Turning films into video games is a potentially fraught exercise which risks leaving both gamers and cinemagoers unsatisfied. But Disney Interactive has been proclaiming its determination to make credible games for years, and this conversion of Tim Burton's update of the Lewis Carroll classic largely manages to back up the company's rhetoric.
It's far more imaginative than expected, with some clever devices. For instance, you switch between various characters – namely the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit – which have different abilities. With some judicious gesturing and button-pressing with Wiimote and Nunchuk, the White Rabbit can temporarily freeze time, the March Hare can move objects telekinetically and the Cheshire Cat can render visible objects invisible and vice versa. The Dormouse, meanwhile, may be tiny, but he fights heroically; while, most intriguingly, the Hatter can bring his unique perspective to bear, reconstituting broken stairways and bridges, and removing seemingly insurmountable objects.
Various combinations of those abilities bring about some surprisingly complex but always rigorously logical puzzles to be solved – you might, say, have to get the March Hare to raise two banners at the Red Queen's Palace, then switch to the White Rabbit to freeze them before sending the Mad Hatter to the right spot to use his perspective skill to turn them into a solid walkway. The puzzle element of Alice in Wonderland is exemplary – even fans of games like Tomb Raider will find it deeply satisfying. And the (French) developer clearly enjoyed making that aspect of the game: it often uses them as a welcome excuse to add new areas of Underland, including one gloriously surreal episode in which gravity is reversed.
Alice in Wonderland isn't just about puzzle-solving: often portals appear through which playing-card soldiers materialise, who attempt to pull Alice through them if you don't defeat them. Sadly, the combat is annoyingly basic: you suffer no penalty for dying, and it's all rather clunky, even when you find chess pieces and cash them in to upgrade your characters' fighting skills. The game's graphics are about as good as possible given the Wii's limitations, and the game's look and feel conforms commendably to that of the film. Typically for such a game, though, the camera can often make proceedings twice as fiddly as they ought to be.
As a game, Alice in Wonderland isn't going to win any awards – it has glaring flaws. But for the most part, it's inventive, fun and satisfying to play, and it will certainly keep young fans of the film occupied for long periods (parents note: it can be played co-operatively by two people). The only mystery is why it is rated 12-plus: there's nothing discernible in it to make it unsuitable for much younger children.
