Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner

Adventure games have a tendency to implement at least a handful of puzzle solutions that only make sense to the game designer. It's an unavoidable dilemma that his outside-the-box thinking isn't the same as yours. Modern adventure games sometimes tackle this with robust hint systems, but Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People takes another route -- using the narrative strength of protagonist Strong Bad, any absurdity can make sense in the right context. Frequently, a puzzle's solution is more evident by the available items, and the perceived result, than by the actual premise of the puzzle.

Which is not to say it wholly eschews hints, either. For example: one puzzle that gave me trouble required me to place a plunger on a wall-mounted drain, and after a few failures, Strong Bad made a clever remark about suffering "drain bamage." At any rate, I never had to check a walkthrough, and still didn't feel frustrated by the game, which is a major victory for an adventure game.

The downside to this sense-through-nonsense approach is that the larger plot isn't very cohesive. The overall "goal" of this episode was to beat up Homestar Runner, which didn't actually come into play until the final minute or so; and every time I stepped away from the game and came back, I completely forgot what I was supposed to do. The puzzle architecture ensured that I could get going again without any downtime, just by exploring what was open to me, but it didn't do much for my sense of motivation.

Homestar Ruiner looks good, sounds good, and is written very well: the Homestar/Strong Bad world is consistently hilarious, and doesn't feel at all diluted in game form. And I wouldn't say that the mini-games (like Snake Boxer or Teen Girl Squad) are a primary draw, but they are fun distractions to try once or twice.

As long as the other episodes can keep up this caliber of writing and design, Strong Bad's got a real winner on his hands.

Better than: Time Gentlemen, Please!
Not as good as: The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
I wonder if the other episodes will: carry over my info from this one, because I may have totally screwed up the game map

Progress: Complete