Review: Strong Bad Episode 3
Oct. 27
It's that time of the month again. Its time for another episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People (unattractive people need not apply). Episode 3, "Baddest of the Bands", does nothing to sully the fine reputation the series has built so far. In fact, Baddest deftly moves from the political satire of Episode 2 into the world of rock and roll culture, a place just waiting to be spoofed, which Strong Bad does marvelously in this latest offering.
In Episode 3 everything seems to be going just fine for Strong Bad until he experiences every gamers worst nightmare, his Fun Machine gaming console craps out on him right in the middle of playing Limozeen: Hot Babelian Odyssey (think Aerosmith's "Revolution X" but with chesty babes and fewer pixels). Desperate to fix his system Strong Bad heads over to Bubs but finds the price of repair, "a whole sackful of cash", to be a problem. In order to raise funds Strong Bad decides to throw a battle of the bands concert. To get groups to show up he has to acquire some C list celebrity judges and provide security. As usual, Strong Bad comes up with some creative and hilarious solutions to his problems. If you've ever wanted to see The Cheat on top of a flaming car and holding a sword while wearing a bikini, now's your chance...pervs.
As with its two previous iterations, episode three offers gamers plenty to do when not following the main storyline. Collecting Limozeen shot glasses, searching for band posters, giving Strong Sad a hard time about his dreams of being a snooty rock journalist, and listening to the random one-liners always offers a nice reprieve. The humor, funny even to gamers unfamiliar with the Homestar Runner website, contains fewer in-jokes and the gameplay, with its simple point and click style, assures that Strong Bad will always be easy to pick up and play.
But what continues to impress most about the series is how every episode seems so fresh. Even though the gameplay and the characters never change, the different topics for each episode are attacked with the same verocity and humor each time it never disappoints. The transition from the politics in episode 2 to the completely different slant of rock and roll in episode 3 never feels forced, out of place, or nonsensical. It just works because the writing is so damn good, and leads me to believe the creators of this series could cover any topic and still make a funny game.
The occasionally confusing story path issues continues to be an annoyance, but when it comes to episodic gaming, nobody does it better than Strong Bad.
Pros: Great humor, rock and roll slant offers plenty of fodder
Cons: Story path (again) not always clear, Why isn't this game available on XBLA and PSN again?
Sound: 4.5
The Info:
Controls: 4.5
Graphics: 4.0
Fun Factor: 4.75
Editor's Choice
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Comments
It ain't available there because the Brothers Chaps are Nintendo fans. Or maybe because this console works the best with POINT and click, or maybe it's because it would cost extra money to port it but wouldn't neccisarily generate enough sales o make it worth there while. Plus, that would delay episode release dates, which would suck!
Pardon me if I typed to fast and misspelled anything!
It would be interesting to see what or how a point and click would do on any next generation console.
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