With all of this recent talk about the cinematic fate of American McGee’s dark little Alice, I feel it is my responsibility to remind everyone of the original.

In the game, Alice hasn’t seen Wonderland in ten years. Most of this lost time has been spent in a recuperative asylum. You see, sometime after returning from the Rabbit Hole, her family died in a horrible fire. She was the only survivor and guilt haunts her to distraction. Meanwhile, events in Wonderland have taking a turn for the very worse. The Red Queen has declared herself ruler and only one person can take her down: a very bitter, very broken Alice and her even sharper knife.

Every situation, venue, weapon and creature is based in Lewis Carroll’s mythology, but twisted along a disturbingly logical path by McGee’s imagination. The score — by NIN veteran Chris Vrenna — serves to magnify this sense of lost innocence.

Suffice it to say … American McGee’s Alice is one of my favorite PC games of all time. And at just under $10, it is such a bargain — even four years later.

I have my doubts about the movie. When American McGee hasn’t been promising other games about other stories, he’s been talking about the theatrical possibilities of his Alice. So when I hear this week’s news about Sarah Michelle Gellar, I’m torn. I want to believe him, that he’s finally getting this idea off the ground and on the screen. But on the other hand, I can’t get behind Buffy as Alice. While it is true that this envisioning of Wonderland is incredibly violent and requires the kind of ass-kicking that a Slayer can deliver, it’s also incredibly rich with neuroses and psychoses, with bleak situations and repercussions that might prove too much for the girl from Sunnydale.

In the meantime, I’ve still got the original — complete with Cat.

Today’s Track: “Flying On the Wings of Steam (remix)” – Chris Vrenna (2001). The original “Flying On The Wings of Steam” (as well as this remix) can be found on the Original Score to American McGee’s Alice.