Put Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s talking flowers in Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake 2It’s bleak. The full-motion commercials and your flashlight make the darkness less frightening, but they are also a playful wink for players. Some players would like to see a more positive atmosphere in the Overlap area and elsewhere.

Of course this is a thought that comes only after you have played. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, where each level features a goofy talking flower character who remarks based on the player’s actions, or on what’s happening in the game world. After going back and forth between the two games, it’s hard not to imagine what the talking flower would be like in Alan Wake 2,

Image composition: Cameron Faulkner/Polygon

The talking flower can be used to mark objectives or help you find safe combinations.

It’s inevitable that the plot would turn dark, with the talking flower becoming a deceptive device. Eventually you wouldn’t know if you can trust what the talking flower is telling you, adding to Alan Wake 2’s deft skill of extending its dark fiction over the game’s reality. Do you pose a danger to the Taken or do they? Maybe, just maybe, it’s the talking flower.

It’s putting thoughts into my mind, ones that I’d rather not be having.

It reminds me of the simplicity I experienced when Alice first joined me in Bright Falls. Now, I’m stuck in the Dark Place.

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