e may have cut his game-design teeth over at id during the Doom days, but his twisted take on the classic Alice in Wonderland is probably how most people came to know about American McGee. Years later, McGee is taking on children’s literature again—and don’t think he’s lost his edge. American McGee’s Grimm seems almost too easy pickings for someone with his sense of black humor. After all, these are tales where child murder, child abandonment and other gruesome acts were pretty much assumed.

Fortunately for McGee, major animation studios (or one in particular that will remain nameless) have made a mint adapting and sanitizing these stories. From what we’ve seen of his version of Grimm, McGee seems as intent on reclaiming the darkness that has been tossed aside.

Each story starts with a quick telling of the events that players will be exploring—or at least a version of that tale. Before things go horribly astray, players will hear the “light” telling of a particular story, in which bad things happen but good seems to triumph. Complete an episode, and you’ll get to hear the “dark” version, which delivers on its name.

Playing as a horrible little dwarf named Grimm, players run around a fairy-tale land and ruin everything in their wake. Wherever Grimm goes, plants die, buildings crumble and horrible things happen to children. (It’s going for a solid M, despite the candy-coated visuals.) The game was first described to us as being like Katamari Damacy in a sitcom format. After playing through the first episode, that description actually made sense. As he runs around areas, Grimm is blocked by gates. To open those gates, he has to create a specific amount of nastiness around him. As he essentially repaints levels by walking past things, the meter increases, eventually to the point where he can pass those pesky gates.

Of course, those do-gooders in the stories try to stop Grimm. In the full episode we played, “A Boy Learns What Fear Is,” they didn’t harm Grimm in any way, but they followed behind him, cleaning up his messes. By using a Buttstomp move, Grimm can stun the cleaners temporarily, while also causing a 360-degree wave of decay around him. It’s a handy way to hit those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies.

The game is a visual treat, with characters that look as though they’d fit right in with the gang in Animal Crossing. If Grimm showed up, though, you can bet there’d be a mass exodus in no time flat. Even the dark transformations retain the same glossy look, which is pretty disconcerting considering what you’re often looking at. A scene with kids enjoying a playground might turn into a horrible scene of those same kids impaled on spikes when Grimm whizzes past. That kind of carnage might be unbearable if not for the cutesy art style. Gallows never looked so adorable, that’s for sure.