Wonderland Adventures

Written by Ben on May 26th, 2007 and posted in Reviews
Tags : adventure, Indie, pc, puzzle, screenshots

It’s taken a little longer to write this review than I thought. Wonderland Adventures (interview with the developer available here) is a long, and very challenging game. I normally like to complete games before reviewing them but this one is too big for me to finish in a reasonable time (that and I’m currently working my way through the even larger Legend of Zelda on the Wii - expect a review some time in 2010).

Wonderland Adventures is a story based puzzle game. It follows on from the ground work laid down by the previous games in the series adding an extra layer of interaction.

Previous games in the series were played on a single board with levels played in sequence. Adventures changes all this by adding an “overworld” and non player characters (npcs) that you interact with. This change is a very nice progression of the original series and changes thing considerably making the game very much the “adventure” it claims in the title.

There is actually quite a nice story surrounding the game and it unfolds at a decent pace. The puzzles themselves are also nice and logical and generally tie in with the story. A lot of the puzzles are progressions from the earlier games but at times you come across more Zelda influenced elements, whether that’s boss style fights (without actually fighting - quite clever actually), or new elements and abilities (a magic glove).

Visually the game has stepped up a gear as well. Unfortunately the characters are still giant smiley faces with arms and legs, but the rest of the world has a distinctly Nintendo influenced look (the 2d Zelda games spring to mind… I sense a trend here) - and this is no bad thing. Unfortunately the menus aren’t so pretty, and the text when speaking to the npcs is white on a white background which isn’t the best choice.

In general the game is a lot of fun but it’s not perfect. The issues with the menus and interface are all fairly minor. My biggest problem is the interactive elements. The worst offender is the fire jets and the sinking barrels. In a number of places fire jets shoot out of special tiles and you have to time your movement to avoid them. This in itself is fine, but there is no indication that they are going to flame, and in some places they fire up in illogical sequences which makes working out the timing very challenging. Also there is no health bar so getting hit means restarting the puzzle. It would be better if getting hit by the fire throws you back a tile to where you started and reduced your health. This would stop the long pause you get with restarting the level and would reduce the frustration you feel with having to start again. There should also be an indication that the fire is about to start (smoke?).

Once you get the hang of the fire and barrels the game goes back to being nice and fun, and it’s still enjoyable. The extra challenge does give the game a greater sense of satisfaction once you complete each area. People who enjoyed the earlier games in the series will love this one, and everyone else should at least try it.

• Wonderland Adventures Information

• Ben's Rating :

  Rating: 4
  Readers Rating :

  Rating: 4
• Wonderland Adventures website
• Price : $19.99
• Wonderland Adventures PC Download Now!