In 2006, Telltale Games came up with a formula for creating episodic adventure game series. The first element of this formula involved finding an entertainment property with enough of a fanbase to provide an instant market for their game, but not enough of one to kill their budget with licensing fees. Telltale would then depend on the creator of the franchise to provide the setting, personality, and a fair amount of the game's content, while their people put their efforts into wrapping that content around an adventure game, and making changes mid-series based on user feedback. The first product of this formula was the first season of Sam & Max, based on the comic series by Steve Purcell. The first season was successful enough to warrant a second season, and the second season was successful enough not only to warrant a third, but to apply that formula to two more "niche" franchises. While we won't see how well the formula works with Nick Park's Wallace and Gromit for a few months, the first fruits of their collaboration with Matt and Mike Chapman of the Homestar Runner flash animation website has been released in the form of Homestar Ruiner, the premiere episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

When the Brothers Chaps began their website, they named it after their main character, the Homestar Runner, a terrific athlete who runs fast and thinks slow. At the time, he was the dim-witted "good guy" protagonist of their short cartoons, fighting against the comically nefarious deeds of Strong Bad, a self-centered luchadore with boxing gloves. However, in August of 2001, Strong Bad was given his own segment on the site, where he answers an e-mail sent in to him by the site's viewers. While these sessions were initially short and plain, they quickly became the driving force of the site. Strong Bad's answers would spawn mini-adventures, create new characters such as Trogdor and Stinkoman, spin-off entire new segments such as Teen Girl Squad and Sweet Cuppin' Cakes, and eventually last longer than the full-length cartoons on the site. While their core personalities never changed, it seemed as if Strong Bad had gone from the "bad guy" antagonist to the "bad guy" protagonist, with Homestar Runner his dim-witted nemesis.

It was this development that ensured that a game based on the Homestar Runner franchise would, in fact, feature Strong Bad as the title character, and the only playable character. Indeed, the game begins with an e-mail to Strong Bad, and the plot reads like a typical synopsis of a Strong Bad E-mail episode - Strong Bad must prevent Homestar from achieving fame and glory in the Free Country USA Triannual Race to the End of the Race and ruin his life in the process, and in doing so, face unintended consequences. Although the game features the entire stable of main characters, it does not feature any of Strong Bad's alter egos, such as Strong Badman or Senor Cardgage. A number of notable locations from the site are included in the game, such as the King of Town's castle, Coach Z's locker room, Bubs' Concession Stand, and the Stick. During the course of the game, Strong Bad will check his e-mail a number of times, and each one plays like an episode from the webseries.

Unlike with the Sam & Max series, Telltale Games didn't have to think about finding voices to match the characters. Matt Chapman, along with being one of the two principal writers for the series, provides the voice for all of the main characters on the site except Marzipan, whose voice is provided by Mike Chapman's wife, Missy. It is therefore no surprise that everything in the game sounds exactly like it would on the website. How it looks, however, is another matter, as the flash animations on the site are two-dimensional, and the game is rendered with the Telltale Tool in three dimensions. While Telltale is no stranger to bringing franchises into the third dimension - both Sam & Max and their predecessor Bone are based off of comics - the universe of Homestar Runner doesn't make the transition as gracefully as previous franchises have. While the game is by no means ugly, there are times when the characters just look odd, especially when viewed from anything but a full profile. These moments are rather uncommon, however, and for the most part, the visual style works well with the gameplay.

Aside from what can only be described as "minigames", only one of which is essential to the main plotline, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People does nothing to change up the system of point-and-click adventure games. However, that can hardly be unexpected or counted as a complaint, as the developers at Telltale know exactly what it is they do best, and they do it very well. The puzzles in Homestar Ruiner seem to be rather easier than the ones in Sam & Max, each seldom requiring more than a moment of focused thought, and none of them especially likely to require a walkthrough. The logic of the puzzles is sound within the context of the game's universe, and the game doesn't suffer from the need to pixel hunt or talk to every character about every object in your inventory to proceed. Ignoring all of the side missions, the game represents no more than two hours of gameplay, which can be extended by a series of side activities and quests. Unfortunately, most of these extraneous activities are not especially compelling, such as "Snake Boxer 5", a faux 8-bit videogame that is very faithful to the tediousness of that era. Another activity, based around the Teen Girl Squad spin-off of Strong Bad E-mails, is worth a playthrough or two, but perhaps not enough trial-and-error to achieve the best score possible.

