Homestar Ruiner
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Homestar Ruiner is the first episode of the Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People video game series. It was released on August 11, 2008 for WiiWare and PC. It has been rated T by the ESRB for Crude Humor, Mild Cartoon Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes. Story written by Mike Stemmle and The Brothers Chaps.
While Strong Bad is going about his usual routine - checking emails, etc. - Homestar Runner tells him about the Tri-annual Race to the End of the Race. Once Strong Bad hears of Homestar's intention to win this contest, he schemes to snatch victory from Homestar's invisible grasp.
Cast: Strong Bad, Homestar Runner, The Cheat, Strong Mad, Strong Sad, Coach Z, Marzipan, Bubs, Pom Pom, The King of Town, The Poopsmith, Homsar (voice only, Easter egg), Marshie (as Gel-arshie), The Mole People, Teen Girl Squad cast
Contents |
Inventory
- Balloons
- Banana Peel
- Candy
- Candy Coupon
- The float's paper maché head
- Fluffy Puff Jela-Ton
- Hedge Clippings
- Homestar's Cell Phone
- Homestar's Clothing
- Homestar's Criminal Record
- Homestar costume (combination of Homestar's Clothing and the paper maché head)
- Magnifying Glass (tutorial only)
- Marzipan's Shears
- Onion
- Plunger
- The Poopsmith's Shovel
- Strong Bad's clothes (to change back from the Homestar costume)
- Taranchula Black Metal Detector
- Total Load
- Trophy
Ranks
- Academic Biathlete
- Midget Thumb Wrestler
- Rhythmic Curler
- Macro Golfer
- Forbidden Ice Dancer
- PVP Archer
- Polar Bear Vaulter
- Flaming Shot Putter
- Nitro Foosball Lineman
- Chainsaw Bocce Bowler (Champion's Belt received)
- Trogdor Polo Chucker
Easter Eggs
- Enter the photo booth, interact with the top of the light closest to The Cheat. After the pointer changes shape, keep holding down the interaction button and drag the shirt onto Strong Bad to wear it.
- The shirt can also be obtained by walking off the right side of the photo booth three times, causing Strong Bad to walk under the floor. When he walks directly under the door and out of view, a sound will play, and he'll be wearing the shirt when he comes back into view.
- After prank calling everybody with Homestar's cell phone, you can prank call Homsar.
Fun Facts
Explanations
- When digging for the Teen Girl Squad idea at the Track, Strong Bad says "Xie xie!" (rendered as "Hsieh hsieh!" by the game's subtitles). This is Mandarin (simplified: 谢谢, traditional: 謝謝) for "Thank you!"
Trivia
- The Wii Title ID is WBXx, where x is the region code (E for United States, P for Europe).
- One of the entries in the "Special Thanks" in the game's end credits is for HRWiki.
Remarks
- This is one of the few times a character mentions Free Country, USA. The last time this occurred was when Strong Bad said it in flashback.
- An attempt to use the microwave in-game will result in a note that the door is stuck shut. However, at a certain point in the game, Homestar will open it without any problem--even while Strong Bad is in the middle of saying it's stuck shut.
- Throughout the game, The Paper accompanies as part of the in-game menu rather than New Paper.
- A different font is used for the Lappy 486 rather than its regular font, Glitch0.
Goofs
- At the non-garden party, the rollover for Marzipan and Homestar is spelled "MARZIPAN & HOMSETAR". This goof is only present in the Wii version.
- In Strong Bad's photo booth there is a clickable area above the camera. Clicking here turns the cursor into the Max shirt from the Telltale store (also occasionally chosen at random as Young Sam's costume in Sam and Max Episode 202: Moai Better Blues and Episode 204: Chariots of the Dogs). However, when put on Strong Bad, the shirt is yellow and has a picture of a dog on it.
- The subtitles are incorrect in several places
- When kicking the Cheat into the dryer, one of the subtitles misspells Pixelated as Pixilated.
