The Strong Bad reviews are in!
Posted by Emily August 14, 2008
In theater, there is a tradition of staying up all night after a premiere, anxiously awaiting the reviews that will hit in the next morning's paper. It would be romantic to say that's what happened with the Strong Bad reviews (and after all the sugar on Monday, we certainly had enough jittery energy to stay up all night!), but the internet is a living beast, and the reviews have been rolling in all week with no sign of stopping. And guess what? They're pretty damn good! (Not to mention that, as WiiWare-World announced yesterday, Homestar Ruiner is currently the #1 game on WiiWare...)

Here is some of the awesome praise we've been seeing for Homestar Ruiner, the premiere episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People:

N-Europe, 9/10
SBCG4AP is virtual proof that the point-and-click adventure game is alive and well, and still extremely fun and rewarding to play. This is one of the funniest and best Wii games released to date, period. And the best? There's still four more installments to come starting with Strong Badia the Free next month. Bring. It. On.

Wired Game|Life Blog, 8/10
I had a great time just walking around and clicking on things just to see what happened, as exploration is always rewarded with, at least, a witty remark from Strong Bad. The 3-D graphics replicate the 2-D Flash animation surprisingly well -- it's as if you're playing an episode of the show. Even being familiar with Telltale's work, I was genuinely surprised at just how much content is packed into this first episode.

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Dave Grossman speaks to the French (in English)
Posted by emily July 1, 2008
Our heroic design director Dave Grossman recently did an interview with French gaming site JeuxVideo.com. The interview has been translated into French for their readers, but they gave us permission to toss the English version up on our blog for the rest of you. So here you go!


JeuxVideo: Games like Sam & Max or Runaway prove that adventure games with a touch of humour a la LucasArts can still be major sellers, appealing to both core and casual gamers. So, how do you feel now towards Lucas still saying that the adventure genre is dead?

Dave Grossman: Perhaps "dead" is a more relative and subjective kind of term than we thought? It has long been my opinion that any lack of success adventure games have had as a genre stems mostly from there not being enough good ones, rather than from any inherent limitation of the form. That is, I blame the designers, not the tastes of the audience. Furthermore, I think that adventures' tools for the melding of story with game design are the kind of thing that will prove interesting to a more casual crowd.

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Tagged Deep Thoughts, Press, Sam & Max, Strong Bad Digg this entry Send this to a friend 17 Comments
Top-secret SBCG4AP news!
Posted by emily June 5, 2008
Okay okay, not so top-secret, because we just spilled some of it on On the Spot, but news all the same.

First things first, now that the calendar has turned to June, we know you're eager to find out when you get to play Homestar Ruiner, the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. To that we say... in July. We're taking a little extra time to make the game as awesome as humanly possible. (We know you wouldn't want it any other way!) Homestar Ruiner is in the early stages of Nintendo's submission process and it's going well, and based on what we showed on GameSpot's broadcast, we hope you'll agree that it's looking great. The work we're doing now is the polish that's going to put it over the top.

Above: Polishing the game.

Now for some good news: We're officially announcing that the Wii and PC versions of the game will launch simultaneously! This means that Wii owners and PC owners will be able to get their mitts on Homestar Ruiner at the very same time (Wii owners through WiiWare, and PC owners through Telltale's store). We know there are a lot more details surrounding the release that you're dying to hear, (like the actual release date and pricing, maybe), and I promise we'll let you know about that stuff as soon as we can.

On the gameplay front, we're finally ready to share some nuggets about what exactly you'll be doing in this cool game of ours Strong Bad's. In addition to the stuff you've grown to expect from a story-driven, point and click game (talking to people, looking at stuff, using inventory items, etc.), SBCG4AP has a lot of side activities that will keep you plenty busy. There are hidden items that give you access to, for example, a special Snake Boxer cheat code or trophies from Coach Z. Some of these are easy to find, while others are pretty devious. (Even after playing the game twice, I've still only found about half of them...)

SBCG4AP also has achievements that you can complete to boost your awesomeness ranking. There are costume items sprinkled around and a photo booth where you can flex and strut your stuff. And in the WiiWare version, you'll be able to email your Wii friends and send picture attachments using the Lappy. All of this is in addition to the main story thread, which in the case of Homestar Ruiner involves destroying Homestar's life and then gathering up the pieces of his shattered psyche and putting them back together.

So, never fear, gentle citizens, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People is shaping up to be one hell of a good time. We'll have a new gameplay video and screenshots for you next week. Until then, make sure to check out On the Spot for today's interview, and don't forget about Strong Bad's dev blog and our Make a Mii, Win a Game contest!

In other tangentially-related news, we recorded commentary for the Sam & Max Season Two bonus DVD yesterday. Since production of SBCG4AP and the mystery franchise are in full swing, watching the cutscenes from Season Two and reminiscing about the games was a nice break for the team. Of course, you can't listen to and fully enjoy said commentary until you've played the games -- and they are excellent games -- so why not check them out while you're waiting for Strong Bad's Cool Game? Remember, downloadable games provide instant gratification!

PS: We really do know who Stinkoman is. Honest!
Tagged Game Media, Press, Strong Bad, WiiWare Digg this entry Send this to a friend 63 Comments
SBCG4AP on GameSpot's live broadcast!
Posted by emily June 4, 2008
Just a heads-up, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People producer Brett Tosti and I are going to be on GameSpot's On the Spot broadcast on Thursday, talking about (and showing off!) some stuff from the game that none of you know about yet. Definitely watch it!

The show is at 4:00 Pacific time, and they'll probably post a video of it on their site afterwards for those who don't catch it live.
Tagged Press, Strong Bad, WiiWare Digg this entry Send this to a friend 17 Comments
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