Legacy Review: Strong Bad
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Season 1 (Chapters 1 – 5)
Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure
Platform: PC (Windows 10 - Steam)
Developer: Telltale
Publisher: Telltale
Playtime: 20 hours total (Ep1 : 3 hours, Ep2 : 4 hours, Ep 3 : 4 hours, Ep4 : 5 hours, Ep5: 4 hours)
Date Completed: 24/5/2018
Reviewed: 2018
Grade: S+
If you would like a quick summary of each episode, read this
section. If not, skip it.
In Episode 1 (Homestar Ruiner), you will be acquainted to
all the fun and wacky characters you will come to interact with throughout the
five chapters of the game. The induction into the game world is well done and
the playful dialog from the main character gets the game feeling engaging right
off the bat, allowing you to quickly get familiarized with the world and
characters.
In Episode 1 (Homestar Ruiner), the main goal at the start is to play a
prank on Homestar, though that ends up having unforeseen circumstances.
Homestar ends up holed up in Strong Bad’s house and you will then have to kick
his sorry hide out the door.
In Episode 2 (Strong Badia the Free), Strong Bad decides to
form a country, and everyone else follows suit. Invasion becomes the name of
the game, though the main goal ends up being to take down the tyrant king
In Episode 3 (Baddest of the Bands) Strong Bad’s favorite
band is coming to town and he needs money to attend their concert or something.
So he organizes his own Battle of the bands and must try to cheat his way to
victory
In Episode 4 (Dangeresque 3), Strong Bad tries to act in his
own movie and the silly props used will definitely give you ample laughter along
the way
In Episode 5 (8 Bit is Enough), Strong Bad’s video game
machine goes horribly awry, releasing some kind of freak monster into the
world. Now he has to travel to pixelated game worlds to try and fix his machine
and get rid of said monster
Personally, I liked Episode 2 and 5 the most, as their
contexts appealed to me more. Episode 4 and 3 had more difficult puzzles
overall and of course Episode 1 was mainly to serve as an introduction to the
series and was more casual in nature. I had ample fun playing through all 5
episodes.
Getting right into the main components of the game, I will
start out by discussing the game world and characters before moving onto the
story and finally the gameplay itself.
It will not take you very long upon starting up this game to
realize just how fun and quirky it truly is. The gameworld that you will end up
exploring for the entirety of the 5 episodes is rightfully designed with
cartoony graphics and bright colors and even makes use of a toon shader to
complete the desired look and feel. You
will always feel comfortable and happy playing in this world. There is even a
solid variety of locations you can visit throughout the game. Some of these
locations are used in all the 5 episodes, but each episode has a set of unique
locations to offer. You will also find that some of the same locations get a
make over between episodes, either to match the context of the story or to show
the remnants of the previous episode’s escapades. Overall, a nice touch that
makes the world feel alive.
The same can be said about the characters as well. They are
like those people who are simply impossible to hate no matter what nonsense
they ever do. You will find the banter and dialog between the characters
amusing, at times showing their closeness with one another, and at other times
just plain whacking the stuffing out of your funny bone. Most of the funny
banter also comes straight out of Strong Bad himself and that’s good as he is
the character you will see the most of in this game. I think its really great
for a game to just put that smile on your face and inject much needed laughter
into your life and that’s precisely what this game’s characters will excel at
doing. The only possible complaint may be that the characters are going to be the
same in all the episodes. However, the characters gel with each other so well
that you would struggle to call this even a tiny flaw. Plus, you will find that
the characters actually role play a fair amount, so you do end up seeing them
in a different light in each episode, which more than makes up for using the
same cast throughout.
Even the story in episode tends to be on the silly side. If
you read through the descriptions of the episodes, you can see for yourself the
crazy situations the characters get themselves into. From directing a poorly
made movie to waging a war on a fatty king to even delving into the pixelated
game worlds of a retro gaming machine, the stories make that effort to keep you
entertained and engaged. Obviously, the stories are nothing deep, but given the
setting of the game, would that really even be better for it? Probably
not. What matters is that they change up
significantly from episode to episode and are fun to sit through, which is
indeed the case.
As for the gameplay, its really hard to ever discuss that in
depth for a point-and-click game because it is going to follow a standard
formula each time. However, we can see just how well the game does follow that
formula, as this level of competence is usually what differs between point and
click games in addition to adeptness at storytelling.
Are the goals of the puzzles made clear? Yes, to some
extent. You will always know what is the main goal that you are working
towards, as there will be aspects of the game world which will indicate that.
Sometimes you may forget sub tasks that you have to complete, but talking to
characters again will serve to refresh your memory. Having a task sheet would
help, as it would with any point-and-click game, but is not a necessity to
have.
Do you have many tasks to work on at once? Yes. The main
task in every section of the game is usually broken up into smaller tasks that
you can work on simultaneously. For example, in the bands episode, you have a
number of things to acquire to organize the contest and each of those things is
a separate task. When you have to cheat to win the contest, you can target the
3 bands in any order you choose. When you get stuck on one, you can work on
another one instead until you get a better idea of how to proceed.
Are the puzzles logical? For the most part, you could say
so. Thinking of the solutions was easy enough once I had the required items in
hand or identified what the required items were. The items you use may not
always be natural, so some amount of brainwork on your end is required every
now and then.
Are the puzzles overly difficult? In some of the episodes,
namely 3 and 4, yes there were parts which were difficult to figure out. Other
than that, the puzzles are mostly solvable with a bit of thinking.
Are the puzzles repetitive? No. Given how unique each of the
stories are, you can expect the puzzles you solve to always feel different as
well.
Are the puzzles fun to solve? Absolutely. You typically rely
on brainwork to solve puzzles rather than random clicking and can feel
satisfied when you make progress towards completing the game. I think quite a
few of the puzzles, especially in chapter 5 (though that may be because it’s
the freshest in my mind) are also interestingly designed and will peak your
curiosity. Overall, you will have fun solving them, especially when you
consider the fun dialog you get along the way and the variety of puzzles
included in the game.
Is there tedium? Not much. There is a map that you can use
to quickly hop to any previously visited locations. There are minigames to play
to pass the time. There are a surprising number of collectibles to discover in
each episode. The character is able to sprint. There is the right amount of
random clickable spots in the game which all offer interesting dialog from
Strong Bad. The only problem is when you forget what to do, you have to go and
talk to everyone and exhaust all the dialog options again. But thankfully, the
dialog options do not branch out much and are not numerous.
I think overall, with the exception of some hiccups here and
there, the puzzles are generally well designed with fun in mind. The
interactivity factor is also high which helps to keep players engaged so
getting stuck on a puzzle never really incites frustration, and you can often get
a lead on how to solve it just by talking to characters.
Overall, I have zero complaints about this game, really. I
think it deserves that S rank. Any game that puts a smile on your face and
manages to be fun, enjoyable and engaging at the same time deserves nothing
less.
(+) Cartoony and well designed game worlds
(+) Fun and lovable characters
(+) Same cast is reused throughout but they play different roles in each episode and besides, they go well with each other.
(+) Fun and largely well designed puzzles
(+) Good variety in the game worlds, story and puzzles. Each
episode feels unique
(+) A surplus of collectibles and even a minigame in each
episode
(+) Humorous dialog
(+) Good level of interactivity
(+) Light hearted, fun and goofy stories
(-) Some puzzles were a bit complex
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