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Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective
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Graphics & Sound:
Well, Strong Bad finally did it. After all that talk, he's finally made the next installment in his super-action dirty cop series, Dangeresque. And that's what Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective is all about.
As always, Telltale games does a great job of bringing the most unusual world of Homestar Runner to life in a 3D manner, that still has the look and feel of the Flash cartoon series. Put simply, everyone and everything just looks appropriate. Like the past games, the whole cast seems to look just like their 2D counterparts, which I can only imagine is a challenge considering the creators of the cartoon simulate a 3D look in their 2D world, so TellTale has to create characters and lighting in their 3D world that creates the same style that comes from simulating 3D in 2D.
Anyway, the visuals of SBCG4AP are easily matched by the audio. The over-the-top music (which is, of course, necessary for a Dangeresque movie), works great and all of the voice acting is once again done by the Chapman brothers, so it sounds really authentic. |
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Gameplay:
Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective starts off with Strong Bad grabbing the tape to his new movie and running off to the world premier (in his basement). There, the select few patrons get their first viewing of the action flick. Unlike other SBCG4AP episodes, this one doesn't have you running around trying to solve some problem posed by an e-mail. Instead, when the movie starts, we go into it and play through the movie's events as Strong Bad, Homestar, Coach Z, Marzipan and the rest to make the film. It's only a slight difference, but an enjoyable one.
So what is the plot of The Criminal Projective? Well, Cutesy Buttons (played by Marzipan) comes in asking for Dangeresque (Strong Bad) and his partners, Renaldo (Coach Z), who is only two weeks from retirement, and Dangeresque Too (Homestar), to help her find a secret formula that will save the rain forest. Of course, the purpose of the formula wasn't how Strong Bad scripted it, but Marzipan decided to do a bit of re-writing on the spot. From there, the plot becomes a rollercoaster involving a Western Lowland Grisly Sharkasaurusbot, the obligatory fetch quest to remake the formula and a Vegas mobster played by King of Town. The movie also picks on action films by globe-hopping, going into space, having a helicopter chase and an apparent duplicate Dangeresque Too. But then again, who would suspect anything less from a Dangeresque film, right?
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Difficulty:
Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective is about on par with the past three episodes. I found myself a little stumped a few times, but only because of some minor leaps of logic. This is was especially true when Experimento (the scientist played by PomPom) gave me a list of things to find and one of them was Marzipan's hair. Finding it wasn't an issue, it was convincing her to let me cut it. There is, of course, an extra step involved that took me a bit of time to figure out.
Outside of that, the game flows really well and I never really felt like I didn't know what to do next, which is essential in any game, much less point-and-click adventures.
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Game Mechanics:
Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective runs pretty smooth, and the standard point-and-click controls apply here, so it's easy to pick up and play. Now getting a grasp on the sometimes random solutions to the puzzles is another thing. Then again, the solutions make perfect sense to those who already understand and follow Strong Bad's ways. For instance - a stop sign on a fence should seem perfectly harmless, but in the world of Homestar Runner... and particularly Dangeresque, it really needs to be shot (with a Nunchuck Gun, naturally).
Since these puzzles and a lot of the comedy fits really well into the very strange Homestar Runner world, it's hard to imagine non fans enjoying it a whole lot. On the other hand, SBCG4AP Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective really does a great job for its target audience (those existing Homestar and Strong Bad fans). So if you fall into that category, then download this game. If you haven't played the others in the series, then at least check out their demos.
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-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 |
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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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