I never thought much about video game "dialogue skip" buttons, but after playing "The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe," I can't stop thinking about it. This button (which is a physical button in the game world, so you have to be standing in a specific spot to use it) is just one of several new features that can be experienced in the "extended reimagination" of "The Stanley Parable," which was released in 2013. Once again, stepping into Stanley's shoes transforms the act of playing the game into a hilarious, surprising, and sometimes deeply thought-provoking examination of the game and game development, the player and the player's choices, and yes, even the consequences of pressing buttons.

Let me get this out of the way quickly: reviewing "Stanley Parable" feels like a trap: reviewing "Ultra Deluxe" feels like a trap. Part of the setting for this expansion is a museum of memories, where a narrator recites reviews of the original game, not only professional reviews from Destructoid and GameSpot (it's a shame that PC Gamer's own 90% review is absent), but also a rainy dockyard There are also reviews from Steam users piled haphazardly and scattered about. The narrator talks a bit too much, so while you're hitting the new dialog skip button, it's really something to think about.

Back to the point: reviewing a game that tries to shed light on your review is like stepping into a trap door clearly marked "trap door." On the other hand, the way to play "The Stanley Parable" is to step into a trap you've been warned about, or to do something you shouldn't do, and then find out what the game is really trying to make you do. Someday, "The Stanley Parable" may fit into the framework of a re-release. [But "Ultra Deluxe" is more than just a remaster. The original first-person game is so faithfully reconstructed that it took me a few hours to realize it was made with Unity, not Source Engine. One day, Stanley, an office worker who finds himself alone in the building, tries to find out what happened to his co-workers, guided by a gentle storybook-style narration in an empty hallway. The simple act of making his own choices instead of following instructions leads to several divergent paths, different reactions from the narrator, multiple endings, and the pure joy of doing the unexpected and discovering that the game fully expected him to do it.

However, at some point in replaying the new version of the old "Stanley Parable," the new content of "Ultra Deluxe" begins to creep in. A door labeled "New Content" appears in a familiar office hallway that you have walked down dozens of times already. As you walk through that door, a number of new features come up for your approval. For example, there is a bucket that Stanley can pick up and carry with him.

That's it. It's just a bucket, a little joke based on the idea that some players were confused by the original game, and carrying this "reassurance bucket" as an accompaniment helped stave off any discomfort or anxiety. But of course, in the hands of developer Crows Crows Crows (a studio founded by one of the original creators of "The Stanley Parable"), simple jokes don't last long. The bucket elicited a new commentary from the narrator, but as I was carrying it I wondered if there was anything unusual about it. What if I took the bucket out the window, or carried it to the boss's office, or took the bucket to one of the many endings of the original game? What if I took the bucket and redid the game and took the bucket to the place where I got the bucket in the first place?

"Stanley Parable": the Ultra Deluxe brilliantly anticipates everything a player is likely to do while playing "Stanley Parable" with a bucket, and the rewards for experimentation are more humor, confusion, absurdity, and game thoughtful exploration of design and player choices.

At one point I decided to throw away my bucket. It was a long process of getting a "replacement bucket," but I was adamant about throwing it away as well.

And as ridiculous as it may sound, I must admit that I genuinely felt a bit panicked. Had I become emotionally attached to the bucket? However, carrying the bucket around unlocks a number of new endings (and the bucket modifies the game's original ending), so without the bucket, the secret ending, some of the narration, or the collector's item of "Stanley Parable" I was worried that I would miss some of the silly or thought-provoking moments that are a part of the game.

(Incidentally, the Ultra Deluxe has literal collectibles added to it. The Ultra Deluxe has literally added collectibles. And that's true. But there is.)

I eventually got my reassurance bucket back, and damn, it's silly to say this, but I felt reassured that I was holding onto it once again. This is the genius of Ultra Deluxe. They keep you laughing with their jokes and then slowly make you realize how much truth is hidden in those jokes.

There are many more new features in Ultra Deluxe than just the bucket; after 10 hours of play, I'm pretty sure I haven't discovered all of Ultra Deluxe's tricks and treats yet.

As with the original game, there is quite a bit of fruitlessness, wandering around the offices where you have been many times before and trying to find something new where there is nothing new to discover. There are also still a few moments that test one's patience, where the narration is so long that one is tempted to continue exploring rather than sit back and listen. (But I don't think we need another button to skip the dialogue. One is enough.)

But for the most part, "Ultra Deluxe" is an adventure filled with pleasant surprises and sharply amusing observations about games, how we play games, what we expect from games, and what games expect from us.