Ultimately, just as in the other similar games from Telltale, the strength of the game relies on the strength of the material. Telltale developed a reputation for handling Sam & Max very faithfully, and their treatment of the universe of Homestar Runner is no different. Mike and Matt's handiwork is all over this game, and at times it feels like a couple of their cartoons interspersed with short segments from the site all run together. How much that idea appeals to you is the key element to how much you will enjoy this game. Aside from slight issues making the transition to three dimensions, the world of Free Country USA is much the same here as it is on the internet, and the quality of the gameplay makes this an easy recommendation for any fan of the Homestar Runner series, and worth at least a try for all adventure game fans.

Gamers familiar with Konami's Bemani series of games knows that there's so much more beyond Dance Dance Revolution. The company has produced a number of addictive rhythm games, some having players dancing to a manic beat, others by having them hammer on plastic instruments. The most popular of the latter variety is Guitar Freaks, which has a player wear a guitar strapped to his or her torso, pressing three buttons on the neck one hand while hammering on a paddle where the other hand would be wailing on the strings of a real guitar. Sadly, with the success that Dance Dance Revolution has seen on consoles in North America, none of the other Bemani games, Guitar Freaks most bemoanedly so, have made the trans-Pacific journey.

Guitar Freaks freaks, sate your hunger.

Enter Guitar Hero, the next in a line of rhythm games from developer Harmonix Music - the company that brought you Frequency and Amplitude - and publisher RedOctane, who stepped into the rhythm-stepping genre with In The Groove earlier this year. The basic game mechanics are the same - press fret buttons on the neck of the 'guitar' and strum a paddle on the body to correspond with visual cues on the screen. Use the whammy bar to modulate long notes, and tilt the guitar upright for a bonus effect. OK, nothing new here.

Except that little things mean a lot. First of all, the game ramps up both the difficulty and the authenticity of the guitar-playing mechanic by having five buttons on the neck instead of three. With three buttons, playing Guitar Freaks felt as much like playing a real guitar as... well, as playing Dance Dance Revolution feels like real dancing (go to your local nightclub, head out to the dance floor, and do the steps for Butterfly - see how long it takes you to get thrown out). By adding the fourth and fifth buttons, making players move their hands and use their pinkies (at higher difficulty levels) to play all the notes, Guitar Hero takes a step away from 'playing a rhythm game' and towards 'playing a musical instrument'.

Secondly, the presentation of Guitar Freaks is exactly like that of Dance Dance Revolution - you pick a song from a long list of songs, and go to town. In Guitar Hero, though, you're given a way to measure your progress - you name your band, choose your axe-wielding avatar, and start playing in someone's basement. Further success leads to a nightclub, a tour, and ultimately... "The Garden". On your way, you'll be given a select list of songs to play... in the basement, you'll only have access to a short repertoire of the easiest songs in the game (thankfully, "Smoke On The Water" is on that list... you'll want to scratch that itch right away). As you progress, you'll be given harder and more complex riffs to play. In this way, the game eases you through its learning curve - you'll be surprised how quick you become confident with that pinky.

Thirdly, Guitar Hero's atmosphere just speaks to rockers. From the antics on stage (playing the guitar behind the head, setting fire to the guitar at the end of a set) to the secondary parts of the game (guitarist advice during the loading screens, amps that go to 11, high-score lists on bathroom walls), everything about the feel of this game fits perfectly. If the developers of this game don't just love hard rock, they fake it very well, and talked to a lot of people who do.

