The International House of Mojo

This episode, like all the other Strong Bad episodes, is slick and charming. The appeal of the web show has been translated perfectly into the game. The dialogue is humorous and tells you what you need to know. The plot is imaginative and the characters are all used to good effect. It's just hard for me to get interested or excited thinking about it. Maybe this is a problem with me: I've always liked Homestar Runner, but I've never loved it so much that I've wanted to watch the DVD or buy the t-shirt. That said, I think this episode, like the series as a whole, had the potential to get people interested in the games who weren't also madly in love with the web show.

I think the source of my lack of interest can be found in the plot. Unlike the last episode, the premise and story-line are genuinely engaging: Trogdor the dragon has escaped from the world of computer games, and it's up to Strong Bad to go through other games to find a way to kill him and end the menace. It's a pleasurable experience going through pixelated arcade games and talking to characters there. They're all very basic worlds, of course; if you go into Peasants Quest and talk to Rather Dashing then you know he's not going to have any deep psychology. If you go into Stinkoman then you know that you won't be able to explore the impressive looking cityscape in the background. You expect a lack of depth in these game worlds. The trouble is there is also a lack of depth in the main world of Strong Bad.

Things work pretty well in the web show, because it's mostly 5 minute long segments. It's easily accepted that you mainly only see Strong Bad's house and maybe a bit of the featureless grass outside. The appeal of Homestar Runner is in the characters and jokes, not the setting. I really think more is needed in an adventure game, however. I felt horrible claustrophobic walking around the void, moving from "The Stick" to "Bub's Concession Stand" to "The House." Who are these people? What is this place? What is this thing I'm playing? I'll tell you what: it's a computer game based on a web cartoon. And it never feels like anything more than that.

I'm not entirely alone in feeling like this – there are many people who like Telltale's games but just can't get interested in Strong Bad. Yes, the characters are interesting and compelling; yes, the writing is very fine and the graphics are admirable: but was is the point if you don't want to visit and explore the environment? A lot of Strong Bad just feels like one bloody thing after another. Go to the stick. Pick up some items. Plot development! Move to another location. Talk to some guy. And so and on and so on and so on.

That's not to say that the series, and this episode, is not enjoyable. It is. Moving into different video game worlds is an engaging experience because you get a completely new environment with each one. Going behind the scenes of a game where a fruit flavoured jelly substance has to pick up cherries on a skateboard is particularly arresting: talking to the man reveals many new and delightful perspectives on life. The end of the game is also good: a mock first-person RPG section, culminating in a change to Quake style graphics and more surprises besides.

The end of the plot isn't so great, however, when it is revealed that the whole aim of the game was mostly pointless. Strong Bad constantly undermines itself in every possible way, which sometimes, I think, goes too far. If the purpose of the game is to defeat Trogdor, and Trogdor always escapes, then what reason is there to play the game at all? Because it's entertaining and well crafted. I agree: it's a pleasant distraction. But if you want more than mere distraction from a game, I would go elsewhere. Like Monkey Island. Or Bone.

Gabez
5th April, 2009.