Review Strong Bad's Cool Game for Unattractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner Developer: Telltale Games Publisher: Telltale Games Genre: Adventure Release Date: August 11, 2008 Platform: Review by Ryan Casey November 18, 2008		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

In this age of YouTube, it’s easier than ever for people to showcase their talent and creativity (and sometimes, admittedly, their lack thereof) online. Online comics, spoofs, home movies, and cartoons have captured Internet audiences and gained loyal followings of people of all ages and from all different countries. Since 2000, brothers Mike and Matt Chapman have entertained countless people with their series of Flash cartoons featuring the fictional world of Free Country, its dim-witted, athletic hero Homestar Runner, and his posse of cartoon companions. Their website, which they pay for by themselves through the sale of merchandise, is home to a plethora of short videos and comics featuring pop culture references and surreal humor. Given its immense success, therefore, it is easy to see why Telltale Games saw potential in the Homestar universe for a series of episodic adventures.

The game starts with one of the site’s special features, Strong Bad Emails, in which Strong Bad reads his email and provides a characteristically cynical, uncouth response. This time, someone suggests that he beat up Homestar. Naturally, Strong Bad finds the idea attractive. However, Homestar has just entered the Free Country USA Triannual Race to the End of the Race, and his girlfriend Marzipan is throwing him a party, which makes Strong Bad jealous. So begins a hilarious, inane, completely original adventure that is different from any other I’ve ever played.

The game is set in the Homestar Runner universe, which is crudely animated but adequately fits the game’s cartoonish atmosphere. You do have to wonder about some of the characters having no eyes, for example, or unattached heads, but it’s all in the game’s original style, and it is rather amusing. The interface is easy to use. In the upper left corner sits a toolbar with links to your inventory, a map, and a camera; in the opposite corner is a link to the Main Menu.

The voice work, however, is what really stands out, even more so because the majority of the characters - aside from Marzipan - are voiced by the same person, co-creator Matt Chapman, who does an outstanding job lending an original voice to each character and hamming up the script. I may as well mention that the script is a riot; from the very beginning, you’ll be laughing at Strong Bad’s sarcastic remarks and some of the absurd situations presented in the game.

Speaking of absurd, though, that’s the best word I can think of to describe the puzzles. There is very little logic to this game. You’ll pick up a lot of random inventory items on the way, and there’s little rhyme or reason as to how they should be used. Thankfully, there is a built-in hints system (which you can adjust) should you get stumped. I actually found the puzzles to be clever and witty; just difficult to figure out.

There are also some fun mini-games that have no effect on the outcome of the game, but merely serve to help your Awesomeness level. My favorite was the Teen Girl Squad comics, wherein you help Strong Bad write a comic strip in which a series of teen girls die in as gory as manner as possible. You can do it as often as you like, trying each time to make their deaths more and more brutal, and if you’re the kind of person who enjoys indulging in shameless Schadenfreude, it’s totally worth it.

I also found the dialogue system to be a source of irritation. It’s set up so that when you click on a character, a box opens up with little icons that indicate, sometimes rather poorly, what topic Strong Bad will bring up. After you’ve clicked on an icon and exhausted the conversation, though, the icon remains. Sometimes you can click on it again and continue that topic, and other times you’ll only repeat the same conversation - and there’s no way to figure it out short of clicking on the icon again and hoping for the best. I actually like having icon-based dialogue, but it’s not very organized and quickly becomes cumbersome.

Overall, despite its faults, Homestar Ruiner is a pretty enjoyable game, a lighthearted cartoon romp with a great sense of humor and an original flavor. It suffers from some problems with its puzzle and dialogue design, but it is fun to play, and the developers incorporated a lot of details along with a great script -- even the Main Menu is entertaining! Even if you’ve never heard of Homestar Runner or watched any of the videos, you can still have a great time with this game, and it will definitely inspire you to go to the website. Plus, you’ll get some great cynical one-liners to use on your friends!

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows XP / Vista
• Processor: 1.5GHz
• RAM: 256MB (512MB recommended)
• Video card: 32MB 3D-accelerated video card (64MB recommended)
• DirectX 9