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Disclaimer: Actual face-exploding action not included. User may experience a harmless crisping of the face upon use.
If you're all right with that, welcome to the wonderfully humorous land of Strong Badia. With a new addition to the writing staff, and a plethora of logical, easily-solved puzzles, Telltale's second Strong Bad starts off right. The Hungry Hungry King of Town shows up in Strong Bad's hallowed Lappy room, and decides he'll punish him by demanding Creamy Dings. That's not all he does, and his actions start the very first puzzle, which effectively tours the player through Strong Bad's house.
That kind of introduction is much stronger than Episode 101's was, and the scenes surrounding its solutions do a far better job of showing the characters' personalities, too. The improved pacing keeps up as you quest to strengthen the land of Strong Badia, and it's accompanied by a supremely superior script. Instead of containing punchline-length chuckles here and there, it has sequences that are amusing from beginning to end, making it a lot funnier for new and old fans alike.
Strong Badia the Free is a great accomplishment and has renewed my hope for the series. Almost every locale you'll visit is interesting...
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There are a few hiccups in quality here and there, and it's inherited some issues from its predecessor, like Strong Bad being too dang big and the visible area being too darn tiny. This isn't an adventure game where the items you'll need are almost too small to be seen; there's no good reason for the player's visibility to be so awfully restricted. Remembering when I spoke with Telltale about Sam & Max at E for All 2007, they discussed some issues they were having with widescreen display, but that's since been alleviated. Further, S&M always segmented its largest areas; SBCGFAP doesn't. Why?
Regardless, Strong Badia the Free is a great accomplishment and has renewed my hope for the series. Almost every locale you'll visit is interesting, including a hilarious part involving "ancient artifacts" and an ordinarily incomprehensible character. Your entertaining journey is packed with puzzles that you'll figure out of you think for a "just right" amount of time, so anyone looking for hardcore brain teasers may be disappointed, but it's doubtful you'd expect that out of Strong Bad. It's not a ding against the series either, as its humor was always easily accessible on its homepage and should never be forbidding.
Perhaps the only other real downer is the ending. Opposite Homestar Ruiner, which started off sluggishly, Strong Badia the Free is a rip-roarin' ride until you've reached the final area. Then it transforms into a snooze fest, complete with a too bare-bones and sluggish "strategy game" that bugged out on me more than once. Though its mini-scenes with the combatants were fun, there's only one for each possible battle, so watching them repeat wasn't enjoyable. It's truly sad that the ending of such an otherwise classic episode is wholly anti-climactic, but it's worth experiencing nonetheless.
Whether you played Homestar Ruiner or not, Strong Badia the Free is an entertaining joyride, and it's much more accessible to "Homestar Runner" newbies. Considering its bargain price, I suggest it to anyone who enjoys a bit of silliness with their sarcastic humor, and it's even more important that HR fans try it out.
Do it for yourselves; do it for Strong Badia!
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