14 DAY TRIAL // 
If you've played Day of the Tentacle, then you surely miss a good adventure game to unwind now and then. I began my adventuring career with the first Broken Sword game and the last good adventure I played is the first Syberia game. For some reason, I never got around trying to play the new adventures of Sam & Max, as presented by Telltale Games, although I keep hearing that the games are solid. So, I have been little interested in adventure titles for a long time, with none really getting my attention.
Fortunately, I recently received the first two episodes of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, another game that is aimed at the fans of adventure games. The games are available for the Wiiware digital download service, the Nintendo Wii and the PC. I wasn't expecting too much from them, as I was unfamiliar with the Homestar Runner universe on which they are based. Still, I thought I could give them a spin.
I reviewed the PC version of the first two episodes in the Strong Bad series and the developers say that the only differences between the two versions are the control schemes and the fact that in the Wii variant, you can use the Lappy computer that Strong Bad uses to send images and messages to friends. You'll have to take their word for it.
Concept
The idea behind the new episodic adventure games, like the Strong Bad series and the Sam & Max franchise, is to deliver bite sized, interesting and funny adventures on a regular schedule. The Freelance Police managed to power two seasons of episodes that were generally positively received, with the third season being expected in 2009. Telltale took the Internet phenomenon that is Homestar Runner and used the Strong Bad character to power a new series which released the first episode in August and the second in September, delivering on the promise of new content every month. A third episode is subtitled Baddest Of The Bands and should arrive, if all goes smoothly, sometime in October.
In my opinion, the biggest critique regarding the series is that you kinda have to know the characters a bit to totally enjoy the game. Otherwise, Homestar can strike you as too stupid even by videogame parody standards while Marzipan can look like a very unlikely love interest until you find out that she is the only female character of the show. Once you play the game for a little while, do a few prank calls and enjoy Strong Bad’s attempts to ruin everyone's day, it all begins to make sense. The second episode, in which Strong Bad decides to secede and depose the King of Town is better, with a cooler premise and nice puns on real world politics and society. The first episode seems a bit rushed and the whole premise of winning against Homestar Runner is not that appealing, even if the episode picks up some pace as it unfolds.
Strong Bad, as the name implies, is out to annoy people. Some of his favorite ways are to respond to e-mails in an offensive way and to try and “pummel” his buddy Homestar Runner, who is not too sharp but very athletic. The first game begins with a race (trust me, after playing the game you will not want to mention its name again) and with a party Marzipan throws, while the second starts off with an e-mail tax which leads Strong Bad to declare the independence of his own part of the town while preparing to take over and oppress all the other sections, each run by one member of the cast. The second game is, based on my playtime, much more engaging than the first, with more over the top humor, especially as far as the various flags attached to all objects go.
Gameplay
To play the game, you need to know how to point and click. It's all basic adventure gameplay, with objects collected for later use and the need to, at times, check all the things in a room to see what you have to pick up. The puzzles are interesting and not overly complicated; they get better in the second game. You will need to explore quite a bit, looking under every rock, in every bush and checking every corner to get all the game has to offer. The mini-games are cool, especially the comic book sections based on the Teen Girl Squad being a highlight of the quality of the satire in the release.
Strong Badia the Free is, as far as I can tell, much more engaging than Homestar Ruiner. Getting into an over the top race and crashing parties does not live up to the challenge of overthrowing the monarchical rule of the town to create your own oppressive nation. I had a lot of fun convincing the Cheat to ally with Strong Badia and enjoyed the Pom Pom section of the second game in the series.
The dialog trees are a bit of a letdown. I was expecting to see the conversation trees, which I had already explored, somehow greyed out, leaving me with only valid, new things to say to the various other characters. Because the game does not tell you when a set of options is done with, I had to say the same thing again quite a few times, mainly because I tend not to keep track of exactly what I said and to whom in the game. This can get annoying, especially if you're stuck and you go to all the characters to see if anything has changed in their dialog options.
Visuals and audio
The game looks basic, hand drawn, and very much influenced by the overall look of Flash based series. If you've played Sam & Max, then this will look like a step back but given the consistency of the games and the fact that this is the look of the characters as they appear in the original material, you can't argue with the way the game is drawn. Strong Bad looks nice and menacing in his mask and there are a lot of outfits he can get to pose in front of very weird backgrounds. The other characters are also somewhat crudely drawn but the second game looks better and we can probably expect more improvements in the future.
The sound department is OK, without anything standing out. Do not wait for a big orchestral score to underline your actions as you free Strong Badia. There's a nice music pun early on in the first game with Strong Bad listening to some nice, cool British pop on the CD player in his living room, but other than that, the sound is just average. Also, make sure you turn subtitles on, because some of the words uttered by the characters are almost unintelligible.
Conclusion
I'm not overwhelmed by the humor in the game, although some of the dialogs are genuinely funny. At times, I had the feeling that the producers were trying too hard to make their game look different; that changes when you get the style it's aiming at, then it manages to keep you hooked and interested in seeing what absurdities come next.
Strong Bad is a cool character while the rest of the cast is more schematic and less fleshed out, with Martzipan making for a great love interest/diva and with Homestar Runner perfect in the role of the ultimate fall guy. Probably as the series progresses and as gamers have more background, everything will connect easier to make for a better release.
I can't say I've enjoyed this as much as the Broken Sword games, but that is mainly because I think the adventure game format is more suited to grand, inspiring epics than to small, humor oriented episodes. I'm also not very much convinced that the quality of the series can be maintained through a long run but if you have money to spend on an adventure game, try out Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. It will make you laugh and think fondly of the long gone days of truly great adventure games.
