There isn’t as much to the game as I’d hoped as a result, and some platforming would have mixed well with the rest of the game. I was quite disappointed to see that there wasn’t a jump button once I started. I had only taken a brief look at a trailer before playing Lost in Random, so I went in almost completely blind.

Yes, one of them looks a whole lot like Oogie-Boogie. Yes, there’s a mayor with two personalities. Lost in Random also leans a little too hard into The Nightmare Before Christmas‘ bag of tricks, with some sections (especially Two-town, where people have two personalities) coming off as too direct. There’s no lip syncing outside of cutscenes, either, which looks really bad as enemies just flap their mouths while voices play. They’re so unique that they seem like they need to be individuals, but you’ll see them over and over again with different names and voices. It’s also jarring to see the same exact NPC models over and over again. This was a waste, as I didn’t get a good feel for her as a character and it would have been great to hear her voice actor perform her lines here, as she does a great job otherwise. Strangely, Even herself is almost never voiced outside of cutscenes while everyone else is. Even keeps ending up in each town until she makes it to Sixtopia because, reasons. But the story just goes all over the place without any real direction. Hearing these talented actors deliver their lines is the best thing about the game. The voice acting from the entire cast is similarly fantastic. I didn’t care much about anything that was going on, even if the dialogue is funny and well written. The narrative lacks focus and doesn’t pay enough attention to its characters. The game follows Even as she blindly wanders around for a while looking for Odd. Odd turns 12, rolls, and ends up in Sixtopia with the Queen, who has suspicious plans for her.

What number the kid rolls determines what town they live in for the rest of their life. On every child’s 12th birthday, the Queen’s nanny shows up and rolls a black dice. Specifically, Even and Odd are young sisters living in the town of Onecroft in the land of Random. A girl gets kidnapped by an evil so-and-so, so she has to be rescued. It could have been better, but, hey: Random rules! But it’s a good title that manages to justify its price tag. With that out the way, I had a reasonably good time with the game, but it runs out of new permutations fairly early on, has a somewhat unimpressive narrative, and reuses NPC models so brazenly that I’m still perplexed. Yes, Lost in Random is published by EA, but it has nothing to do with Alice: Madness Returns. Let’s get something out of the way first.

Lost in random rating