In which I briefly complain about Super Mario Bros. Wonder's talking flowers

I've been playing Mario Wonder and it is, of course, an absolutely masterful platformer, as expected. It's phenomenal. I'm having a blast with it.

BUT... those talking flowers.........

They definitely don't ruin the experience, and they have some good jokes here and there (which is why I haven't disabled their voice acting), but I do find them a little annoying. It's a little annoying to have a voice go "Well, that sure was weird!" or "That doesn't happen every day!" or "Well then!" every time something weird happens in a game marketed for the fact that something weird happens in every level. I know it was weird. I was there. You don't have to point out how weird it was.

I see people throwing around "MCU writing" or "Whedon flowers," which... well, it's not entirely inaccurate, I guess? But then the common counter-argument I keep seeing is that in a game like Mario, which doesn't have much of a story and doesn't expect you to take it very seriously, it isn't, like, undermining itself by throwing in the "well that just happened" quips. I don't think any of that is really touching on why I find them grating, though.

To me, when the talking flowers aren't being used to set up a joke or just say hello, they frequently feel less like characters in the world and more like the developers breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to you. And it feels unnecessary. I don't need a flower to tell me there's a split path. I don't need a flower to be like "Which one you gonna choose?" when presented with a selection of multiple power-ups. I don't need a flower to go "What's that over there?" when the camera literally pans over so that I can see the giant glowing Wonder Flower on the other side of a wall. These things are already being communicated to me wordlessly by the level. That's always been a strength of the mainline Mario series! There's a reason why there are approximately one billion videos and essays out there about how Super Mario Bros. level 1-1 teaches you how to play. Video games area ALWAYS a conversation between the player and the developer. But here it feels like a developer is literally hovering over my shoulder and watching me play and they just can't help themselves from chiming in with a little comment every now and then, filtered through an anime dub voice actor.

(And, yes, I am aware that the original idea was to offer full live commentary over your gameplay. I am glad they didn't actually do this lmao)

Editor's note: I ended up switching the audio language for the flowers to Japanese, which made them less annoying to me.