{"id":1026222,"date":"2026-06-14T14:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T14:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026222\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T14:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T14:31:22","slug":"this-somber-platformer-now-15-years-old-deserves-a-revisit-on-ps5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1026222\/","title":{"rendered":"This Somber Platformer, Now 15-Years-Old, Deserves a Revisit on PS5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Feature:<\/a><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember exactly when I fell down the Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole; I\u2019ve always been a bit obsessed with the Lewis Carroll novel, dating all the way back to very early childhood.<\/p>\n

The nonsensical plot\u2019s mix of fairytale whimsy with dark undertones has always fascinated me, and even today as an adult, I use an Alice in Wonderland phone cover and have multiple tattoos with quotes and characters from the book.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t be surprised to learn I was a big fan of American McGee\u2019s Alice<\/a>, then, the 2000 PC platformer published by EA which applied a gothic twist to the iconic story.<\/p>\n

It\u2019d get ported to the PS3 as a pre-order bonus for sequel Alice: Madness Returns<\/a> in 2011, and that\u2019s the game I want to talk about, as it turns 15-years-old today.<\/p>\n

Like the original, this sequel was published by EA, although it was part of its experimental publishing line, which also shoved out Grasshopper\u2019s Shadows of the Damned<\/a> just a week or so later.<\/p>\n

\"Feature:<\/a><\/p>\n

I vividly remember both of these games being sent out to die, which is a shame, because they were brilliantly unique additions to the PS3\u2019s catalogue. At least Shadows of the Damned has been re-released more recently, but Alice: Madness Returns seems like it\u2019ll be stuck on the PS3 forever<\/a>. (A Steam version<\/a> is available for just a few dollars if this article interests you at all.)<\/p>\n

Developed by Spicy Horse, this was a rare console game developed in China, although American McGee himself is obviously from the United States. (He got his start in game development working with id on franchises like DOOM<\/a> and Quake<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Alice: Madness Returns was dark \u2013 profoundly so for the time. It depicted an older Alice, being \u201ctreated\u201d by a psychiatrist in Victorian London. The hypnosis techniques forced the heroine to slip in and out of Wonderland, with the doctor himself eventually revealed to be a paedophile who raped Alice\u2019s older sister.<\/p>\n

I was in my very early 20s when this game came out and I remember being quite stunned by the subject matter. To my knowledge, there weren\u2019t really games like this at the time; Heavy Rain<\/a> had just come out and had tackled some more mature material as well, although its writing was considerably clumsier than what was depicted here.<\/p>\n

\"Feature:<\/a><\/p>\n

As a game it was no slouch either, although it didn\u2019t run well and it suffered from the same issues as many Unreal Engine 3 releases from the era.<\/p>\n

Some of you may remember that Epic\u2019s engine didn\u2019t play nicely with the PS3, and it resulted in heavy texture pop-in and a muddy visual identity that would be considered ugly today.<\/p>\n

But I think the game\u2019s \u201cfractured world\u201d aesthetic was interesting, and I suppose you could best compare it to something like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/a> today.<\/p>\n

One visual detail I remember distinctly was the hair: Alice\u2019s hair would flow about realistically, so when she leaped through the air it would rise up in individual strands \u2013 an impressive technique at the time that I think genuinely added to the gothic nature of the character.<\/p>\n

\"Feature:<\/a><\/p>\n

The weapons were also really interesting; this was quite a rudimentary platforming action game at its core, but you were armed with everyday objects like a Pepper Grinder which doubled as a Gatling gun and a hobby horse which could be used as a kind of hammer.<\/p>\n

The game definitely leaned heavily into its art and story, and I recall it being a bit bloated in terms of length. I believe McGee\u2019s said in the years since that he wished he had a bit more time to trim down the campaign, which would have been nice.<\/p>\n

The distinct aesthetic means the series remains popular today, and multiple attempts have been made to create a sequel. As I understand it, EA is holding this game hostage, which is unfortunate because I think there\u2019d be a market for a remaster of Alice: Madness Returns and its predecessor in 2026.<\/p>\n

Still if you have a means to play it, I do recommend it \u2013 especially if you\u2019re a fan of dark narratives and Lewis Carroll\u2019s wider fairytale world. It\u2019s a bit depressing, but there\u2019s nothing else quite like it \u2013 despite the continued popularity of Alice in Wonderland at large.<\/p>\n

\"Feature:<\/a><\/p>\n

While I certainly wouldn\u2019t rank it among the best PS3 games<\/strong><\/a> at all, it\u2019s one of those titles that\u2019s stuck with me longer than most. In fact, I was able to write the framework of this article without much research, despite it being 15-years-old.<\/p>\n

The glib subject matter and strong art style made this a standout for me, and it\u2019s a shame EA doesn\u2019t appear to appreciate what it has. I still harbour hope that this franchise will find its way out of the publisher\u2019s vault one day \u2013 especially as used PS3 copies are beginning to rise in price these days.<\/p>\n

Did you play Alice: Madness Returns when it was first released? Would you like to see the series resurrected at all? Let us know below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I don\u2019t remember exactly when I fell down the Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole; I\u2019ve always been a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[283492,2244,126,32102,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-1026222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-alice-madness-returns","tag-ea","tag-features","tag-ps3","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}