It stands to mention that the main list of 30 tracks the game advertises are covers, but extraordinarily well done ones. With a few exceptions (go ahead, just try to sing like Freddy Mercury... convincingly), all of the primary songs are played and sung nearly identically to how they were made famous. In addition, the game also includes 18 unlockable songs by lesser-known artists, as well as a host of other unlockables, like a number of Gibson guitars, skins, and playable characters, including "Grim Ripper". Yeah. That's right. Nothing beats playing "Symphony of Destruction" as Death himself, thrashing on his scythe-guitar.

All of this material will be highly appreciated by true fans of hard rock music, if not by others. If none of the above sounds appealing to you, then this game just isn't for you. Sure, the idea of a guitar-based rhythm game might be fun, but a $70 price point should quell any thoughts of it being a worthwhile buy. But if you know that you should never give a drummer a microphone, if you know why you should never eat anything thrown onstage, if you know a crowd is just heckling you if they're yelling for you to play "Freebird", and, especially, if you know that 11 IS louder than 10... this game is priceless.

Last year, Guitar Hero took the standard idea of performing actions (pressing buttons, strumming a paddle) in time to music, and wrapped its own very distinctive style and charm around it. In much the same way, Elite Beat Agents will have you tapping, dragging, and spinning surrounded by a manic flair all its own, all wrapped up in a funny and pleasing package.

The mechanics really couldn't be simpler. The game only asks you to do three things - tap an indicated area of the screen on an indicated beat of a song, drag the stylus from one indicated area to another in an indicated rhythm, or draw circles on the screen as fast as you can. That said, you will be asked to do these things quickly and precisely, so levels can very anywhere between incredibly hard and frustratingly difficult, most often falling in the area of "OK, I'll really get it this time..."

The style is a bit bizarre, but always entertaining and fast-paced, which suits the substance of the game perfectly. The songs are obviously covers, which dampens the enjoyability if you happen to be familiar with the songs (although familiarity with the music makes the game considerably easier). The game also will not have the lasting appeal of an RPG or strategy game it will take forever to complete - the songs are limited, and once you have them down, there's little replay value. Still, there are few games for the DS that are as start-to-finish entertaining as Elite Beat Agents. Agents are GO!

When the NFL sold their soul, I mean, exclusivity rights, to EA Sports, what was a competitive genre for games became a struggle to find a niche outside of the NFL (for everyone whose name isn't Madden, that is). Midway found success early on with Blitz: The League, although comparing EA's franchise to B:tL is like comparing apples to steroid-pumping, foul-mouthed oranges with severe anger issues.

It took them a while longer, but 2K Sports and Visual Concepts believe that they have found their niche, by offering Madden-esque gameplay, but instead using names you know from the history of the NFL (unlike Midway's LT and Romo, most of the roster of stars 2K has assembled are widely respectable, OJ Simpson comments aside) since they can't use the names you know from today's game. Also gone are the numerical stats, replaced with gold, silver, and bronze stars, and 'attributes' like Pocket Presence and Brick Wall. This is very effective for the game, since it avoids questions of who is the better quarterback, Dan Marino or John Elway, but details what each quarterback excelled at - Dan's Quick Release and John's Cadence, for example.

The gameplay experience begins by prompting you to create your first team - not only what players you will have in what positions, but your team name, city, stadium, and entire look, which can be incredibly satisfying. Your team's strength is preset - two gold players, three silver, and six bronze. This is a key point to part of the game's real value, which I'll address shortly.

After you create your team, you are automatically dropped into a 'quick match' setup screen, which may prompt you to wonder if you accidentally bypassed the menu screen. No, in fact, there is no menu screen, a menu overlay can be brought up using the right thumbstick. I found this to be a clumsy and unintuitive mechanic, and far inferior to the traditional interface.

