In the wonderfully dysfunctional land of Free Country, USA lives a shirtless man with a luchador mask for a face and boxing gloves for hands. He enjoys checking e-mail on his 42 pound laptop, drawing comics featuring the funny deaths of vapid teenage girls, and pranking the townspeople. He’s a man with style, wit, and an affinity for Peter Frampton. His name is Strong Bad, and because you’re an attractive person, you are now able to participate in his legendary shenanigans.

The Homestar Ruiner is the first episode of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. The game is based on the long-running Flash animation series Strong Bad Email on the Homestar Runner website. A new episode will be released each month (for a total of five episodes). PC gamers have the opportunity to purchase all five at once for $34.95, or one at a time for $8.95. The game is produced by Telltale games, best known for its critically acclaimed Sam & Max series. Like Sam & Max, The Homestar Ruiner is a point-and-click adventure game.

Strong Bad is prompted by an email to once and for all “beat the snot out of” long-time thorn in his side, Homestar Runner. He changes his plans when he hears about the Free Country USA Triannual Race to the End of the Race (FCUTRER), and instead schemes to sabotage the simple-minded athlete in the race. Naturally things don’t quite go as planned, and hilarity ensues.

Strong Bad fans will love this game. It looks and feels like you’re inside a long Strong Bad Email episode. All the main characters are in it, including Marzipan, The Cheat, Bubs, and the King of Town. Free Country, USA is represented accurately, with locations like Strong Bad’s house, Strong Badia, The Stick, The Whale, and Marzipan’s house. However, in a sly twist to maps used in video games, you can decide where to mark such locations on your map.

The biggest selling point is that it retains the bizarrely awesome humor found in the animated series. There are Easter Eggs aplenty, references to certain events in the cartoons, and Strong Bad’s witty, sarcastic comments never get old. For example, if you click on Strong Bad’s 7-track player in his bedroom he quips, “Ah, the short-lived 7-track. Your lack of a play button was your undoing.”

There are fun mini-games that break the point-and-click monotony. My favorite is based on Strong Bad’s “Teen Girl Squad” comics, in which the objective is to kill all four girls before the end of the comic by dragging random items to each girl. Another game is Strong Bad’s beloved Snake Boxer 5, homage to classic Atari games and as the title suggests, you fight a snake. That wears boxing gloves. Both games trigger small quests – collect pages of a “Teen Girl Squad” comic and pages of the Snake Boxer 5 manual to unlock something cool in each game.