant EA. It gave us a Wonderland truer to the source material than anything done by Disney; a Wonderland where you’d wonder most of all about what might kill you; a Wonderland as Tim Burton might have envisioned it if he were still Tim Burton. Eleven years later, “Alice: Madness Returns” takes another trip down the rabbit hole, but this time Wonderland looks less like a cave and more like “Avatar” seen through a purple looking glass. Game designer American McGee and his team at Spicy Horse, the largest independent game developer in China, have created a world that trades the generic Goth darkness of the first game for pure visual imagination. Walking along a river, Alice sees its source is a giant statue in her likeness, the water flowing from her eyes. In the distance, ultimate Lego fantasies like pirate ship-castle-clocktower hybrids hang suspended in the air. When Alice falls off a ledge, instead of dying, she bursts into a cloud of blue butterflies that fly back to safety. Apart from some jarring technical issues — surfaces often are smooth and formless until you’re right next to them, when their textures finally pop in — “Madness Returns” is about as visually evocative as games come.

If only the gameplay were as interesting as the world it inhabits. The platforming is fun enough, as Alice uses her dress to float around like Princess Toadstool in “Super Mario Bros. 2,” but the “Zelda”-style puzzles are pushovers. Gamers who have developed a second sight for secrets will be able to spot the game’s conspicuously suspicious nooks and corners a mile away. This lack of difficulty or inventiveness makes “Madness Returns” a good entry point for people new to platforming and puzzles, or a relaxing bit of game tourism for a vet seeking a light, consistent experience.