Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Awesome People: Episode One: Homestar Ruinier
I’m going to start this off by admiting something to all of you. A dirty secret in my sordid past. I am… a closet PACAG. For those of you that don’t know, a PACAG is a Point And Click Adventure Geek. I know that there are alot of us out there too. People who couldn’t get enough of the classics from Seirra and LucasArts. People who had to rush out and get their hands on the new KQ or Monkey Island, The Dig or Full Throttle! (I don’t include the Myst games here because in my opinion a book is still boring even if it includes a boring video world inside.)
The problem is that for some horrible reason the gaming world decided one day that point and click games weren’t exciting enough for players anymore. That the players wanted more first person shooters and fighting games. And thus my little gaming heart was broken. Until a few years ago that is.
It wasn’t the big guys that mended their woeful ways. No. It was a little producer called Telltale Games. They decided that, yes, gamers do miss the irreverent humor and sense of accomplishment that comes from a great PAC. With the release of their monthly(ish) episodic games based on the Sam and Max comics they proved that even in a Halo/GTA world there is still room for silly fun with a pointer!
Now they have released the first episode of a new series. This time it is based on the very popular web cartoon site: Homestar Runner. The game of course being: Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Awesome People: Episode One: Homestar Ruiner (For PC and WiiWare).
In the game you take up the mantle of the titual character Strong Bad, a powerfully machismosed Luche Libre with a fast wit and quick fists! (Or at least that’s how he want’s me to describe him.) You start off doing what Mr. Bad does best, answering emails, from there the adventure takes off. I really don’t want to go into too much detail of the plot since that’s what’s so fun with these games.
I will tell you this. If you are a fan of the Homestar Runner cartoons and the humor of the Brother’s Chap then you probably don’t even need to read this review as you are already playing the game. Everything is here, the characters are all voiced by their original people (really mostly Matt Chapman), the writing is exactly what you would expect from one of the cartoons and the game itself looks fantastic. Some of the best times I had in the game was actually getting to create my own Teen Girl Squad comic and play with some of Strong Bad’s Videlectrix games. (Snake Boxer is awesome!) One of the best things I love about the Homestar Runner world is their take on video games. They have lampooned everything from classic Atari to King’s Quest, each time getting it right. Now with SBCGFA:E1:HR they have taken on the PAC adventure and really nailed it.
On the whole the game does what it sets out to do extremely well. Namely, take the point and click adventure and give it a Homestar feel. It’s what I love about Telltale Games. They really do go right to the source for their games and harvest the best out of them to make a game that both fans of the subject matter and fans of games in general can enjoy.
If you enjoy playing a game that will tickle your funny bone and sometimes give you a head scratching, then I would definitely recommend this game, and probably the whole series, to you. A brief warning though, if you don’t like Homestar (and I know there are at least 2 people who don’t) then you should probably steer clear of this one, as that’s all it is. For everyone else though, enjoy this great addition to the Brother’s Chap universe and have fun clicking away!
