Märchen Maze

Märchen Maze is a 1988 isometric platform arcade game developed by N.H. System and published by Namco. Controlling a young girl named Alice, the player must complete each of the game's nine stages while avoiding enemies and falling off ledges. Alice can blow powerful bubbles at enemies to knock them back, and can hit them enough times to send them off the platform. It is the first Japanese video game adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and runs on the Namco System 1 arcade board.

Development was handled by N.H. System, a short-lived subsidiary of Namco, with character design by famed anime director Katsuhiko Nishijima. It is Namco's second game to feature a female protagonist, following Wonder Momo. The word Märchen (pronounced [ˈmɛːɐ̯çn̩] MEH-kh'n) is the German word for "fairy tale". A PC-Engine version was released in 1990, which replaced the isometric view with an overhead one, followed by a 1991 Sharp X68000 port. Märchen Maze received mixed reviews; although its visuals and controls were praised, critics disliked the sharp rise in difficulty and mediocre boss fights. It was digitally re-released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2009. On February 6, 2025, the game got ported as part of the Arcade Archives series.