499 Words About: Riddles in Snails & Alice Madness Returns
Wandering into a Snail Shell and being greeted by a cat with full sleeve tattoos sounds a lot like a premise for a Nine Inch Nails music video. Then again American McGee, lead designer for Alice Madness Returns, listened to Nine Inch Nails while working on the games DOOM and Quake. Nine Inch Nails wound up recording the soundtrack for the original PC release of Quake.
Point is, Nine Inch Nails rules.
Full stop. All Cap.
Words.
Scattered through Wonderland in Alice: Madness Returns are various snail shells called Radula Rooms that are double Alice’s height, exuberant in their color palette, and are distinct for openings which are hollow voids of pure black. Alice can enter this shell at which point the game either triggers a fighting mini-game or a riddle challenge hosted by the Cheshire cat. The former vary in terms of enemies that will spawn and are sometimes timed challenges. The latter Riddle Challenges involve Alice stepping into the Veil of Tears where the cat is waiting beside a statue of weeping Alice. At this point the Cat will ask Alice a riddle.
Regardless of the challenge, if Alice wins, the player will receive an ink-well in the shape of a red rose that will contribute a quarter-piece to an empty rose that will expand the player’s hit points(hp).
I have to admit that as much as I enjoy the fighting mechanics in Alice: Madness Returns, these riddles are a welcome change of pace from the rest of the gameplay which is fighting enemies or navigating the 3D platforming. Part of the appeal however is how these riddles further re-emphasize the aesthetic of the game. Alice: Madness Returns and its predecessors Alice are remaking the world of Lewis Carroll’s series of novels about Wonderland. Those novels were riddled (I see what I did there) with absurdity…and tons of mathematical exercises. Wonderland was a peculiar environment where Carroll was able to play with puns as well as the mathematics that he developed and tinkered with as part of his profession.
Unlike Carroll’s riddles however, there are actual answers in Alice: Madness Returns and, just like actual riddles, they require a careful approach.
To wit.
The Cheshire Cat will ask Alice "We welcome the arrival of a phantom at sunset, only to rue its departure at sunrise. What is it?"
The wrong answers are Mayflies, Night Phlox, and Hope.
The right answer is Dreams.
Riddles exist, until they’re solved, at which point they become nothing and vanish from memory. Alice is working backwards to recapture her memories, and save Wonderland. It’s a well executed narrative and aesthetic touch that solving a riddle would be a way to build her strength.
Radula Rooms are intellectually driven mini-games that reinforce the aesthetic, while also subtly reminding the player that Alice’s struggle is not just a physical fight. As much as the corruption that’s destroying Wonderland is a physical force, it’s the strength of her mind that will save her.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
6.5.2025
Like what you’re reading? Buy me a coffee & support my Patreon. Please and thank you.