Ten years after the original American McGee’s Alice hit retail shelves, Mr. McGee returns to the scene of his most successful game with Alice: Madness Returns. Yet another of the many titles revealed at Electronic Arts’ annual Summer Media Event, Alice: Madness Returns is an action adventure title for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Of his new game, McGee has this to say:

For a fleeting, sickening glimpse of that vision, have a look at the latest teaser trailer for Alice: Madness Returns.

“Alice is a classic fiction, infinitely rich with memorable characters, places and experiences. Our approach to Alice: Madness Returns takes this colorful world and reinvents it with psychotic personalities and pervasive insanity.”

“We can’t wait to share our vision with Alice in Wonderland fans and gamers around the world.”

Well, that was… unpleasant.

Set, appropriately enough, ten years after the events of the first game, Madness Returns finds Alice “struggling to recover from the emotional trauma of losing her entire family in a fatal fire.” As the Madness Returns subtitle would suggest, our heroine has, sadly, spent those ten intervening years locked away in an insane asylum. Ultimately she is “released to the care of a psychiatrist who just may be able to help her conquer the nightmarish hallucinations that still haunt her.”

The events of the game take place both in “a gloomy and stark London” and a “rich and provocative Wonderland.” Take a look at these screens from the game, and see if you can figure out which is which.

Ranters, I’m not going to lie to you: I never played the first American McGee’s Alice. I think it’s safe to say that my conception of, and interest in, Alice in Wonderland may more closely mirror Tim Burton’s than American McGee’s.

That said, I’m a huge fan of action/adventure games, and if Madness Returns focuses as much energy on solid design and tight control as it does on freaking me the hell out, it might yet earn a place in my collection. Might.

How about you - are you excited about Alice: Madness Returns? Did you play American McGee’s Alice?

Alice: Madness Returns is due sometime in 2011, for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.