Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a puzzle game that reimagines Lewis Carroll’s classic tale as a jigsaw puzzle adventure. Players journey through the whimsical and surreal world of Wonderland, encountering its iconic characters and locations. The gameplay focuses on solving a series of jigsaw puzzles, each depicting a scene from Alice’s fantastical adventure, all built using the Unity engine to create a visually engaging experience.

Alice in Wonderland: A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale – Review

As a professional game journalist and historian, I have traversed the vast and often surreal landscape of video game adaptations, but few literary works have inspired as diverse and enduring a legacy as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. From dark psychological horrors to whimsical platformers, Wonderland has been reimagined countless times. However, amidst this crowded field, the 2020 release Alice in Wonderland: A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale stands out not for its ambition or innovation, but for its stark simplicity. Developed by Mens Sana Interactive and published by QUByte Interactive, this title reduces Carroll’s chaotic masterpiece into a serene, albeit shallow, jigsaw experience. This review will dissect its place within the broader context of Alice-inspired games, analyze its execution, and evaluate its contribution to the genre.

Development History & Context

Mens Sana Interactive, a studio with a focus on casual puzzle games, developed Alice in Wonderland: A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale using the Unity engine. Released on November 18, 2020, for Windows and Macintosh, with a Nintendo Switch port following in 2023, the game arrived during a surge of indie puzzle titles vying for attention on digital storefronts like Steam. Unlike the high-profile, big-budget adaptations such as American McGee’s Alice (2000) or the Tim Burton film tie-in games (2010), this project operated under significantly constrained resources and ambition.

The gaming landscape in 2020 was dominated by ambitious narrative-driven experiences and complex multiplayer titles. In contrast, A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale targeted a niche audience seeking comfort and relaxation—a trend amplified during the global pandemic. The developers’ vision was straightforward: to create a non-threatening, accessible puzzle game that leveraged the public domain imagery of Carroll’s novel. There were no technological breakthroughs or pushes against hardware limitations; the game is functionally simple, designed to run on modest systems. Its creation reflects a pragmatic approach to game development, prioritizing a specific, casual market segment over artistic or mechanical innovation.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Alice in Wonderland: A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale eschews traditional narrative almost entirely. There is no plot, character development, or dialogue. Instead, the “narrative” is implied through 12 static scenes illustrated by artist Katia Numakura, each depicting a iconic moment from the book, such as Alice’s encounter with the Caterpillar or the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

The game’s thematic depth is consequently surface-level. It relies entirely on the player’s pre-existing knowledge of Carroll’s themes—childhood curiosity, the absurdity of adult logic, and the fluidity of identity. By reducing the story to a series of disconnected images, the game fails to engage with these themes interactively. It is a digital picture book, a collection of snapshots that recall the story but do not reinterpret or explore it. The inclusion of quotes from the novel beside each completed puzzle is a nice touch, but it feels more like an appendix than an integral part of the experience. The promised feature to “customize the screenshots, replacing the quotes we selected with your own reflections” is a curious attempt at personalization, but it does little to deepen the thematic connection, ultimately feeling like a superficial add-on.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

The core gameplay loop is impeccably simple and singular: solve jigsaw puzzles.

• Puzzle System: Players select one of 12 scenes and choose a difficulty level, which translates to the number of pieces: 60, 135, 240, 465, or 735. The puzzles are assembled on a static board using a point-and-click interface.
• Tools & Quality of Life Features: The game includes standard jigsaw amenities:
  • Zooming in on the scene.
  • Highlighting border pieces.
  • Highlighting pieces from a specific quadrant of the puzzle.
  • Shuffling the remaining pieces.
  • A preview of the completed image.
  • The ability to drag the entire board.
• Progression & Reward: Completing a puzzle unlocks the image for download, allowing players to use it as a desktop background or share it on social media. This is the sole reward mechanism.