- Homestar Runner sings "Do do-do do dooo dooo, do do-do do dooo" but the subtitles say "Do do-do do dooo dooo, do do-do do dooo dooo".
- While Strong Bad says "some French guy said I should beat you up", the subtitles quote him as saying "some French guy said that I should beat you up".
- While most abbreviations have an apostrophe, no apostrophe is transcribed when Homestar says "puddin sack".
- In several responses from the Drive-Thru Whale, the "O" in "Blubb-O's" is lowercase.
- When the Drive-Thru Whale says "'Nurer' spelled backwards is 'rerun.'" the word "in" is transcribed rather than "is".
- During Marzipan's answering machine message, the word "polluted" is misspelled as "poluted" in the subtitles.
- When Strong Bad finds the last page of the Snake Boxer V manual, the subtitles refer to the "SECRET FROBIDDEN LEVEL.
- In one of the possible insults Strong Bad can say to Bubs, the word "arm" is misspelled as "armed."
- In viewing the sign on Bubs' Concession Stand, Strong Bad begins a sentence with "If I ever had any money" but the subtitles start it with "And if I ever had any money".
- During one comment about the banner on Marzipan's gazebo, Strong Bad says "in which case" but the word "which" was left out in the subtitles.
- As Strong Bad comments that Snake Boxer 5 is "so much better than the unfortunate Snake Boxer 4: Lady Snake Parade" there is an unnecessary comma after the word "unfortunate".
Glitches
- If the subtitles are turned off, they will be erroneously enabled when Strong Bad checks his email. They will remain enabled afterwards until Strong Bad leaves his house, although the Settings screen will show them as Off. Toggling them on and off again under the Settings will rectify the problem.
- While wearing the tech shirt near Strong Bad's house, in extended play, geometry issues will occur, resulting in what looks like a blue wall shooting out from the shirt. This also occurs in other locations in the game.
- If the Luxa Lounger is extended (when it is unextended) and the radio set to the Latin music in Extended Play, the conga line will re-form even though it won't move.
- When the Luxa Lounger is set back the conga line will disappear, but Homestar, Marzipan, Coach Z, Bubs and the King of Town will appear where they were when the party was still going on. These characters cannot be selected, and Strong Bad can walk right through them.
- As Strong Bad wears the Homestar head, it is sometimes invisible, so you see Strong Bad grab nothing.
Wii Version
- If widescreen mode is turned on, talking to Coach Z in extended play results in the game crashing, requiring a hard reset. In addition, many of the cut scenes that play throughout the game will sometimes freeze, also requiring a hard reset.
- After Strong Bad plays Snake Boxer 5, he gets teleported to the Computer Room and then back to his room.
- If the game is saved while in the photo booth while wearing a shirt and then immediately turned off, then when you start only the collar of the shirt will be visible.
PC Version
- Occasionally Homestar, Marzipan, Bubs, Coach Z, Strong Mad, Strong Sad or Strong Bad's eyes are not visible upon entering an area. The same may also occur with Strong Mad and Marzipan's mouth.
Inside References
- Homestar previously called his butt a "twees" in lady fan. Also, Strong Bad mentions himself being a pain in the twees while looking at the "Nuisance Trophy".
- Strong Bad's pronunciation of "party" matches his pronunciation in nightlife.
- Homestar mentions cake jugglers.
- Marzipan has previously written a song stating that she really doesn't like Strong Bad at all.
- Strong Bad mentions a French guy.
- This is another appearance of a cardboard box.
- Strong Bad's song about you not being able to handle his style is a reference to modeling.
- The music playing when Strong Bad leaves Bubs' Concession Stand and after Strong Bad approaches The Stick is the same one from hygiene.
- "Thoughts on a Bird" from Audition with Marzipan and The Luau plays at Marzipan's house.
- The music playing at the track was first used in the Bubs' Concession Stand scenes in Senorial Day, Happy Hallow-day, and Toikey TV.
- An ad for the Ab-Abber 2000 plays on the TV in the basement.
- The music of "The Cheat's assorted Latin Rhythms" was first heard in pet show.
