These Two Dark Fairytales Need to Unravel on Modern Consoles
American McGee’s Alice and Alice: Madness Returns brought a darker, more disturbing take on the familiar Wonderland story to video games. The article argues that both games deserve remasters for modern consoles, so new players can experience their dark fairytale world and the series’ unfinished story.
The first game launched in 2000 and received an 85 Metacritic score; it later appeared on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as downloadable content in 2011. Alice: Madness Returns followed on 14 June 2011, earning a more mixed critical response, though players embraced its atmosphere. A proposed third game, Alice: Asylum, was not funded or licensed by Electronic Arts, and the original game is now difficult to access.
In short
- Both Alice games deserve a return on modern consoles.
- The original is now difficult to play.
- Electronic Arts declined to fund or license Alice: Asylum.
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The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Remasters could make two distinctive games accessible to modern players, preserving their unsettling art and storytelling while bringing the series to current consoles. The original’s strong reviews and the audience for Madness Returns suggest there is lasting interest, and updated releases could let players revisit a story left unfinished after Alice: Asylum failed to secure funding or a licence.
The case against
A remaster may be a poor use of resources if the games’ audience is too small to justify the work, particularly given the more mixed response to Madness Returns. Their older design may also need substantial changes to meet modern expectations, while the unfinished story cannot be resolved by re-releasing the existing games.
Explained simply
American McGee’s Alice reimagines Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland as a dark world shaped by Alice’s trauma after a fire kills her family. The 2000 game was followed by Alice: Madness Returns in 2011, which continued her story and drew players to its unsettling atmosphere.
Electronic Arts owns the rights to the games, while American McGee created and directed them. McGee later developed plans for a third game, Alice: Asylum, but it did not go ahead without the publisher’s funding and licence. The original game is now difficult to access, leaving the series’ story unfinished for players who want to revisit it.