Genre: Platform

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Rating: 15 (BBFC)

Platform: Xbox 360

Its gothic appearance and dark feel outdoes the iconic imagery associated with Tim Burton, whilst its level of insanity reaches virginal heights. The ease off convention that Alice: Madness Returns contains with such perfection provides the perfect playground for a host of unique and entertaining ideas that few minds could ever even dream of. It would be a struggle for even the mad hatter – and he’s bat-dung crazy.

The weapons are the pinnacle of the weirdness. There’s an ornate pepper grinder that works as a hand cannon, an exploding bunny that can be triggered to destroy walls, a relatively normal knife and more. But in this sick, twisted and distorted re-work of Lewis Carroll’s classic, even a normal knife can look sinister when gripped by an otherwise innocent looking girl splattered with blood.

The weapons are used often used with the environment to trigger proceeding as well as being used in a scrap against enemies. Despite the fact that she’s armed to the teeth, if the enemies begin to get the better of Alice, she can enter hysteria mode. This mode makes everything turn black, white and red whilst rendering Alice super-hard and invincible. This art-style is as intriguing and unique as the art-style used in rest of the game, which itself is captivating.

The entire game is a bittersweet contradiction. There’s the innocence of a young girl in a hideously dark and violent world, the unique and new gameplay elements layered on a standard platform mechanic, and the sometimes lovely looking textures plastered next to the seemingly unfinished ones.

With polish and finesse, Alice: Madness Returns could have been a wonderful game. Without it – it's certainly no trip to Wonderland.

SCORE: 6 / 10