Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands
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 3: Baddest of the Bands once again returns to the Homestar Runner world, and this time a grave crisis causes Strong Bad to put on a massive concert. Once again, the visual style of the game looks and feels just like the Flash cartoons, which any fan of the Homestar web series should be happy to hear since it is that unique look that really makes the characters and world appealing, if nothing else than because of just how off everything is. Voicework and dialogue is again spot on, which should be expected since creators Mike and Matt Chapman not only do the character voices for the game like in the show, but they also have a heavy hand in making sure the characters say appropriate lines and that the interaction is just like watching a Homestar cartoon.
Gameplay: In Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands, Strong Bad goes to sit down at his Fun Machine to play his new Limozene game, but it seems his particular brand of cleaning has left the machine all but completely ruined, and the only person in town licensed to fix such an old gaming system is Bubbs... so you know it's going to cost a pretty sack-o-cash. So how does Strong Bad raise the money he needs to get his 8-bit system fixed? He holds a massive battle of the bands concert of course, and thanks to Bubb's experience organizing and creating such festivities, all Strong Bad will need to do is find someone to work security and some celebrity judges who are just washed-up enough to agree to the event. Thankfully, there is a competition for a chance to win a day with Limozene, now you just have to get a photo of a hot new album cover design. Needless to say, since both fans of the games and series will expect this, the story will go off in quite a few odd directions like convincing The Cheat to wield a sword in a bikini on top of the car (which is surprisingly easy to do, come to think about it). But all of it leads to some funny, and very Homestar Runner, moments.
Difficulty: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands had a few parts that actually had me stuck for a while. There wasn't ever a point where I didn't know what I needed to do next (which is bad), just not quite sure what item I needed to use to accomplish my goal. Inevitably, the answer was always something I didn't think to pick up. But at least the game doesn't suffer from any pixel-hunting issues that would cause what difficulty there is in this adventure to be even more trouble. All-in-all, Baddest of the Bands can be finished in a few hours of solid gameplay (much like the past two episodes), but those looking to find all of the costume parts to use in the photo booth might have to spend a bit more time searching the world with Strong Bad's metal detector.
Game Mechanics: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands doesn't have any real issues in the controls department, though there were a few locations where Strong Bad didn't respond in exactly the way I was expecting. While in The House of Strong, I found Strong Bad would almost always start heading into Strong Sad's room on the top floor even if I was trying to go to the office - he would just start running off to the left. Meanwhile, while walking steadily through the living room, when I got near the chair, Strong Bad would start walking in circles. I would have to let go of the mouse button and start him going again in both cases. While this isn't really a huge thing and can be easily forgiven, I thought it was odd since I didn't see any of these issues while playing the previous two titles. Besides those slight input issues mentioned above, Baddest of the Bands is a great little adventure episode to add to your Strong Bad collection. It goes without saying that fans of the cartoon will be drawn to this game, but fans of adventure titles should find its straightforward nature easy to handle as well (provided you enjoy random and surreal humor, that is).
-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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