The secret areas, which house goodies like memory triggers which offer insight into Alice's past, however, are much harder to reach, and were often only accessible via invisible, moving platforms. As it's near the beginning of the game, the main path wasn't too challenging, and after a bit of fumbling, I figured out how to keep Alice's feet on solid ground (floating in the sky).
Still, I did quite a bit of plummeting at first, but that was mostly due to lack of experience. I escaped several near-plummets thanks to her mid-air acrobatics. That's odd for a game which requires precision platforming, but I got used to her impatience quickly, and it helps that she's able to triple-jump and briefly float with the help of her dress. I scooted around awkwardly at first, as it seemed that Alice had only one degree of forward motion - a full run.
Above: This is not the part of the game I'm talking about, but it does illustrate that it's prettyĬombat is much more heavily emphasized in Madness Returns than it was in the original, but before drawing blood with Alice's implements of death, I had to master the game's primary mechanic: platforming.
