Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free

Telltale Games has made it their mission statement to episodically release hilarious adventure games based on family friendly licenses. After starting with a game based on fan-favorite comic Bone, they made their name with a revival of classic LucasArts adventure game Sam and Max, which recently finished its second season. Soon they’ll be bringing international animation stars Wallace and Gromit to the scene, but currently they’re busy with Strong Bad’s Cool Game 4 Attractive People, based on the perpetually popular www.homestarrunner.com. With the recent release of Episode 2-Strong Badia the Free, Telltale once again proves that they are the first name in adventure gaming today.

Strong Badia the Free picks up more or less where Episode 1, Homestar Ruiner, left off (though having played part one isn’t really required, since SBtF doesn’t require any knowledge of what happened in the first one)—Strong Bad’s finally got his house back to himself, which of course means it’s time to check his email. But before he knows it, Strong Bad’s been hit by an email tax, courtesy of the King of Town, the eccentric, food-obsessed monarch ruler of Free Country, USA. After he escapes from house arrest, Strong Bad secedes, claiming sovereignty in his own country of Strong Badia. This kick-starts a trend, and before long everyone in town has started their own country. It’s up to Strong Bad to unite all these disparate nations under one flag (his) so that he can challenge the King of Town for the position of, well, the King of Town. The story’s got a strong political-parody aspect to it, which might not please everybody, but for my money SBtF is one of the funniest HR stories yet, and that’s counting the original site itself. The game’s story is far better paced than Homestar Ruiner, and has all sorts of neat little touches—like the 1940s newsreel-style cinematics that play whenever you’ve conquered another country, and the hilarious country names that are affixed to each and every location in the game—that really make it memorable.

Strong Bad begins the game as a political prisoner, complete with protesters.

SBtF contains a number of improvements over the first episode. Characters that weren’t really featured in Homestar Ruiner take center stage here, including some of my personal favorites, like Strong Sad, Homsar, and The Cheat. There’s also a much wider variety of side activities to pursue; the black metal detector (which plays a thrashy guitar solo when it’s found something) returns for those who enjoy searching for buried treasure, but you can also look for stuff to burn, discover new insulting nicknames for Strong Sad, and hunt for souvenir flags from each country that joins your empire. You can fire up Strong Bad’s Fun Machine for some time with Math Kickers: Featuring the AlgeBros, a Double Dragon-style beat-em-up where you pound ninjas to solve equations. The Teen Girl Squad minigame returns, this time as Cave Girl Squad, and there are plenty of ridiculous violent concepts to subject the girls to. The real kicker, though, is the ending—without spoiling anything, suffice it to say that the game’s final challenge is different from anything you’ve done up to that point, and completely awesome.

Burning Strong Sad’s stuff is one of Strong Bad’s favorite pastimes.

The episode’s not for everyone, though. While the puzzles are definitely clever (and more smoothly integrated into the scenario than the puzzles in the first episode), they’re also pretty easy. Adventure game veterans looking for a bit more challenge can turn off the in-game hint system (which makes characters drop more clues in dialogue), but even with it off, most of the solutions are either obvious or present themselves with a little searching. Just like Homestar Ruiner, anyone who’s not familiar with Homestar Runner is going to be more than a little lost. Fans will appreciate the fan service that’s plentiful throughout, but it will probably just alienate anyone who tries to play the game without a deep familiarity to the source material. And the minimalist presentation, again, isn’t going to impress anybody unless they can appreciate the simplistic cartoon style of the original site.

This is the “evil overlord” you’re struggling to overthrow.

None of these are flaws, though, really. This game (and the series on the whole) has to be taken for what it is, and that’s a hilarious interactive Homestar Runner cartoon. While not everybody will appreciate that, for those that can, SBtF is a blast, and a great way to spend the four or five hours it’ll take you to complete it. While the first episode fell flat in spots and gave the impression of a series trying to find its feet, as of episode two the series has hit its stride. Strong Badia the Free, like Sam and Max before it, shows that Telltale Games really knows how to craft excellent adventure gaming in afternoon-sized chunks.

Review Scoring Details Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free

Gameplay: 8.5
SBtF uses the same simple-to-understand interface as its predecessor, which is about as streamlined as adventure gaming interfaces get. The puzzles don’t provide a huge challenge, but they are clever enough that you still feel smart when you figure one out. Besides, like everything else in the game, the puzzles lead the way to more jokes, which is really what’s important.

Graphics: 7.6
The developers have definitely nailed the look and feel of the source material. Sure, that means that everything looks like a flash cartoon that was made by two people, but it looks like Homestar Runner, and what more could you ask for?

Sound: 8.4
The voice acting is still spot-on, which makes sense since all the voice actors from the site (both of them) do the voices. The music is amusing and light-hearted throughout, and as always, the music parodies here are brilliant (especially the tune from Strong Sad’s favorite depressing college-rock band, sloshy).

Difficulty: Easy
Even without the in-game hint system, the puzzles are pretty easy, although there are a couple of stumpers in the last few areas. Still, anybody could finish this one in a few hours.

Concept: 8.9
The plot of SBtF is more fitting to video game challenges than Homestar Ruiner was; everything flows more smoothly because of the way the story is constructed. The world and its characters are still perfect fodder for an adventure game.

Overall: 8.7
Homestar Ruiner showed promise; Strong Badia the Free delivers on that promise. With this episode, Strong Bad’s Cool Game 4 Attractive People has gone from niche product to required playing for any fan of adventure gaming.