All The Games I Love Are Basically Twin Peaks

I know I'm astonishingly late to this party, but I started watching Twin Peaks with a friend this year. I'm a bit resistant to watching things (my screentime is very much used for video games) but my friend was insistent that I would love this. He is, to my chagrin, quite often right about these things. Don't tell him I said so. He'll be insufferable.

To no one's surprise, I adore Twin Peaks. There is a pervasive sense of 'wrongness' that seems dyed into the film used to make this tv series. I just cannot get enough of it. I also love Dale Cooper. His enthusiasm and kindness is wonderful to see, especially depicted alongside villains like Mr Horne. I could watch him be excited about trees and rabbits forever.

Logs and Lights

Watching this series though has filled in a lot of blanks about the video games I love and the motifs they use. The games I love most in the world, to name the most relevant examples, are Control, Karma: The Dark World, and Alan Wake. Sam Lake has some explaining to do, because a lot of those games now look like highway robbery. He basically picked Twin Peaks up, turned it upside down, and took what fell out of it's pockets. This is not a complaint, but there are definitely elements that were adjusted just enough to not be copyright infringement. The town of Bright Falls is very, very similar to Twin Peaks, with that same sense of wrongness David Lynch managed to capture so well. (RIP big man, I am saddened that I only now realise what we lost.) The hotel in Twin Peaks and the treatment centre in Bright Falls share the same wooden decor. The Oh Deer Diner and the Double R are very similar. Not to mention the parallels between The Log Lady and The Lady of the Light.

Look familiar?

Karma: The Dark World steals less from Twin Peaks but the influence is undeniably there. During the memory segments, where our protagonist explores the memories of another person as an investigator, the walls are draped in those very familiar red curtains and the black and white flooring. It's one of the game's most prominent screenshots, appearing on the cover of the rare physical edition. A very obvious way to go "Hey, remember this? If you liked Twin Peaks you'll like this.". I have to concur with their assessment. Barring any shenanigans in the latter half of the second season and season 3 I haven't seen yet, I enjoy both of those things immensely.

I learned when looking for an image for this article you are all thirsty for Dr Darling. No judgement, I get it.

Control also uses the Twin Peaks aesthetic a lot - especially notable in the segments with videos of Dr Darling. They could have spliced them into Twin Peaks and I probably wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong or different about it. Even down to the quality of the footage, due to canon reasons it's been carefully created with late 80s tech like that used to film the tv show. I am obsessed with these little details.

Watching Twin Peaks for me was like being chronically online and only watching Arrested Development for the first time a few years ago. It felt like all of a sudden posts I hadn't understood made sense, the brush of context making everything clear. We use Arrested Development references a lot in mainstream media it seems. In the kinds of media I really like, Twin Peaks seems to have that role. It's easy to see why. I don't throw the phrase "seminal piece of literature" around often, but Twin Peaks has earned it already for me.

I guess this will be my new barometer for video games now. "How much does it love Twin Peaks?" It's easy to see why this show is so beloved, even today there is truly nothing like it. It's a great pity, but I can live in hope that someone as truly beautifully insane as David Lynch emerges and leads all to the Promised Weird. Unlikely, but a girl has to have hope. Now if you'll excuse me, Deadly Premonition just finished installing.

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