The name “Alice in Cardland” is my attempt at a localised name for this game, the more literal translation is “64 Playng Collection: Alice’s Exciting Playing Card World”. The game is listed online as “64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World”, however “Trump” is essentially a Japanese slang term for playing card games (presumably based on “trump card”, used in some trick-taking games).

Alice in Cardland is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland where Alice has to win a card game to progress. The first one is Old Maid (played with a joker instead of a queen). The problem with card games like this: you are literally drawing random cards from opponents. There’s no skill. You can protect a card three times in a round, but that’s only useful if you’re losing and the CPU can do the same to you. You have to have the highest store in three rounds, so you just have to keep trying until you randomly win.

I decided to let Alice spend the rest of her life with the living furniture as you can just play the games separately. The regular card games consist of: Pairs, Old Maid, Sevens, Speed, Cheat/Doubt, Page One (a version of Uno using just playing cards), Daifugō (a Japanese card game where you have to get rid of your cards, a bit like a trick taking game) and Seven Bridge, although there are a few extra games as well.

I was intrigued when I saw poker, but it’s just a very basic Video Poker. Blackjack is also played in the same interface – it all seems like it was taken from another game and thrown into this for more content.

The same is also true of solitaire (Klondike and Freecell variants), which again seems like they’re from a completely different game. Rounding out all the games are a few “fortune telling” events and another Uno variant with slightly different rules.

Alice in Cardland isn’t terribly made, it all works and has a cute style. It’s more the concept of the game that fails. In multiplayer, it’s far less cumbersome to play all these games with a £1 pack of cards. The only advantage is you can play against the computer, but these games are just dull without the conversation and banter – not to mention how you facial expressions and bluffing turn games like Old Maid into an actual game and not just picking random cards.

Poor

If, like us, you’ve always found yourself being repeatedly humiliated whenever a deck of cards is present, Trump World will offer you that self-same experience many times over. Card sharks are scuppered, too, because any attempt to read the poker face of a chair, or a mouse, is ultimately destined to fail.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #25. Review Score: 21%

Remake or remaster?

A pack of playing cards is the only “remake” needed.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Alice in Cardland