There is no combat, no exploration, no character progression, and no fail state. The UI is minimal and functional, though on the Switch version, as noted in the lone critic review from LadiesGamers.com, performance issues and crashes marred the experience, indicating a lack of polish in the porting process.

The fundamental flaw of these mechanics is their lack of innovation or connection to the source material. The puzzles themselves are generic; the Alice theme is nothing more than a skin. The act of piecing together a image of the Cheshire Cat does not feel meaningfully different from piecing together a landscape or a bowl of fruit. Compared to other Alice games that incorporate thematic mechanics—such as size-changing in the 2010 DS title or the psychological combat of Madness Returns—this game’s systems are devoid of wonder or madness. They are purely functional.

World-Building, Art & Sound

• Visual Direction: The game’s primary strength lies in its visual presentation. Katia Numakura’s artwork is beautiful, employing a soft, storybook-like style that is both charming and faithful to the whimsical spirit of Carroll’s world. The illustrations are colorful and detailed, providing a pleasant backdrop for the puzzles. However, the “fixed/flip-screen” visual style means the world is entirely static and non-interactive beyond the puzzle assembly. This stands in stark contrast to other adaptations that build immersive, explorable worlds, such as the gothic landscapes of American McGee’s Alice or the Burton-esque metroidvania of the 2010 DS game.
• Sound Design: The soundtrack is described as “comforting and exclusive,” aiming to create a relaxing atmosphere. It consists of gentle, ambient tunes that successfully avoid being distracting or repetitive. While adequate for its purpose, the audio lacks the memorable, haunting quality of Chris Vrenna’s score for American McGee’s Alice or the cinematic sweep of the film tie-in games. It is background noise designed to soothe, not to engage or unsettle.

Overall, the art and sound create a competent, pleasant aesthetic package, but they serve only to decorate the mundane puzzle mechanics rather than elevate them into a cohesive and immersive experience.

Reception & Legacy

• Critical Reception: Alice in Wonderland: A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale flew almost entirely under the radar upon release. As evidenced by the MobyGames and OpenCritic pages, it garnered minimal critical attention. The only documented review, from LadiesGamers.com, awarded it a “Liked” score but criticized technical issues on the Switch port. The lack of player reviews on MobyGames further underscores its obscurity. It was not a commercial failure in the traditional sense—it found its audience among casual puzzle enthusiasts on Steam—but it made no discernible impact on the broader gaming culture.
• Legacy and Industry Influence: The game’s legacy is negligible. It exists as a footnote in the long history of Alice adaptations, a testament to the versatility of the source material but not a noteworthy example of its potential. It did not innovate the puzzle genre nor did it provide a new or meaningful interpretation of Wonderland. Its influence on subsequent games is non-existent. In the vast ecosystem of Alice-inspired games—which includes influential titles like American McGee’s Alice, cult classics like Alice is Dead, and inventive metroidvanias like the 2010 DS game—A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale is relegated to the sidelines, a harmless but ultimately forgettable curiosity.

Conclusion

Alice in Wonderland: A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale is a competently made digital jigsaw puzzle that uses Lewis Carroll’s classic novel as a thematic skin. Its beautiful artwork and relaxing soundtrack provide a pleasant, if utterly passive, experience for players seeking a low-stakes cognitive exercise. However, as a video game adaptation of one of the most creatively rich stories ever written, it is a profound disappointment. It engages with none of the source material’s themes, narratives, or potential for interactive wonder. It reduces the chaotic, illogical, and fascinating world of Wonderland to a series of static images to be reassembled.

When placed alongside its peers—be it the psychological depth of Madness Returns, the inventive puzzles of the 2010 DS game, or the sheer audacity of American McGee’s vision—this game feels inconsequential. Its final verdict is that of a product, not a piece of art. It serves a functional purpose for a specific audience but holds no significant place in the annals of Alice video games or in video game history at large. For historians and journalists, it is a case study in how far adaptation can stray from its source while still bearing its name. For players, it is a peaceful, yet ultimately empty, trip down the rabbit hole.