I never actually thought I'd see the day this was finished. I almost thought the "Roomisode 1" in the title of the original flash game was meant to be like a "History of the World Part 1" style joke and not a promise for more episodes once enough time had passed without anymore.
That first Roomisode was without a doubt probably my favorite Videlectrix game on homestarrunner.com. I can't remember if I played it before or after SBCG4AP but since that was what introduced me to the world of point and clicks through Telltale I do know that this would've been my first introduction to a proper point and click game. Whereas most of the flash point and clicks I had played before were either very simple or more akin to escape room games, this was modeled after the defining works in the point and click adventure game genre and I ate it up.
Looking back I think it very well may have been the peak experience for me when it came to classic-style point and clicks. As much as I love the Monkey Island games and Sam and Max Hit the Road, Homestar Runner is always going to take up more space in my heart. Plus with it being in a single room it was the perfect bite-sized, most accessible version of a point and click adventure game for me. No clicking around searching endlessly to find out what interactable item or batcrap insane solution I missed, everything I needed was on screen and I just needed to use my expert sunglasses'd-detective skills to figure it out. And what I'm figuring out is also the best non-issue I could have asked for out of a game like this. It was just perfect. The closest I'll ever get to a playable version of Problem Sleuth (and oddly enough it was released only a few months after Problem Sleuth's debut. A magical experience for 10-years-old me, I'm sure. It almost feels impossible to put a star rating on something like that.
But this rerelease comes with the addition of two new Roomisode adventures that are just as good as the original. A childhood wish finally come true. The feeling is not quite as magical for me now that I've played countless other point and click games, including other Roomisode-style adventures in the form of the Rick and Morty browser point and click that Mike Chapman helped develop (I thought I had heard this but can't find an official source anywhere, but the game itself is just about as perfect as ever.
With it being a rerelease there are a few changes that I feel take away from the atmosphere of the game for me, but these are all pretty minor gripes. Like some of the graphical updates don't look quite as good as the original flash version to me, but obviously it was necessary to use a new game engine so this change was unavoidable. I also feel like the addition of voice acting gives the game a more modern vibe and changes how a lot of the lines read to me, but this is at best a neutral update. While it does drastically change the tone for me, Mike Chapman is probably one of the most talented voice actors there is and getting to hear any more line deliveries from them is always welcome. Plus a lot of extra humor is added in some of these line deliveries. I guess it's just that you can tell it was written to be read, such as Renaldo's phonetically written dialogue, and then read exactly as written. Just a very different vibe is all.
Aside from the nitpicks, this is probably everything I could have asked for. It's incredibly accessible not just as a point and click game but as a Homestar Runner game for anyone unfamiliar with Homestar Runner. Whereas a lot of humor in the toons and GAMES and eeeeemaiiiillllls required prior knowledge of every other cartoon on the site, this notably avoided doing that to the point of the homemade movie framing device of most other Dangeresque stuff being mostly absent outside of a few moments. Pretty much any time they did do an inside joke it would be between the rest of the jokes, like a code being a reference to an old sbemail, or a particular line being reused from one of the other Dangeresque toons. It manages to reward fans as much as any other piece of H*R media without alienating potentially new fans. Something that I wasn't sure was even possible at this point tbh. For many reasons it's the best point and click I've played in a long time and it's a small miracle that it was ever completed. I will forever be grateful for how dedicated The Brothers Chaps are to these dumb animal characters.
(8/10)
That first Roomisode was without a doubt probably my favorite Videlectrix game on homestarrunner.com. I can't remember if I played it before or after SBCG4AP but since that was what introduced me to the world of point and clicks through Telltale I do know that this would've been my first introduction to a proper point and click game. Whereas most of the flash point and clicks I had played before were either very simple or more akin to escape room games, this was modeled after the defining works in the point and click adventure game genre and I ate it up.
Looking back I think it very well may have been the peak experience for me when it came to classic-style point and clicks. As much as I love the Monkey Island games and Sam and Max Hit the Road, Homestar Runner is always going to take up more space in my heart. Plus with it being in a single room it was the perfect bite-sized, most accessible version of a point and click adventure game for me. No clicking around searching endlessly to find out what interactable item or batcrap insane solution I missed, everything I needed was on screen and I just needed to use my expert sunglasses'd-detective skills to figure it out. And what I'm figuring out is also the best non-issue I could have asked for out of a game like this. It was just perfect. The closest I'll ever get to a playable version of Problem Sleuth (and oddly enough it was released only a few months after Problem Sleuth's debut. A magical experience for 10-years-old me, I'm sure. It almost feels impossible to put a star rating on something like that.
But this rerelease comes with the addition of two new Roomisode adventures that are just as good as the original. A childhood wish finally come true. The feeling is not quite as magical for me now that I've played countless other point and click games, including other Roomisode-style adventures in the form of the Rick and Morty browser point and click that Mike Chapman helped develop (I thought I had heard this but can't find an official source anywhere, but the game itself is just about as perfect as ever.
With it being a rerelease there are a few changes that I feel take away from the atmosphere of the game for me, but these are all pretty minor gripes. Like some of the graphical updates don't look quite as good as the original flash version to me, but obviously it was necessary to use a new game engine so this change was unavoidable. I also feel like the addition of voice acting gives the game a more modern vibe and changes how a lot of the lines read to me, but this is at best a neutral update. While it does drastically change the tone for me, Mike Chapman is probably one of the most talented voice actors there is and getting to hear any more line deliveries from them is always welcome. Plus a lot of extra humor is added in some of these line deliveries. I guess it's just that you can tell it was written to be read, such as Renaldo's phonetically written dialogue, and then read exactly as written. Just a very different vibe is all.
Aside from the nitpicks, this is probably everything I could have asked for. It's incredibly accessible not just as a point and click game but as a Homestar Runner game for anyone unfamiliar with Homestar Runner. Whereas a lot of humor in the toons and GAMES and eeeeemaiiiillllls required prior knowledge of every other cartoon on the site, this notably avoided doing that to the point of the homemade movie framing device of most other Dangeresque stuff being mostly absent outside of a few moments. Pretty much any time they did do an inside joke it would be between the rest of the jokes, like a code being a reference to an old sbemail, or a particular line being reused from one of the other Dangeresque toons. It manages to reward fans as much as any other piece of H*R media without alienating potentially new fans. Something that I wasn't sure was even possible at this point tbh. For many reasons it's the best point and click I've played in a long time and it's a small miracle that it was ever completed. I will forever be grateful for how dedicated The Brothers Chaps are to these dumb animal characters.
(8/10)