Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Joriko Interactive Ltd. has made it possible for you to join Alice on her adventures in Wonderland in their new game release, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  The tale has been divided into 12 chapters and interspersed with a variety of activities to capture your attention and allow you to become part of the storytelling.

The main menu is represented by the face of a clock.  Clicking on any of the numbers will open a new chapter and allow you to hear more of the story.  You'll meet the wonderful Lewis Carroll characters like the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts, to name a few.

Each area offers animated clips from the Alice in Wonderland story as well as a variety of activities, games and puzzles for you to play.  You might have to find the scattered, hidden pieces of a puzzle...or you may have to match pictures as you work against the clock.

The animated clips are beautifully colored and rendered and feature narration by the infamous Simon Callow.  The character voices are very well done as are the music and sound effects.

Many of the activities are quite simple but there are some that offer quite a challenge.  Although this software is recommended for ages 7 and up, younger children will need help to complete the more difficult activities, or they can simply pass that activity and move on to the next chapter.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland plays directly from the CD ROM drive.  Minimum system requirements include:  486/66 or faster processor, 16MB RAM, SVGA screen, 4X CD ROM Drive, Soundblaster sound card or 100% compatible sound card.

Install:  N/A.  The software plays directly from the CD ROM drive.

Gameplay:  7.5.  The interface is fairly smooth, with only a few areas of hesitation when changing menus.

Graphics:  8.0.  The animated clips are beautifully rendered and quite colorful.

Sound:  8.5.  The narration and character voices are very well done.  Both music and sound effects are quite good.

Difficulty:  9.0.  Although some of the activities are rather simple, a number of them are very hard.  There is very little direction regarding how to proceed and the directions that are there are rather sketchy at best.

Concept:  8.5.  Lewis Carroll's original story is followed closely in this software so the storytelling aspect is very well done.  The activities that have been included are not as easy to follow, however.

Multiplayer:  N/A

Overall:  7.  Although this software contains good graphics and sound, it lacks presentation in the area of activities.  There should definitely be better instructions, especially for the harder activities.  Both my 9- and 11-year-old granddaughters became frustrated and soon lost interest in playing because they could not figure out some of the activities.  Since both girls are avid game players and readers, I found this reaction to the game to be quite revealing.