If you keep up with game news like I do, you’ll have seen that yesterday Telltale games (the company whom have recently revived the old point and click adventure series Sam & Max) have announced an episodic WiiWare title “Strong Bad Cool Game for Attractive People” which is based on the Homestar Runner flash series.

From what I have read on a handful of message boards, people think that this upcoming series is garbage or that Strong Bad is way past his prime. I’ll admit that I don’t really keep up with Homestarrunner, but I totally respect what the Brothers Chaps have created over the last 8 years. These two have crafted a completely respectable series which in turn has become their living. It’s no secret that we at the Shamoozal have that same desire.

I not only respect what the Brothers have done in that area, but also how Homestar has reached such a large audience. It’s great that a 5 year old can enjoy Homestar just as much as a grown man. Most internet series deal with large amounts of violence, and language, and most of these would be animators can’t get through this hurdle. We too have tried to keep Shamoozal relatively clean, though recently we’ve tried to push our own personal envolope (and the podcasts are rather filthy). What people don’t understand is how hard it is to make something appeal to such a large range of people. Very few animated shows have actually done it, and off the top of my head, the only other recent animated show that I’ve known can reach this demographic is Spongebob Squarepants.

When you think about succesful animated internet series, or even videos, they all deal with being crude in general. This is really what the people want? In the short term, I’d say yes, it is. I don’t believe that any of these have the ability to last once people are tired of these one trick ponies. Believe me when I say it’s hard to make something that is rather clean. I could easily have Jacquo do terrible, terrible things (I already did in the past, and you’ll never see that stuff) and have Grey curse up a storm to get cheap laughs. Believe me, it’s easy. It isn’t hard to end a punch line with an “F Bomb” being dropped.

Homestar has built quite the castle for themselves, and having Telltale create a Strong Bad game for them is just another example of their hard work paying off. I wish The Brothers and Telltale nothing but success on their episodic WiiWare title. To me this game isn’t just an anouncement, it’s an inspiration.