After spending hundreds of hours on open world RPGs, then their addons, and enjoying them, I wanted to play something very different: something light-hearted (and maybe a little shorter). You know, how games are supposed to be. I sorted through the hundreds of games that I have, mostly acquired through Humble Bundle, and quickly decided the next game(s) to play.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is an episodic series of point and click adventures. This is one of Telltale Game's first series, from back when Gabe Newell said that episodic gaming was going to take everyone to the promised land. The entire thing is based off the Homestar Runner webcomics.

These games hit on all the tropes and character qualities as much as possible. Every game has minigames consisting of parody Atari 2600-era games. Homestar is dimwitted, Strong Bad is the rock and roll prankster, Strong Sad is a nerdy coward, and Marzipan is a hippie. You can't quite understand Strong Mad, and the Cheat and Pompom are unintelligible. I guess I forgot how much the King of Town wants to eat, and it ends up being a mechanic in several situations.

Homestar Ruiner is the first episode. It turns out that no one informed Strong Bad of the Annual Race to the End of the Race today. Unable to sign up as himself, Strong Bad needs to replace an existing competitor, with disasterous consequences (to Homestar). Afterwards, Homestar is found in three places around the House of Strong, and you need to get him out, one by one. That superposition situation sorta reminded me of the tricks that Stanley went through.

Strong Badia the Free is the second episode. The King of Town wants a piece of that sweet email action, so he imposes a tax on emails sent and recieved. Before long, the entire world is composed of independent micronations. Strong Bad unites them in rebellion against the King of Town, who quickly surrendered. Having the tables turned, Strong Bad must deal with things from the other point of view.

Baddest of the Bands is the "rock and roll star" episode. Having the need for some money, Strong Bad organizes a band competition. Strong Bad must go around and solve a band's problem, clear another's schedule, and coerce another into a reunion. There are celebrity judges, who show up as cardboard cutouts on a remote teleconference robot.

Dangeresque 3 is an episode that takes place inside a movie. It's not that well made, as you can easily see through the cracks, but I guess that's expected when teenagers are making a movie. Senor Card Gauge makes his only appearance in this game. I kinda like the guy, but not as much as Strong Bad; I think that one of my friends think I speak like Mr. Gauge.

8-bit Is Enough is the episode where reality meets videogames. In the entire series up until now, there's been a broken arcade cabinent in the Strong brother's basement. In a rare direct continuity, after his fans hate his movie, Strong Bad is thrown off the couch and hits the cabinent, casuing it to morph. Trying to fix the problem only makes things much worse, as the videogame tropes collide with reality. Ye see ye flask on yon shelf, and of course, you can't get ye flask.

Unfortunately, after a run back in the good old days, the comics started to dry up after this, as the twilight era of dial-up faded away. I didn't consider myself a fan of them (though I was aware and even watched a few), unlike my friend who backed up his My Documents folder improperly. At the end of each of these game episodes, there were previews for the next one, except for the last. I don't know if there were ever plans to release a second season of these.