The folks at Telltale Games have released the second episode of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive people, entitled, Strong Badia the Free.  While the humor is there and the puzzles are sometimes cunning, this time around, the game just seems to be shorter and ending in a slow crawl of a climax.

The episode starts with Strong Bad doing his normal routine, answering emails in the snarky way that only Strong Bad can do, when he receives an email from the King of the Town.  Seems the King has decided to levy an email tax on all past, present and future emails.  When Strong Bad is put on house arrest for refusing to pay the tax, he decides to secede from the King’s land and fight to overthrow the now entitled “of the Town”.

As with the previous episode, the game’s strength lies not necessarily in its puzzles, but its great sense of using the comic strip’s humor.  At every turn in the game, you always find a reference of joke that will make fans of the series chuckle a little more than those that are just finding humor in the game itself.  For the true fans of the comic, you will find the staple “Teen Girl Squad” and some other unique items.

Being an adventure game, you are always looking at the strength of the puzzles, and this time around, it does seem like the puzzles are a bit easier at times, but actually the puzzles seem to ramp up in difficulty from section to section of the game.  A good example is the first puzzle of the game where you have to find items in the house to make an effigy of the King of the Town.  Finding the items is pretty straight forward, compared to later when some puzzles will have you scratching your head for a solution.  The game does offer a slider for hints, so you never feel stuck, and is a feature that is appreciated for those that are new to adventure games.

The visual style of the comic series is present, and is a virtual likeness of the web comic, from using lots of vibrant colors, and simple cut out styled characters, to a minimalist background that again, keeps with the style of the web comic.  Voice overs are perfect as well, with the two voices of the website, again performing all the character voices.  Having the actual voices just adds to the immersion factor of the game.

Telltale has continued to show a knack for bringing a licensed work to life with excruciating detail and Strong Badia the Free captures the Homestarrunner experience completely.  From the vibrant colors of the scenery to the character art, everything is presented in exact detail down to the stitches in Strong Bad’s mask.  Sound is also as top notch as the graphical work, with the two people behind the voices on the web comic, recording all the dialog in Strong Badia the Free.

Lots of extras can be found that enhance the game and give players lots of things to do in the game.  From finding costumes, to playing video games, you can sometimes get lost in doing the extra items.  One of the cooler things is the photo studio which allows you to create a scene and then take a picture that you can email to your friends (from outside the game, more on this in a moment).  The outfits are found around the area, and if you have the first game on the PC, it remembers the items you found in that one and merges them with the items in this game.  These kinds of extras add to a game that is very linear in nature, extending the value of the title to some degree.

The game does come on the PC and can be found in the WiiShop, but there are a few differences.  While this game was reviewed on the PC, Telltale did send over a few points that show off the differences.  Pictures you take on the Wii can be sent to friends via email; while they can only be saved to a hard drive on a PC (at that point you can email them via your email client).  All items in the photo booth from the first episode show up in the second episode’s photo booth, while the PC version uses the previous save game data.  Lastly, Math Kickers, a game for Strong Bad’s video game console, is controlled by holding the Wiimote sideways, while the keyboard controls are used on the PC.

While there is much to like here, there is two flaws with the game that really hold it back from being a great episode.  First off is an end sequence that just seems rushed, almost as if the developers just did not know how to end the game.  It is not a horrible ending, but you just have this feeling that there should have been more to the ending, especially after the way the first game kept delivering all the way to the end of the game.  Coming hand in hand, the second issue is just general length of Strong Badia the Free, which seems to be very light.  I finished the game in about two hours, and that was with me stumbling on a puzzle for about 20 minutes.  There is a lot more to do in the game, but if you are coming just for the adventure game, and do not appreciate the Homestarrunner universe, you might feel shortchanged by the length of the game.

Strong Badia the Free continues the interactive Homestarrunner experience, and gives the player a lot to do in the world, but a rushed ending and short main story leave some unfulfilled.  Fans of the comic however, will find a lot more to do with the extras in the game, adding to the value.  Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode II: Strong Badia the Free gets awesome padded Fists of Fury, or in the real world, three Aeropausonauts out of five.