Wonder of Blue is a very pretty, startlingly hard Alice in Wonderland dungeon crawler, with zero American McGees

I’m still a little burned-out on Carrollian adaptations after Nightingale, but I will not let that tarnish my enjoyment of Wonder of Blue, a fey 2D labyrinth roguelite based on fiction’s most famous Alice after Alice Bee (RPS in peace). It features a lovely selection of pixelart colour palettes, and some pleasingly tricksy enemies. You play Liddell – yes, I too had forgotten Alice’s second name isn’t “in Wonderland” – and you are trying to navigate a series of procedurally generated dungeons made up of single-screen rooms. At the end of the journey waits the Red Queen.

Along the way, you’ll encounter: owls that fly up and turn invisible before diving at you; butterflies that spit orbs that home within a certain range, often catching you from behind when you dodge-twirl past them; floral fans that whirl themselves towards you in fits and starts. I like the arcane yet sparse nature of the enemy movements. It makes me think of the geometric design of the older Castlevanias – and of the maddening mathematics of Carroll’s original novel.

I also like that my default special move consists of hurling a cat named C.C., because this has me fumbling after connections between cc’ing people on emails and the disappearing Cheshire moggy from the books. Please discuss.

As for the roguelite elements, you’ll find treasure chests that offer a choice of three random items, a la Vampire Survivors. These include playing cards for alternative special moves, and exploration tools such as a map and compass. You may need all the help you can get: even when playing the demo on Casual, which lets you retry individual labyrinths on defeat rather than permadeathing you back to square one, I found progress tough. Liddell’s hitbox and damage cooldown timer are not as generous as they might appear from the blithe presentation. A tip: opponents don’t spring into motion until you’ve fully entered a room.

You can find it on Itch.io and Steam. I like this. I like its unassuming yet hypnotic floor patterns and nested timescales and absent-minded background music. Sort of hoping for a surprise David Bowie appearance, tbh.