The International House of Mojo

I'm going to be honest here: before Telltale announced that they were making Strong Bad games, I hadn't really been a big fan of Homestar Runner. I remember going there from the Worth Visiting column off Grumpy Gamer, and leaving ten minutes later with the feelin that I'd just seen Wonderland as created a bunch of tripped-out stoner animators with the world's most offbeat sense of humour.

But I am a big fan of Telltale, their choice of IP regardless, and as a rule I always buy anything they make. So imagine my surprise when I not only loved the games, but in fact actually understood the appeal of Homestar Runner – so much that I went back to the website and saw every last toon, Strong Bad email, and short on it.

That is to say, in other words, that if Episode Two of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People accomplishes anything, it's that it manages to suck you into the world of Homestar Runner, and get you hooked.

The game starts off brilliantly. The first cutscene manages to immediately set the mood, begin the storyline and give you a puzzle to solve. What's basically happening is that the King of Town has placed an "email tax", which Strong Bad doesn't pay. The King thus places him under house arrest, which in turn causes the rest of the citizens to unite against him. You can guess what happens next (the clue's in the title), but this being Strong Bad not everything will go according to plan – and that's when the game really kicks off, becoming one of the best things Telltale's ever done.

Strong Badia the Free is bigger than Homestar Ruiner, with more puzzles to solve, more things to do. Apart from introducing the (somewhat annoying) blob of agony that is Strong Sad into the game series (this episode actually features all of the characters), it also has a lot more locations, a bigger number of puzzles, and a bunch of mini-games to play with while you try to figure out said larger number of puzzles – including one game from Videlectrix that (wait for this) makes math fun again.

This episode was directed by Chuck "Curse of Monkey Island" Jordan, and written by Jordan and the Chapman Brothers. But you don't need to look at the credits to know that: the game certainly feels that way. It has some of the best writing in a video game ever – one scene involving Homestar arguing with himself is an instant classic. There's also some pretty cool revelations to long-time Homestar fans . Example: why Homsar – an in-joke character on the website, born from a typo - talks the way he does.

That having been said, there is a thing or two I don't like about this game. One of the earliest puzzle solutions makes little sense (I'll just say this: burning one object causes another two next to it to explode, which is logical – but not the way it's done in the game). At one point you're going to have to start traipsing with a metal detector to look for objects to solve puzzles, although it wouldn't be fair if I didn't point-out that said objects aren't too hard to find.

How does it compare to Homestar Ruiner? Well, Strong Badia the Free is more focused, and a bit more polished – or it was for me, anyways. I couldn't help but get the feeling that there would be many fans who would prefer the more non-linear bonkers structure of the first one.

Either way, it's a lot of fun (a word that most games seem to have forgotten lately), and is very, very funny: I am literally talking about tears of laughter rolling down my face. And it's incredibly satisfying. I couldn't help but watch the end credits with a large grin on my face.

Kroms
5th February, 2009.