This cooperative review is brought to you by the letters Dmitri Salcedo, the numbers Anthony Swinnich and is made possible by gamers like you.
Telltale Games is a studio comprised of former LucasArts employees, so it’s only fitting that the company made a name for themselves with the revitalization of Same & Max. The company’s latest point and click adventure, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner, is based on cast of characters found at Homestarrunner.com. This installment is the first of five planned episodes and is available on the PC or through Nintendo’s WiiWare service.
Dmitri: I first got hooked on HomeStar Runner’s flash-based site several years ago. The Chapman brothers’ quirky mix of whimsical animation laced with surreal humor and niche pop culture references was a revelation of how well animation entertainment could be done over the web. For no memorable reason, I just stopped checking the site a few years ago. My wife still wears her StrongBad T-Shirt occasionally, but aside from that the franchise hasn’t crossed my radar in a good while... until now.
Anthony: The website experienced the same inexplicable fate for myself as well. My love affair started with the fabled "Dragon" Strong Bad Email episode, and I was a loyal viewer for over a year even though it took half-an-hour to load anything up on my then-56k modem. Then, one day, I just stopped watching. Like you (and presumably many others out there), the franchise blipped my radar after years of neglect with the announcement of the game. Homestar Ruiner is my first experience with the Strong Bad’s world since probably 2006, and it’s comforting to find that little has changed.
Dmitri: The whole goal of it being an extended episode that you can play is nearly pixel perfect. The 3D graphics almost exactly replicate the "flash look", and you have all the familiar characters and voices. But the most important returning character is the HSR humor.
Anthony: The humor is maintained in part because the presentation is spot-on. Strong Bad’s attempt to fulfill an unusually reasonable email request, that of beating up Homestar Runner, is sidetracked and ultimate backfires when Homestar ends up taking up residence in the "House of Strong." All the main characters make an appearance, though some play more important roles than others (I’m very disappointed with the lack of compelling material involving The Cheat).
Dmitri: He is thrown into the wash a few times; he’ll always have that. I wasn’t expecting to laugh as much as I did in this game. Mix up references to the Atari 2600, old SNL sketches, and NBA Jam among other things with the out-of-left-field "only in HSR" humor, and you get a very high successful joke ratio. Where else could you laugh so hard at a plaque with a poem about "The Lonliest Goat"? A good chunk of the success is due to the copius and excellent voice acting, 90% of which is performed by Matt Chapman and his crack comedic timing.
Anthony: Speaking of voices (albeit gravelly ones), it was nice to be in control of the fate of the Teen Girl Squad for a change. Who knew it could be so difficult to kill them all? Presentation aside, the gameplay itself was a decent point-and-click romp, though it suffers from some of the genre’s most common pitfalls. Most of the puzzles make perfect sense, but there are two or three in this game that are pretty obscure. There’s also the issue of not realizing that something in the game world is an important item needed to solve a puzzle later. Miss picking it up and you’ll spend a good chunk of time trying to figure out what you’re supposed to do.
Dmitri: I agree, I ran into the same problems. Some puzzles made perfect sense, while some seemed totally random. There were couple times when I was just old-fashioned stuck with no idea of what to do next. This game left me with a smile on my face in the end, but these points did put a damper on the festivities. Series fans will be able to look past this kind of thing and just enjoy the experience, but I’m not exactly sure what this game would have to offer someone who doesn’t know the source material.
Anthony: Well, fans of point-and-clicks would be able to partake in a creative-yet-flawed adventure, but aside from them I’d agree with you. The game is catered to an incredibly specific audience, and that audience will likely enjoy it because of its charm and creativity despite the occasional lack of direction and obscure puzzles that would mystify the general gaming public.
Dmitri: If you know the site, if you are familiar with its sense of humor, this game is for you. If you don’t know anything about HSR and have no idea what we’ve been talking about, chances are it’s probably not.
