 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Telltale Games |
| Publisher: | Telltale Games | |
| Genre: | Adventure | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | N/A |
In the brief history of episodic gaming, it has generally taken several episodes for a series to find its “voice” and hit its stride. That’s been true as far back as at least 2001’s Majestic (one of the most addictive and underrated gaming experiences ever), it’s been true for the first two seasons of Telltale Games’ Sam & Max revival, and it is here as well. While it’s hard to say for sure without having the perspective of playing the full season, Episode 3 seems to be the sweet spot in Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People where everything has finally come together. As a result, Baddest of the Bands is the best episode yet.
After Strong Bad’s Fun Machine breaks while playing side-scrolling shooter Limozeen Hot Babelian Odyssey (with the on-screen graphics breaking up old-school dirty cartridge style) , he soon discovers that he’ll need to come up with actual money to get Bubs to fix it. Thus Strong Bad and Bubs set out to organize a Battle of the Bands, with the registration proceeds collected from bands made up of series regulars to be used to fix Strong Bad’s Fun Machine.
The Chapman Bros. have long displayed a fondness for 80’s metal in cartoons found on homestarrunner.com and in this series (like the metal detector that plays a rock tune when it finds something and the Rank Up graphic featuring dual guitars), with band Limozeen being the most recognizable recurring joke as a stereotypical long-haired metal band with interchangeable members and over-the-top screechy voices. That seasoned sense of humor shines through in this game, making the jokes and antics the best they’ve been in this young series’ lifespan. Some examples of the humor found here include outrageous cliché-filled album art, floating 8-bit Limozeen heads advising Strong Bad on what to do next, a finale that mocks the best (or worst) metal has to offer, and Marzipan’s activist brand of soft rock intent on saving albino bats.
Even though the series appears to be hitting its stride from a narrative standpoint, Telltale is still tinkering with the mechanics a bit. After Telltale removed the Strong Bad dialogue indicating that an area had no more hidden treasures to be found via metal detector (and I liked that change), Telltale changed things again in this game and put it back in for this episode. To be honest it’s really not a big deal in the scheme of things (and does cut out some pointless hunting and pecking), just a small personal nitpick of mine. I noticed a couple other minor changes as well, such as a notification when a new email arrives in Strong Bad’s inbox that I hadn’t seen before. I don’t mind the tweaks on the whole, and it shows that Telltale is listening to player feedback.
Baddest of the Bands doesn’t introduce a lot of new areas to the series, although there is extra access to a few areas already introduced in the series. I won’t ruin what those areas are (and they aren’t particularly special anyway), but we’re still a step closer to seeing all of Free Country, USA. Unlike Sam & Max, which took increasingly bizarre episodes and weaved them into over-arching storylines in each of its first two seasons, there doesn’t seem to be an over-arching storyline at this point tying together the first three episodes of SBCGFAP. It’s still possible of course, but at this point it would seem to be a huge stretch to try to tie the first three episodes together into a coherent overarching story (especially since The King of Town and Strong Bad aren’t exactly enemies in this episode).
Bottom Line:
I can’t imagine any fan of the adventure genre or Homestar Runner franchise not enjoying this episode on some level. Baddest of the Bands features a great sense of humor, a few worthwhile puzzles, and even a fun shooter. The fact that there probably isn’t an overarching storyline makes this a great place to start for gamers that are new to the series as well.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 9.2 |
Posted: 2008-10-27 18:43:40 PST