Homestar Ruiner is the first in a series of five of Strong Bad’s Cool Games for Attractive People from Telltale Games. If you’re not familiar with Strong Bad (I wasn’t — I barely recognized the name), I suggest you get acquainted by visiting www.homestarrunner.com. Some of the jokes are even funnier if you understand the background, although most are funny anyway. Although the “star” of the Flash cartoons is supposed to be Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, the “bad guy,” has turned out to be the runaway favorite character of the series in spite of, or maybe because of, his bad attitude and rude behavior.
Strong Bad lives in his house with his brother, Strong Sad, the butt of numerous pranks and jokes; his other brother, Strong Mad, whose enormous size and strength are offset by his low intellect; and his much-abused pet of indeterminate species known only as The Cheat. Strong Bad’s hobbies, other than playing rude jokes and vandalizing property, include sarcastically and condescendingly answering e-mail on his ancient 486 laptop, drawing crude Teen Girl Squad comics, and playing 1980s videogames on his old consoles. Like his namesake, the original “Strong Bads” wrestling team from the 1983 arcade game Tag Team Wrestling, he wears a garish mask with matching boxing gloves.
Strong Bad’s acquaintances — he has no real friends — include Homestar Runner, a nerdy and gullible competitive runner; Marzipan, Homestar’s flighty vegan girlfriend; Coach Z, who coaches Homestar and other aspiring athletes; Pom Pom, Homestar’s rich and popular best friend who bubbles instead of speaks; Bubs, who runs the local concession stand that sells anything; the Poopsmith, who moves piles from place to place with his shovel; and the King of Town, who reminds me of a warped and somewhat Alzheimered version of the King of Make-Believe from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on PBS.
Strong Bad thinks of himself as the villainous mastermind of the group, but his crimes are petty. He makes fun of his little brother, tricks Homestar and Marzipan, kicks The Cheat, and takes advantage of Coach Z, Bubs and Pom Pom whenever he can. He isn’t afraid to burn things, cut things apart, throw things away and vandalize property — as long as it all belongs to someone else. He’ll even do nice things for others, but only as long as there is something in it for him. His arrogance extends to the ladies as well; no surprise then that he has no romantic interest!
Among the interesting and yes, even cool, features I liked in this game are the completely point-and-click interface, the customizable map, the snake-boxing minigame (an homage to Atari’s first boxing game), and the numerous trophies, Easter eggs, and hidden items to be collected. The humor is rude but not vulgar; more like The Simpsons than South Park, and the graphical quality is excellent. There were a few minor issues (for example, if you have music off, as I did, it’s hard to get the musical clues during the party at Strong Bad’s house) but no crashes or glitches. The menus and tutorials were clear, well-organized, and useful and segued nicely with the game.
The premise behind this installment in the series is that Homestar Runner is competing in the tri-annual “Race to the End of the Race,” and Strong Bad wants to make him look bad. To that end, I ran Strong Bad around collecting items and playing pranks on people until I had amassed a disguise for the race, eliminated my rivals through trickery, and even “fixed” the race. But wait, that’s not the end! After I finally won the race, I discovered that Homestar was living at my house since he was no longer good enough for anyone else! I had to backtrack through my misadventures to make Homestar the winner and reunite him with his snarky girlfriend. An interesting reversal that left me anticipating the next Cool Game for Attractive People.
Overall, I’d recommend this game for anyone except small children. Although gameplay is simple enough, some of the rudeness and pranks are inappropriate for them. The only real fault I found with this game is that you can easily play through it in three or four hours. It’s still a great deal, though, because you pay for one midpriced game ($35) and you get the full set of five games. The entire set also is available for the Wii through WiiWare.
