Luckily, the voice acting is even better; always varied, often hilarious and brilliant. And amazingly enough, apart from the sweet and cheerful Marzipan, it’s all performed by series co-creator Matt Chapman. Considering the range, from tough-guy Strong Bad to the raspy, high-pitched Teen Girl Squad, that’s quite a feat. The music is light and lo-fi, unobtrusive and charming. Sure, it provides the kind of ambiance one would expect from midi samples on a keyboard, but good midi samples nonetheless. And if you’re hoping for something more loud and obvious, you can look forward to a funny musical number led by Strong Bad.

Of course, the real selling point here should be the gameplay. Or should it? In the case of Homestar Ruiner, maybe not; the adventure elements tend to take a back seat to character trademarks and silly dialogue, which are the real draw of the game. But you can expect your typical adventure game conventions as well. It’s a familiar point-and-click 3D romp, with a handful of items to use, including a cell phone to be abused for the art of prank calls. You’ll have a few icon-based conversation options when you run into characters, with the occasional option to be angel-sweet (or as close as Strong Bad is able to muster) or devil-nasty, though this element doesn’t seem to bear much weight in this particular episode. The largely inventory-based puzzles can be fun but a little too obvious, and don’t provide anything really clever, thought-provoking, or particularly funny for that matter. Again, if you’re looking for an easy beginner’s adventure game, you’re in luck. As with Sam & Max, a hint system is provided that results in contextual nudges from Strong Bad, but given the relative ease of the puzzles here, it’s unlikely you’ll be too reliant on these.

Aside from the standard adventuring, you’ll also find several mini-games in the course of your journey. But only one of them really works, that being the brilliantly childish “Teen Girl Squad”, which allows you to make your own interactive comics, earning points for wiping out each girl by means of such items as perfume, basketballs, and sunscreen. Meanwhile, “Snake Boxer 5”, from the fictional 8-bit enthusiasts Videlectrix, feels cheap and disappointing. While it’s a funny parody of a shoddy Atari game, it wouldn’t hurt if some effort went into it actually making it a good game. Sure, Videlectrix games are cute on the Homestar Runner website, but they’re annoyingly lackluster when you’re actually paying for them.

Along with the mini-games, there are several collectibles to pursue, including new clothing that you can try out in a photo booth. You can check out a “How much I rule” chart, which provides stats of all the secret items you’ve unlocked in the game, as well as an “awesomeness level,” allowing the player to level up by completing both main and side tasks. An extended mode is even unlocked after finishing the main storyline, allowing the completist in you to collect all the goodies. Both the mini-games and collectibles are just added bonuses, however, which can be bypassed completely if so desired.

As with Telltale’s other episodic offering, Homestar Ruiner has a fascination with comically morbid humor, but it’s presented in a more cute and harmless way. The fact that Homestar Runner was originally aimed at children makes an odd sort of sense when you realize how utterly safe the series feels at times, despite its protagonist’s in-your-face attitude. And while Homestar Ruiner doesn’t have the polished, almost epic feel of Sam & Max, it really isn’t trying to. It’s more about odd, every-day realizations of our own stupidity and ridiculousness. And hey, as gamers, we’ve all saved too many worlds, anyway. We need a break, a chance to do something simple like getting a dimwitted, armless racer out of our house. This game will give you that chance, and make it a relaxed, enjoyable one.

An episode runs for $8.95 on its own or available as part of a five-episode season set for a money-saving $34.95. Homestar Ruiner should provide about four hours of play time, which makes for a pretty good value. On the Wii, you’ll be throwing down 1000 Wii Points for each episode, which translates to a little more money but still isn’t bad. The differences between versions are minimal, with the Wii version allowing you to send emails to friends using photos you took in-game, which is a nice enough extra but irrelevant to the game itself.

At the end of the day, Homestar Ruiner is perhaps a better interactive cartoon than it is an engaging adventure game. Its main appeal comes from clicking on objects to make the characters say funny things. But that’s okay, at least in small doses, which this episode provides. Is that alone worth a purchase? Sure, why not, as it’s good fun while it lasts. But hopefully we’ll see something a little more ambitious in future episodes, because more-of-the-same is liable to become dull for those who aren’t hardcore fans. As an introduction to Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, then, the game’s adventure elements are mostly a conduit for the humor, the bread to the cheese. And yeah, the bread may be a little mediocre in this case, but the cheese can be divine.