I'm sure everyone has heard of the story by now. Alice ends up falling down a rabbit hole where upon she enters a magical place called Wonderland. The game expounds upon on this story by throwing in all of the characters from the cartoon and by having them give you specific quest requirements. What makes this game so fun to play is the variety present in the various levels. You'll start your adventure via standard 2D side-scrolling action. Alice can walk, run, and jump. Her only method of attacking enemies is jumping on them Mario-style. Most of the levels will require collecting various items. Finding all of the stars in a given level will refill Alice's health meter. Keys must be located to open locked doors. Some of the areas in the levels can't be reached unless Alice touches a mushroom, which will shrink her down in size. Touching the mushroom again will restore her to her original size.

Other levels will implement new play mechanics to spice up the action. In one level Alice must float upwards in a bubble to reach the items she needs. Another level has Alice stuck in a bottle and floating down a raging river. She must avoid the octopuses to reach the end. There's even a level at the beginning of the game where Alice falls down the rabbit hole and must avoid various objects flying across the screen. Luckily her dress allows you to slow down her descent to avoid the obstacles. For good measure there's even a top-down RPG section of the game where you must wander around the woods and talk to the various creatures. Most of them have lost an item of some sort and it's up to you to find it. In all of these different modes of play the controls are very responsive. Fans of the 8-bit Mario games will be right at home with running and jumping since it's nearly identical in execution. Throw in moving platforms, trap doors, and floors filled with lethal spikes, and you've got yourself a respectful platformer.

The graphics are some of the best I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on the system. Due in part to its Game Boy Color-only status, the screen is overflowing with vibrant colors. They're so good that it's hard to believe that this game is being played on an 8-bit system. With parallax scrolling and wonderful special effects the game almost reaches Super NES quality. The animation in the game is also very impressive. Alice probably has more frames of animation than some of the characters seen on more powerful home consoles. The locales are ripped right from the cartoon and the characters resemble their on-screen counterparts. The developers did their homework in the graphics department and Disney should be proud to have a game with such fantastic visuals associated with its license.

Alice in Wonderland is a perfect game for the younger girl players out there. The gameplay and level design is so good that the game is fun no matter who actually ends up playing it. There is an alternating two-player mode where the first player goes into a level and hides. The second player is then handed the Game Boy Color and must find the spot where the first player hid within a time limit. As is the case in most of Nintendo's releases, this game is compatible with the printer so you can print out pictures you have designed in the art gallery. In this crowded market where platform-type games are all the norm, it's refreshing to see a game that encompasses several modes of play to differentiate itself from the rest of the pack. If you have a younger sister or a niece, this game would make an excellent gift. Who knows, maybe it'll give you an excuse to give the game a try yourself!