SBCGAP: Episode 1 Homestar Ruiner Review
First off, this game has a overly long name, so I’m just going to refer to it as Homestar Ruiner or “the game” from here on out. The game starts out with a typically cheesy sounding, but very funny song from the Homestar Runner universe revolving around Strong Bad telling players to stop trying to handle his style. That is unless they are an attractive girl of course, in which case they are “cordially invited to take a heaping dose of [his] style”. Then he proceeds to check his e-mails on his Lappy 486 (a totally out of date laptop computer he uses). An e-mail tells him to “beat the snot out of Homestar Runner”. Instead of doing that though, Strong Bad decides to try and sabotage Homestar’s chance at winning the Free Country USA(the location of the cartoons) Race to the End of the Race by normal point and click adventure mechanics such as puzzles and talking to various characters around the game world. The entire game fully employs the cartoon series’ off beat sense of humor and it is very obvious that the creators of the series were heavily involved in creating this game. While the story may not be incredibly deep or long (a few hours if you play at a normal pace) it captures the feeling of the cartoons perfectly. That isn’t to say that those not aquainted with the cartoons will be completely lost in this game. In fact, the humor works on pretty much anyone, although the average person will miss the numerous inside jokes. Homestar Runner fans will be perfectly at home with everything, considering that the entire story is essentially an extended Strong Bad e-mail. Either way, this game is perfect for getting some brilliant quotes, my personal favorite being spoken by Marzipan(a broom-looking character. Also the only female character.) to Strong Bad, explaining why he wasn’t invited to a party.
I don’t like the word hate, Strong Bad…So I’ll use the word chonk. I chonk you Strong Bad. I chonk you with the heat of 1000 exploding whales.
I just feel that it shows off the game’s humor and writing off perfectly.
In regards to gameplay, this is a typical point and click adventure game. It is very easy to draw similarities to the new Sam and Max games since both this Homestar Ruiner and all of the Sam and Max games run off essentially the same engine. You will explore the world of Free Country USA finding items to be used in puzzles and talking to people to find out what is going on in the story and what to do next. Unfortunately that means that there is some low-action times when you are running around an environment looking for someone or something. Fortunately you don’t have to do this too much since you can warp instantly to any landmark from anywhere in the game. Changing environments reveals one of Homestar Ruiner’s biggest flaws though. The load times take some time which is simply not acceptable in an adventure game like this. If the designers couldn’t get the load times fast enough they could have at least masked them behind a smooth camera move, ala Sam and Max. The puzzles in the game are just about right though. They require a bit of thinking, sometimes a bit out of the box, but nothing completely silly like some older adventure games. The beauty of it is that this game knows that it is a game, in that it breaks the fourth wall constantly, leading to many humorous moments. Outside of the main story, there are a few things to keep your attention, but they mostly consist of finding special items hidden around the world, most of which are not too hard to find. The highlights of these distractions are the two that are in Strong Bad’s room. The first is Snake Boxer 5, a game parodying a generic retro game that plays decently, but hits the parody perfectly. The other is the ability to create a Teen Girl Squad(Strong Bad’s comic involving the antics and innevitable deaths of four teen girls.) cartoon. The appeal in both games comes from their humor, as does most of the game.
Now on to the auditorial aspects of this game. The most important thing to know about this game’s audio is that there is full voice acting for all of the characters on all fo their lines, an impressive feat for a WiiWare game. The amount of dialogue is impressive as well ranging from story line talk to non-sequiters from Homsar and The Drive Thru Whale. Of course, there is repition of lines like “No, that won’t do anything” typical to adventure games. You will hear lines like that over and over as you try using different items in different places. The only real audio work outside of recorded lines is the music in the game. It is exactly like that found in the cartoons on the Homestar Runner site, which is to say that they have the sound of an 80’s Casio keyboard. It makes the music stand out against other games and it is very charming. Overall, the audio work is one of the game’s strongest points.
As you can tell from the screenshots in this review, the graphics in this game are not exactly high def worthy, but what they are is an almost perfect 3D recreation of the Flash cartoons. The characters, environments, and items all look like they were taken directly out of the cartoons and popped into 3D. The problem of course is that Flash can only look so good, so while this game looks just like it should, it doesn’t look quite as good as it could. Perhaps things like the limited number of animations was intentional as a translation of the Flash look, but I still would have been happier with some better animations and more to look at between the great looking landmark areas. I must commend the job done on the look of the Snake Boxer 5 and Teen Girl Squad mini-games as they looks their parts perfectly.
In the end, this is a game for two kinds of people. Fans of the Homestar Runner cartoons will absolutely adore this game for its sense of humor that it holds over perfectly from the cartoons. The other group of people that will like this are people that are fans of the Sam and Max games as this has most of the same mechanics as that series with its own humor-based story. This game is worth the money on both PC($9) and WiiWare($10), but if you really looking for a bargain pick up the season pack on PC($35 for 5 episodes). Hopefully future episodes keep the humor of this one, keeping with what the series does best. As for this episode, check it out if you fit into either of the above groups as I do. How for the quick summary for those of you only looking for a score.
Story - This game tells a typical adventure in the world of Free Country USA just as any of the cartoons would, keeping all of the humor and life in the characters. My only complaint was that it could have had better side quests. - 9/10
Gameplay - A point and click adventure. The puzzles are fun and the map transportation is good, but it really plays no differently than any other game from the genre. - 7/10
Audio - With full voice work and music that captures the series’ feel perfectly, the audio is to die for. Easily some of the funniest dialogue in a game as well. - 9.5/10
Graphics - Yes, it looks like a 3D version of the cartoons, but some areas are fairly sparse and there are very few animations. Hopefully they will tweak things just enough to make everything perfect for the next episode. - 7/10
Overall - It is perfect for fans of the series with it’s spot on humor (which, for them, is the off beat kind) and those looking for a fun adventure game. It’s well worth your $10 or so despite the normal issues of an episodic adventure game. Hopefully the next one will fix these gripes and keep the wonderful humor. - 8/10