- When hiding behind the King of Town's statue in the hall of records, Strong Bad lists the features of "Stealth Strong Bad", an imaginary action figure made by Cheap as Free Toys.
- References to Strong Bad's style are made throughout the game.
- The music on the e-mail menu is a remix of the music from the game show scenes in animal.
- Strong Bad can wear Homestar Runner's "Pants".
- This introductory sequence features an instance of couch mumbling.
- The video game title he mumbles is RhinoFeeder.
- The music that plays in The Field comes from "A Grade A Gray Day" in fan club.
- A poster for the Municipality can be found on the back of the lockers. The Municipality logo also appears on the Lappy screen just before the end credits.
- The tutorial sequence involves Strong Bad's Lappy being stolen from the computer room, which previously occurred in cliffhangers. When Strong Bad realizes it is missing, the dramatic music from that same email plays.
- Strong Bad carves one of the hedges into the shape of Trogdor.
- Occasionally in Snake Boxer 5's forbidden mode, when using the fire breath attack, Strong Bad will shout "Burninate!"
- This is another appearance of showering.
- When you first enter living room the same music from do over, Date Nite, the Easter egg from Play Date, and love poems plays.
- Strong Bad saying "Check, Check one. Syllabus" into the microphone at the track is a reference to the opening of the email candy product.
- The Limozeen Coloring Book can be seen on top of the messy pile over Strong bad's bed.
- While showering, Homestar sings the "Independent Girl" song from One Two, One Two.
- When Strong Bad jumps into The King of Town's vent he says "Looks like I'm gonna have to jump!"
- At the party, when Coach Z falls out the window, he exclaims "I regret everything!"
- The loading screen's fading purple background is taken from the ending of retirement.
- After putting on the Championship belt, Strong Bad will mention the Sizzle Weight belt and the Jack-Em Up Kid, which is a reference to the email yes, wrestling.
- The voice of the newscaster heard on the TV is the same voice as the Cold Ones spokesperson in business trip and buried, the Blubb-O's spokesperson in nightlife and Blubb-O's Commercial, and Marzipan's questionable surgeon in Marzipan's Answering Machine Version 15.2.
- The hedge that Strong Bad clips in Marzipan's yard closely resembles Homestar in fan club.
- The theme for The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show plays while Strong Bad is outside the King of Town's castle, it is also the same music from Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon.
- When Strong Bad first dons his Homestar disguise, his impersonation includes naming the sections of the Main Pages.
- When Homestar is practicing in the locker room, he sometimes says "Look at me. Don't look at me. Look at me now." This is structured the same as a line from the commercial in Family Resemblence.
- The theme music from Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon plays when inside The King Of Town's Castle.
- When What's-Her-Face recives the car keys, her car "a-splodes".
- Homestar used Total Load to make a smoothie in alternate universe.
- Stratergery is a portmanteau of strategy and surgery.
Real-World References
- In the Wii version's "Banner" animation, Strong Bad loads the file "CG4AP101.wad". Wad files are the compressed file format that Wii ware and Virtual Console games run from.
- When Homestar is on the phone with Marzipan, the way he says, "Yes? Yes. Yes. Yes? Noo! Yes. Yes?" is a reference to episode 4 of Sam & Max Season One, where Sam answers a phone with the Commissioner and says that in the same way.
- Additionally, the music which plays when Strong Bad acquires bonus items and trophies is Item Get from episode 5 of the same season.
- When investigating the stands near the track Strong Bad mentions the stands being emptier than a Stryper concert. Stryper was a Christian metal band from the '80s.
- When Strong Bad attempts to pick up the hurdle after the first run of the Race to the End of the Race, he claims that it must be made of some very heavy metal, and lists several materials he thinks it could be made of, including "black sabbath". Black Sabbath was a heavy metal band which had great influence on the genre.
- After trimming the hedge near Bub's Concession Stand, having Strong Bad look at it leads him to call it "the flying V". This is an actual guitar made by Gibson Guitar Corp. The hedge's shape is also accurate to the Gibson Flying V.