So now, you think, it's time to start up the single-player mode. This may or may not be true. If you haven't played 2K5 since... well, 2K5, then you'll need to go through a quick match or two to figure out the game - there are no tutorials on game mechanics. If you are an Xbox 360 Achievement... enthusiast, you'll need to play through the season mode... several times... to get all the achievements available, and for that I pity you. And since it's a pretty fair description of myself, there's some feeling sorry for myself that goes along with it. If neither of these two descriptions fit you, don't bother with the single-player mode. It may as well not exist. There is no incentive, no impetus to progress through the season, no sense of drama or progression other than playing through a string of games. Also, your opponents may have as many as six (SIX!) gold star players, or as few as none. This lends itself to the game feeling horribly unbalanced at times. This mode is not fun, and it seems as if the developers just skimmed over it, as if it wasn't important.

The multiplayer mode... ohhhh, the multiplayer mode. Games can be set up as single games, tournaments, or even entire leagues. You are playing only with other people's created teams - which means two gold stars, three silver, six bronze for EVERYBODY. No one team is really stronger than any other, there is only well-built and less so. Finding games, tournaments, and leagues is easy and intuitive. Clearly, the bulk, if not the entirety, of your experience with this game should be spent online.

As for presentation, the sounds of the game are wonderful, and the majority of player animations are attractive and realistic, although the player models are thin and lanky (typical for 2K football) and voiced not-so-well. The arenas are animated beautifully, and the commentators are colorful, perhaps even too much so, and in the case of reporting injuries, inaccurate.

If you are looking for a single-player football experience, this game is not even to be considered, there's simply not enough value here. However, this is, quite likely, the most detailed, strategic, and faithful online multiplayer football experience that has ever come out for any system. If you enjoy multiplayer football, or never played it but want to give it a shot, this game comes highly recommended. With any luck, All-Pro Football 2K9 will be the total package.

Although they haven't been around as long, or received as much press and attention, as Su Doku puzzles, nonograms are still nothing new, and not without a following. The original Picross (short for Picture Crosswords) games were produced by Nintendo for the Game Boy and Super Famicom in the mid-90s, only one of which was released in the United States. However, the puzzles are not unknown to Americans, as they have been published in many puzzle collections, such as Conceptis Tech's website as Fill-A-Pix, and in GAMES Magazine as Paint By Numbers.

The puzzle involves filling certain squares in a blank grid to form a picture - you are to deduce which squares to fill using the series of numbers above and to the left of the grid. Although there are multi-color (harder) puzzles available on the market, this game concerns itself only with single-color puzzles. The grid range in size from the ridiculously easy 5x5 grids to the 25x20 grids which pose a considerable challenge, especially with the limited viewing space of the DS.

The interface is mostly graceful, and for smaller puzzles (5x5 and 10x10) the intended input method - the stylus - is adequate and intuitive. However, when the puzzle requires zooming in to solve, although creative accommodations were made for stylus-users, I found the D-pad and buttons to be the preferred solving method. Also, while the creators could have stuck with black squares in a black-and-white grid, they decided to add some character - one level is themed with fruit and vegetable pictures, they are solved on a grid colored like an apple skin, and selected squares are 'peeled', complete with visual and sound effect. In the same manner, animal-themed puzzles have grids made out of a field of grass. This extra bit of charm is entirely effective, though it can be turned off. The potential for content for this game is vast, and some of it is already realized on the cartridge itself - there are enough puzzles here to keep you satisfied for days. Should you ever run dry, however, you can receive puzzles created by a friend over a wireless link (as well as create your own and send them in the same manner, of course) or download new puzzles over Nintendo Wi-Fi.

Nonograms are a puzzle type that I have always greatly enjoyed, and I was eager to see if this game would be a proper method of experiencing their challenge. I can already see that many a plane ride and waiting room visit will be made considerably more tolerable, thanks to those tiny little squares and numbers.

Say what you like about Grand Theft Auto, the game that spawned the open-world genre of video games. Whatever your opinion of it, it did a lot of things interesting enough to spawn plenty of games that imitate the formula.

