|
Some may feel that Czech director Jan Svankmajer's 1988 film Neco z Alenky is the authoritative Soviet adaptation of Lewis Carroll's book Alice in Wonderland (and for years it undeniably was), but now that title is seriously contested. Fictitiously framed as a cheap Soviet knock-off (or "bootleg demake") of American McGee's Alice, this game presents a new interpretation on a familiar tale, its already-peculiar and surreal elements skewed further through pretend cultural mismatch and a healthy helping of irony. In this tale, Little Girl travels through Underland, following the guidance of Magic Talking Cat, overcoming such Sovietized opponents as the Capitalpillar and Jabbearwock before staging a climactic showdown with the Queen of Democracy. Gameplay largely consists of conversing with new opponents (voiced in a humourously dispassionate fashion) as they are encountered, then selecting the most recent weapon upgrade and applying it on them in obligatory game combat just like in decadent western video games. Arguably the story is on rails but working from such an old and popular source the main appeal is not in seeing what happens but observing designers' decisions as to how. |