- Throughout most of the game, Strong Bad's fridge contains only a single jar of mayonnaise. In Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, another point-and-click adventure game, Indiana Jones had only a single jar of mayonnaise in his fridge.
- Bubs will tell Strong Bad to "stay gold" after ending conversation. This is a reference to the book The Outsiders when the main character, Ponyboy, is told to "stay gold" from his friend.
- Strong Bad's Deleted line, "Survey Says...DELETED!", is a reference to the popular game show Family Feud.
- When Coach Z discovers the Total Load in Pom Pom's locker, he cries out "Cypress Hill!". This may also refer to his fondness for hip-hop music.
- After giving Marzipan the chocolates, Strong Bad says he gave her some "Funky Cold Ma-Chocolates".
- When he collects all four trophies, Strong Bad speaks in a manner similar to the Count from Sesame Street.
- Strong Bad saying "Check, Check one. Syllabus" into the microphone at the track is a reference to the line "Check, Check one. Sibilance" spoken by Barry (Tom Hanks) while conducting a microphone check for the band Aerosmith, before their performance in a Wayne's World sketch in a 1990 episode of Saturday Night Live.
- The "Jane Austentaceous Chamber Music Jam" CD (the third one in the See Dee Spinner) is a reference to Jane Austen, who wrote books set in nineteenth century England, when chamber music was common.
- Strong Mad's line just after turning on the CD for the first time is a reference to Austen's most famous book, Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Darcy is a main character in the story.
- At the party, when complimenting Coach Z, Strong Bad speaks some Swedish, ending with "Bork, Bork, Bork", one of the many Mock-Swedish words said by The Muppets' Swedish Chef.
- When Strong Bad hides behind the bonsai bush in the King of Town's Castle, he says "It's Arbor Day, Strongly Brown".
- When kicking The Cheat into the dryer, The Cheatspeak is subtitled as Wii?.
- One of Strong Bad's metal detector finding comments contains the phrase, "I hope it's a-bubblin' crude." This is a reference to the theme song from the television show "The Beverly Hillbillies", where Jed Clampett strikes it rich by finding "a-bubblin' crude" oil.
- When Strong Bad walks near Homestar Runner at the field, one of the things he is chanting is "I must, I must, I must improve my bust," a reference to the young adult novel Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.
- When Strong Sad comments on his asthma after Strong Bad looks at the Strong Sad trophy, Strong Bad replies with "Sucks to your asmar!", which is a quote from the book Lord of the Flies.
- When seen and questioned about using hedge shears on the Homestar float by Marzipan, Strong Bad responds, "I'm giving him a shave? and a haircut? two bits?".
- Strong Bad exclaiming "Shape of a moron!" whenever he puts on his Homestar costume, And "Luxa Lounger Powers, Activate!", Whenever he reclines The Luxa Lounger, is a parody of the exclamations the Wonder Twins make whenever they transform.
- Near the beginning of the game, when Homestar is still in the locker room, he will occasionally say "No whammys, No whammys, No whammys".
- Just before finding Homestar on his couch, Strong Bad mentions that he "didn't even have to use my AK", a reference to the song It Was A Good Day.
- Strong Bad's acceptance speech is lifted almost verbatim from Lou Gehrig's farewell address at Yankee Stadium in 1939. The address was immortalized in the movie Pride of the Yankees: "Today... I consider myself... the luckiest man... on the face of the earth."
Fast Forward
- The King of Town's threat to tax Strong Bad will go fulfilled in the second SBCG4AP episode, Strong Badia the Free.
External Links
- Official episode webpage
- Watch the gameplay video for "Homestar Ruiner"
- Watch the second gameplay video for "Homestar Ruiner"
- YouTube mirror of the older version of the first gameplay video for "Homestar Ruiner"
- Read May 14, 2008 press release about "Homestar Ruiner"
- Read a bare-bones walkthrough of "Homestar Ruiner"
- forum thread re: "Homestar Ruiner" trailer
- forum thread re: "Homestar Ruiner"