With Braid and PixelJunk Eden showing us the soft, artistic side of downloadable titles, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is that weight on the other side of the scale. It's as straightforward as can be, but just as rewarding as its contemporaries. While titles such as Rez and Flow bend genres into the most akward of shapes, SBCG4AP is a warts and all point-and-click adventure. Tell Tale Games used its experience from the Sam & Max series to craft an akward adventure, one in which anyone can enjoy, fan of its source material or not. I'm not a Homestar Runner fan. I believe I watched a clip or two back in grade 9, but I haven't followed the adventures of Strong Bad and his chemically imbalanced family. Contrary to what I've seen and heard, you don't need to be a fan of the website to have a laugh or to enjoy the experience.
As much as people claim the Metal Gear Solid series is an interactive film, SBCG4AP comes much closer. You simply move the on-screen reticule around and click on things. Lots and lots of things. The only times when you won't be thumbing the A button is when you've accidentally dropped the remote, or gone out to buy a fresh set of batteries for your dead controller. But even this core element of the game is not without it's faults. Moving Strong Bad around can be difficult sometimes, as the camera is brought in really close to the character. You'll click on the right side of the background so as to move Strong Bad to the right, and instead he'll walk right out of the room. It takes some getting used to, but holding down the A button and keeping the reticule close to Strong Bad works best.
Clicking things is how you progress the story. If you click on scenery, you'll earn items or a spoken description. If you click people, you'll start up a dialogue with the individual. When you've grilled them long enough, your next objective becomes pretty clear. You can horse around with them a bit, of course, and it comes highly recommended. Taking the evil approach is hilarious, but the “angel” approach dishes out responses that are possibly more offensive. One problem present throughout the game is how often you'll accidentally sit through old conversations. When you talk to someone, you initiate conversations by clicking on various icons. You can generally click them two to three times, which will always result in a new conversation. But, there's nothing to signify that you've already heard this bit, so you'll end up skipping your way through. It grows annoying, and should be addressed in later episodes.
No don't think you can sit on your couch and basically click your way through the game. It's not that easy. When it comes to this genre, you really have to be in a different state of mind. People don't just believe you when you tell them they smell. They need tangible proof of this fact, or no progress for you. So you scour your inventory for that perfect item. And that's where the fun comes in. Instead of logical puzzles, those in SBCG4AP are perhaps as illogical as they come. But therein lies the fun. It's fun to coerce someone out of an item instead of simply having it handed over. You really feel a sense of ownership of your possessions, and they aren't to be used in just any situation. You bust them out at the appropriate times, and only then. Best part is, those appropriate times require experimentation. Some will find this frustrating, but you feel very rewarded when you do figure it out. You always need to play in a different frame of mind. Towards the end of the game, you will be stumped. There's some pretty ridiculous puzzles, but when you figure them out, you'll have an appreciation of this ludicrous science. Every puzzle rewards you, and even when you've finished the game, there's still so much to do. The game's extended play mode allows you to go back and track down plenty of fun, superfluous items. Unlike most games, I was encouraged to attain these because of how much fun it was to interact with the world.
While it doesn't achieve the results of a game like Psychonauts, I haven't laughed as much at a game since. Being a fan of the website is hardly a necessity, I find that the game just brandishes a particular type of humour. While I'm well aware that I'm missing out on some of the more obscure jokes, there's more than enough there to keep me laughing. It's like watching a Quentin Tarantino movie, there's references aplenty, but the core film is still the bee's knees.
Overall, it's a great little game. If you tend to complain about this $10 games that provide a few hours of enjoyment, then SBCG4AP will add more flame to your forum war fire. For the surprising amount of content, I can easily say this deserves a lot of praise. SBCG4AP injects new life into a vanishing genre, and if the quality continues in future episodes, Tell Tale Games just may resurrect it.
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