Crackdown is one of those games, putting you in the character of a bio-enhanced Agent of (wait for it...) the Agency, the umbrella security/military/police force in the world of Pacific City. The Agency has got its hands full with the three gangs that are running rampant in the city, each controlling their own area. Your mission is to take out the Kingpin of each gang, which will cripple them to the point of making it easy to eliminate them. Each Kingpin has Generals that enhance the gang in some way - providing weapons, enhanced vehicles, physical training, and others. Take out the Generals, and the gang becomes easier to deal with - which is important, because the tougher the gang, the less likely you'll even get to look at the Kingpin, much less make the kill.

Your character has five core skills - brawling, shooting, driving, jumping, and blowing stuff up - that can be enhanced. Punching a gang member to death will enhance your brawling skill. Running him over with a car will enhance your driving skill. Since you can't exactly 'jump' an enemy to death, there are 500 'agility orbs' that are hidden around the city (mostly on the rooftops) that will enhance your jumping ability that way. Also hidden in the game are 300 'hidden orbs' that enhance all of your skills.

Aside from killing bad guys, you can also participate in 'rooftop races' which have you jumping from beacon to beacon, trying to get under a set time (rewarded with agility points) and 'road races' which have you driving the game's vehicles from beacon to beacon, trying to get under a set time (rewarded with driving points). Sadly, these added elements of gameplay are not stellar, and are rather clumsy (especially the driving races, which will invariably cause you to run over civilians, which hamper your skill progression).

The combat in the game can be pretty satisfying, however - wandering through a forest, approaching an enemy stronghold, looking for baddies to snipe off before they see you - the process is rather easy and uncomplicated, which is good for this genre of game - Counter-Strike, this isn't.

In the final analysis, the game comes off a bit bland. The story is... well, it isn't, and some of the modes added for variety are clumsy and a bit frustrating. The core of the game is good, though there isn't a lot of it, so while the game is ultimately easy to enjoy, it's also ultimately easy to forget.

Steve Purcell's Sam & Max: Freelance Police franchise has taken many forms: first as an independent comic series, then as a LucasArts adventure game, and then as a Saturday morning cartoon show. When LucasArts announced the cancellation of the second Sam & Max adventure game in 2003, the myriad fans of the series despaired, fearing we had seen the last of Sam & Max.

Enter Telltale Games with a new creative team, a new format (episodic content), and new depth for the series... literally, since this new game was to be in 3-D. As a fan of the original game (Sam & Max Hit the Road), my expectations for the game were high, perhaps higher than was reasonable - however, I also expected somewhat to be disappointed.

I expected the game to be funny, first and foremost, with not only the zany, implausible logic puzzles comic adventure games of the genre are prone to (see: Monkey Island), but verbal humor ranging from the base and tawdry to the pseudophilosophical and witty. I expected the puzzles to be challenging, but the logic to be coherent. I expected that, at least, the characters of Sam and Max would be interesting.

I got way more than I ever could have hoped for.

If your favorite character from Friends was Chandler, or your favorite Python was Eric Idle, this game has got a vault filled to bursting's worth of humor for you. The dialogue is always interesting, and you'll never want to just look for the most efficient way through a conversation - the game makes you want to explore every single conversation option, every single time. Not only are Sam and Max interesting, but the recurring characters are funny and have a certain amount of depth... you won't grow tired of seeing them.

Many adventure games can absolutely fall apart because of their puzzles, either by making them too easy or too hard. If you are bound and determined to finish the game without a walkthrough, expect to have about one point of frustration per episode (Out of the six episodes, I completed one without help), but even in these instances, the logic is sound and coherent, and you don't feel cheated when you figure out the solution.

If there is one complaint about this game, it is that it is too short. Each episode provides about 1.5-2.5 hours of gameplay, and this series cries out for a complete 20 hour experience. The silver lining around this cloud is that Season 2 is ready to begin this fall - still, had there been more content, this game would easily have earned a perfect score in my book. This genre is not for everyone, and hasn't seen a worthy comic entry since 2000, maybe even 1997, but this game is easily the most recommendable game the series has ever seen.