Destructoid review: Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands

7:14 PM on 10.28.2008   |   Jonathan Holmes

21 comments

With this, Strong Bad's third episode in a planned five-part series, the honeymoon period is officially over. Any of the initial thrill that longtime fans of Strong Bad may have gotten from seeing their favorite Web cartoon character make the jump to a leading role in a videogame has likely come to an end. Now the series really needs to step up it up in order to maintain the interest of both people like myself (who could have cared less about the character before these games hit), and Anthony Burch (who was very familiar with the mountains of completely free Strong Bad comedy already around before these games came into existence).

So how does this episode fare? Hit the jump for the full review, courtesy of Anthony and myself.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, Episode Three: Baddest of the Bands (PC/WiiWare)
Developed by Videlectrix and Telltale Games
Published by Telltale Games
Released on October 27, 2008 (US)

Jonathan Holmes:

If you've been keeping track, so far Anthony and I have had consistently contradicting tastes for the SBCG4AP (the official abbreviation for the series' full title, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People) episodes released thus far. I found SBCG4AP Ep1 to be much funnier and more charming than I expected, whereas Anthony found the game to be too weak in the puzzle and comedy departments to fully endorse it. With SBCG4AP Ep2, I felt some disappointment with the game's characters and their sudden transformation from relatable goofs into parodies of world leaders, while Anthony found the change of pace to be refreshing and fun.

SBCG4AP Ep3 is a return to the style of the first episode, as all the characters in the game play "themselves". It was a relief for me to see that no one was pretending to be an army general or a world leader this time, as I was just starting to get to know these characters as SBCG4AP Ep1 ended. This time, the premise is focused on Strong Bad's burning need to get his videogame console fixed (something many Xbox 360 owners can relate to), and the lengths he'll go to in order to make it happen. As fate would have it, the only palatable way for S.B. to raise the money is to organize, produce, and eventually star in a battle of the bands concert. These narrative proceedings are far from original, but they provide a certain comfortable predictability that works well with the series' signature weirdness.

I'm going to just cut to the chase and tell you that this is my favorite episode in the series so far, despite it being the least good game out of the three. SBCG4AP Ep3 doesn't have the best puzzles (they are generally easier than those in the past two episodes), and it doesn't have that much in the way of new environments, so objectively speaking, one could say it's the least well made.

So why is it my favorite? It's the writing, the acting, and the story. Unlike prior episodes, SBCG4AP Ep3 features a scenario that anyone who's ever been in a suburban amateur rock band could relate with. As ex-lead singer of Jonny Holmes and the Friggin' Speedbumps, I know a thing or two about the subject, an I can tell you that in SBCG4AP Ep3, the bands' names, their attitudes of self-importance, and the way they sound are all spot-on in their recreation of the teenage garage band experience. It may be a cheap cliché, but the "story of a rock band" premise still works to show us who these characters are, and to make us like them. In prior episodes, I saw most of the characters other than Strong Bad, Homestar, and Marzipan as nothing more than set pieces at best, and cheap filler at worst. If Bubs' and Coach Z's rap group "Two-o-Duo" got its own spin-off game, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I can honestly say that by the end of SBCG4AP Ep3, I found myself liking every single character in the story (except maybe Pom Pom, who still doesn't talk.)

Speaking of the end of SBCG4AP Ep3, I have go give props to this episode for doing more than those that came before it to motivate me towards completion. One of SBCG4AP's signature traits is its "game within a game" Videlectrix series, but in SBCG4AP Ep3, you can't play the new Videlectrix game until you've beaten the main game. Although I found it initially disappointing that I couldn't play Limozeen: Hot Babelian Odyssey on the Fun Machine from the start, being deprived of the experience gave me motivation to get through the whole game, and it was well worth it. As someone who is both old enough to remember playing Journey: Escape on the Atari 2600 and a fan of super-hard SHMUPs, Limozeen: Hot Babelian Odyssey was a perfect fit to my tastes. It simultaneously mocks the kind of crappy games I used to love (at age 5) and provides a new Defender-esque shooter for me to enjoy all at the same time.

I imagine that even after this series is finished, SBCG4AP Ep3 will always be my favorite of the bunch. I was actually relieved that the game was easier than the rest, as it caused the experience to move forward more quickly, leaving less wait time between new plot developments. Chalk it up to me being a sucker for rock and roll stories, but I can actually imagine myself playing through this episode again soon, just for the laughs. Another selling point for SBCG4AP Ep3 is that it's  the only videogame, or narrative vessel or any kind, that I've ever known to contain both a reference to Yngwie Malmsteen and Wesley Willis lyrics. If that's not worth ten bucks, I don't know what is.

Rock over London, rock on Chicago, and buy SBCG4AP Ep3.

Score: 9.0

Anthony Burch:

If there's one consistent thing about our reviews of the Strong Bad episodes, it's that Jon's and my opinions will always be opposite. Baddest of the Bands is no different.

Jon found episode 3's puzzles to be too easy; I found them to simultaneously provide, for the first time ever, a clear-but-general "this is what I need to do" vibe (which episode one lacked) and a complex, interesting, "but how do I do it?" conundrum (which was far too simple and straightforward in episode two). Though the puzzle solutions occasionally get a bit too obscure -- a necessary item appears in Strong Bad's house at the start of the game's final act, without any explanation or player notification -- I found myself more pleasantly befuddled than I had been with either of the two previous episodes.

That said, however, I found episode 3 to be the weakest of the series, both narratively and humor...ly. Apart from one or two shining beacons of comic hilarity, most of Baddest of the Bands' jokes sadly fall flat. The battle of the bands scenario does indeed give the characters the chance to mainly "be themselves," as Jon mentioned, but this is something of a problem when (A) the interesting characters have very little to do and (B) Coach Z and Bubs, the dullest characters in Free Country USA, get the most screen time. After the absurd, warmongering brilliance of Strong Badia the Free, the plot and humor on display in Baddest of the Bands disappointed the hell out of me. I didn't laugh out loud once, save for literally the last line of the entire episode, which actually made me squeal out loud in delight (I won't say too much, except to suggest that if you're a fan of the series, do not watch the preview of the next episode from the main menu until you've already finished the game).

All in all, Baddest of the Bands is a mixed bag: the puzzles are pretty good, but I found the humor to be dull and uninteresting. The Videlectrix game would have been decent if available from the begining of the episode à la Snake Boxer or Math Blasters, but ends up being a disappointing pseudo-reward when placed at the very end of the game. If you're a fan of Homestar Runner but haven't bought the full season yet, you may be better off waiting for next month's episode.

Score: 5.0

Final Score: 7.0 (7s are solid games that definitely have an audience. Might lack replay value, could be too short or there are some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.)