After winning a race, staging a revolution, orchestrating a rock music contest, and directing an action-detective film, Strong Bad faces his greatest challenge in the final episode of the series, 8-Bit is Enough. In this episode, all hell breaks loose as developer Telltale pulls out all the stops and ends the popular series on a high note.

When Strong Bad further damages the already broken Trogdor! arcade game, it somehow comes to life as the infamous dragon. Complete with wings and a beefy arm, the Trogdor machine starts to burninate everything in Free Country. However, the unlucky luchador’s attempts to remedy the situation leads to an even greater disaster of epic proportions, as he causes a rift in the universe that melds the “real world” of Free Country with the video game world. Hilarious chaos ensues. For example, 8-bit Revolutionary War ghosts haunt Strong Bad’s house and freak out the Cheat. Meanwhile, Strong Sad winds up in the Peasant’s Quest game (based off King’s Quest) as a princess with a sparkly pink cone hat.

Similar to Strong Badia the Free (episode 2) and Dangeresque 3: the Criminal Projective (episode 4), a lot of the humor in 8-Bit is Enough is heavily based on parody, which is the series’ strongest point. Episodes 2 and 4 happen to also be the best episodes, with 8-Bit is Enough now joining their ranks. Telltale and Homestar Runner creators the Chapman brothers do a fantastic job in poking fun of a particular subject: war propaganda in episode 2, cheesy action flicks in episode 4, and now classic video games in episode 5.

As any Homestar Runner fan knows, Strong Bad is forever stuck in the past and plays old-school video games on his Fun Machine (which strongly resembles an Atari 2600). These games are clever parodies of actual classic video games. For example, Stinkoman 20X6 is based off Mega Man, while Lady Crate Ape Escape is clearly a take on Donkey Kong. Any of these fictional games featured in 8-Bit is Enough is sure to trigger a sense of nostalgia in players, with an added dash of laughs. For example, Math Kickers Featuring the Algebros is based off classic fighting games like Kung Fu, except that in this case the Algebros battle polynomial equations. What’s great is that many of the games in 8-Bit is Enough are playable, either in past episodes of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, or in episodes of Strong Bad Emails.

However, video games aren’t the only references you’ll find in 8-Bit is Enough. The episode is brimming with pop culture references that range from The Color Purple, Se7en, The Shining, and even Samuel Adams beer. I had to laugh when Strong Bad at one point holds up a sword that looks a lot like the Sword of Omens from ThunderCats and recites a speech that could have been delivered by He-Man. While referencing pop culture is often risky since it may come across as forced or cheesy, it’s pulled off in 8-Bit is Enough.