MINI-GAMED! Telltale does keep the gameplay slightly varied with a few instances of Wii remote controlled action and a simple little stealth section, but in general players will be solving logic puzzles that don’t really use any logic at all. There are a bunch of mini-games scattered around too, like the aforementioned Snake Boxer 5. That game is fun for about ten seconds and worth playing more for the comments Strong Bad makes than the game itself.

Players will also get the chance to make their own Teen Girl Squad comics. This game is based around using Strong Bad’s ideas on killing the girls in order to get the most gruesome deaths out of them.

Finally, there is a sparse dress-up game, where gamers can hop into Strong Bad’s trans-dimensional photo booth and put him in crazy outfits that they’ve discovered while playing the game. Once they’ve done this players can send photos of the gameplay to their friends over the Internet. I call this the obligatory “Wii has Internet” feature and it’s relatively pointless. Again, the best feature here is listening to everything Strong Bad says when you put him in different clothes. In case you’re wondering, I had Strong Bad run around in a moustache and woman’s wig for a good chunk of the game.

Amazing 2 gigahert graphics! I’m really impressed with this game graphically. The team at Telltale has really captured the style of the cartoon. Sometimes I wonder why they chose to go fully 3D when 2D would have sufficed and looked better in some instances, but overall the game is bright, vibrant and as good looking as the flash animations themselves. The bright colors and childlike atmosphere of Strong Bad’s world is captured perfectly and walking around Strongbadia for the first time, despite it’s small size, was a bit of a thrill for me (I got to meet tire!).

The game’s world is relatively small, though its length is perfectly acceptable for an episodic game, with only a few key locations like Strong Bad’s house, the King of Town’s castle, the competition track and, of course, the field where Bub’s Concession stand and the stick are located. You can easily hop anywhere via the map and there is no getting stuck in the same conversation over and over again since you can skip almost anything by pressing the B trigger. Telltale really knows how to put a game together that doesn’t annoy you with lots of needless running around and backtracking.

I noticed a few negligible graphic glitches when playing that sort of made me do a double take. Sometimes Strong Bad gets stuck running into corners or the screen flashes to the wrong place for a second when changing locations but they weren’t that annoying. The only thing that really stood out was that the game freezes at certain parts when you play it in widescreen. Really, it’s just a pain in the butt to save and reset my Wii, but a pain in the butt I was willing to deal with for the rest of the game. Hopefully, by chapter two Telltale has all the kinks worked out.

Honestly. You’re going to play this game because you want to laugh. There’s nothing new or revolutionary about it, but for ten bucks you’ll get more comedy out of this than Step Brothers or Pineapple Express, and you get to finally see how Homestar’s world is actually connected, which is not at all. Newcomers to the series shouldn’t be too afraid either. There are plenty of in jokes but the comedy is pretty much universal, though some people might not get it, and it seems to me like a great way to introduce someone who’s never heard of Homestar Runner or Strong Bad to their hilarious world. Players craving humor or point and click adventuring won’t be let down. Those craving depth and intellect, might want to look elsewhere.

+

• Funny
• Funny
• Classic adventure gaming
• Point and click controls are perfect for the Wii
• Funny
• Did I mention it was hilarious?

-

• Glitchy
• Simple gameplay might not turn everyone on
• Humor may go over (or under) some player’s heads