[h2]This review was made with the game's release, and goes over many of the game features of the current update.[/h2]
[h3](I also helped beta-test this game, yay!)[/h3]
Stinky and Loof in Wonderland is meant to be a revised version of the older PC games of the "Wonderland" series, originally created by MidnightSynergy and ported through to Unity and Steam by TootSuite.
Back in the day, this series was among the few games you would originally buy and download through family-friendly PC game sites like BigFishGames, Shockwave, or other. Wonderland came in three games, and was jam-packed with puzzle and action gameplay. One of these games included a level editor with a plethora of customisation. I would always find myself jumping back into these older Wonderland games every so often to either collect and play everything, or make new levels.
And now, fast-forward many years later, developer Tootsuite managed to port the large majority of this game to Steam as "Stinky and Loof in Wonderland". Not only that, but prior to the Steam announcement, this port was released on mobile. But as a mainly PC gamer and Steam enthusiast, I was excited to see this game finally show up on Steam, but I'm sure it was others' dreams for such a game to release on the platform.
Now, looking into this newly-ported game, you can see it replicates the original series in an excellent matter. However, not everything is as 100% as it was, presumably due to difficulty or limitations the game engine had. But, as one of the many beta testers of the game, I helped point out certain things that were off about this version, so that it can be improved in a way.
Depending on if you tried the original Wonderland games or not, you will have a different point of view of the game. If you haven't played Wonderland long ago, it appears you may feel a little confused trying to jump into this game. Whereas original Wonderland fans, like myself, will see that the game did good in recreating nearly everything possible in terms of gameplay. But knowing how we are dealing with a brand new Unity engine (unlike the predecessor's engine of Blitz3D), it is likely to be an acquired taste when going deeper in.
The game starts off with a selection of "stories" (or level sets), each with various "chapters" full of levels. And by the way, ALL of the levels from the original Wonderland trilogy are included here, along with a few extras! The game also still maintains the level editor from one of them. But functions a lot differently. The editor was formerly external from the original series, but this one is built in. So it's a good QoL feature how you can immediately playtest while working on your own levels. There is even an in-game database of levels, too. Unlike the exchange many of us may had on the official Wonderland forums.
But for the people who are nitpicky about the general structure of the game, bear in mind that this is based on the previously designed mobile version that was released just a few years ago. I have not played much of the mobile version myself, but knowing the initial build of the Steam version's early beta stages (from last Spring), I can see why we have improved a lot of seemingly off features, usually specific to mobile.
I would also suggest checking out the mobile version of Stinky and Loof in Wonderland through App Store or Google Play, now that I keep mentioning it. And since this is a day-one review, it is most likely this initial release build will be improved with a few minor updates or patches. After all, Steam is "still learning about this game", and that means [b]if you currently buy/play this game, your contribution towards certain Steam stats will not count for the time being.[/b]
So to close up, I will say that, despite a few unusual new features it may have, it's a great modern addition to the steam library of classic PC game fans within Wonderland's genres. I'm still hoping certain aspects of it can be touched up in the long run, but it's fairly reasonable how we transitioned the series from a very old game engine to a current one.
[h1]★★★★☆[/h1]
