Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free
Score: 90% ESRB: Not Rated Publisher: Telltale Games Developer: Telltale Games Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free (whew, that name is so long we actually had to lengthen the database field to fit it), brings us back to the world of armless idiots and boxing-glove clad typists. This time, Strong Bad leads a revolt against King of Town, but more on that later. Much like the first game, Strong Badia the Free looks like the Flash cartoon these games are based on. After hearing the developers at TellTale Games discuss their efforts in doing this at PAX this year, I hadn't realized quite the effort it was to translate the same art styles used in the 2D images into 3D. That being said, it all looks great and translates superbly into a 3D world. Everything from PomPom's spherical shape, to Homestar's lack of arms and the shine in Strong Bad's glove will be enough to pull in any of the cartoon's fans. Audio is at the same high quality. Not only are the voices the same as the cartoons, but the writing and dialogue also feel like they belong in one of Strong Bad's e-mail episodes. Background music and sound effects also come through loud and clear. Whether it is the rave-music coming from Strong Bad's office, or PomPom's bubbling voice, much like the visuals, the game's audio won't leave fans wanting.
Gameplay: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free starts off with Strong Bad being put under house arrest because he has neglected to pay his e-mail taxes. But when the awesome-one does find his way past the invisible fence that makes your head explode, he declares Strong Badia a free nation and secedes from the rule of King of Town (declaring war against Of Town in the process). Following his example, the other main characters decide to create their own nations. Between The Bleak House (Strong Sad's manor), The Homsar Reservation, PomPomerania, Country (ruled over and named by Strong Mad) and Marzistar (or Homsipan depending on who you ask), the land is in shambles. In order to remove the King of Town from his throne, Strong Bad decides to go to each land and convince them to join Strong Badia. He will have to use trickery, a physical display of might or even enter into a state that actually lets him understand what Homsar says, but one by one, Strong Badia will grow and become even more of a threat to the King's castle. Like the previous game, Strong Bad has a couple of side quests that include making an awesome Teen Girl Squad comic (though this time it is on the side of a cave, so it's actually Cave Girl Squad), and collecting pages to Strong Bad's new game (a Double Dragon style game, but with math).
Difficulty: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free will take only a handful of hours to run through, and can probably be finished over a lazy Sunday afternoon. From the game's early puzzles involving getting out from under house arrest, to rallying the various independent nations surrounding Of Town to discovering and correcting the King of Town's dastardly plot, most of the game moves pretty quickly and the puzzles are pretty much straightforward enough. If you ever find yourself stuck, going back to the classic "talk to everyone and click on everything" method typically uncovers something you didn't realize before.
Game Mechanics: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free follows your standard point-and-click adventure game model all the way. Controlling Strong Bad is as easy as clicking where you want him to go, while using objects involves opening your inventory and selecting what you want to use. One of the few differences between Strong Badia the Free and Homestar Ruiner is the map. Where SBCG4AP 1's map was a piece of paper that let you decide where you wanted other locations to appear with some simple coloring, this time Strong Bad picks up an old Might and Minions board and declares each territory on the map to be a different country. You still travel between the different areas by clicking on the location of choice; you just don't get to say exactly where that is this time. It goes without saying that fans of the cartoon and first episode will enjoy this follow-up game. I'm not sure that the game will appeal all that well to newcomers to the license though, since there are a lot of inside jokes and references that only fans (even casual ones) will get. But then again, this might be just the hook necessary to get new viewers going through the Strong Bad e-mail backlogs.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Minimum System Requirements: Windows XP / Vista, 1.5GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM (512MB recommended), 32MB 3D-accelerated video card (64MB recommended) Video Card, DirectX 9   Test System: Alienware Aurora m9700 Laptop, Windows XP Professional, AMD Turion 64 Mobile 2.41 GHz, 2 GB Ram, Dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS 256MB Video Cards, DirectX 9.0c
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