Texas Hold'em Poker Game Review: Poker Night at the Inventory

Poker Night at the Inventory was part of Telltale's short lived Pilot Program wherein crazy concepts were given a pilot episode and the fan and critical reaction would determine whether another episode would be ordered.

It is a spiritual sequel to Telltale Texas Hold'em, except rather than the original characters of that game features such video game characters as Max from Sam & Max, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, Tycho from Penny Arcade, and The Heavy from Team Fortress 2. The player plays against these four and is simply referred to as "The Player".

The setting is The Inventory, a speakeasy where video game characters go to relax when not in their respective games. The host of of The Inventory, Reginald Van Winslow from Tales of Monkey Island, is the person who brings the player to the table to play high-stakes poker with the rest of the characters.

Like Telltale Texas Hold'em before it, Poker Night at the Inventory contains a solid Texas hold'em framework, but the real fun comes from the conversations with the various characters at the table. Each of the characters use their respective voice actors, although Dave Boat puts in a very suitable performance as Max, and Tycho receives a voice for the first time thanks to Andrew Chaikin.

The conversations are a lot more fun than its predecessor as they benefit from the lore of each intellectual property represented. It is a real joy to have the characters speak to each other, and it is especially fun for fans of the characters, as they will often reference characters and situations from their respective franchises. The excellent performances from the voice actors really help as well, as they all keep you invested in the game and really do make it feel like a bunch of game characters just having some fun on their day off.

Texas Telltale Hold'em used excellent jazz music by the band led by Jerry Logas, the father of one of the developers of the game, Heather Logas. The music of Poker Night at the Inventory is provided by the stalwart composer that is used by Telltale in most of their games, Jared Emerson-Johnson. He provides a really jazzy soundtrack that includes a new theme for The Inventory as well as jazzified versions of songs from the franchises represented. The jazz remix of the office theme in Telltale's Sam & Max games is especially enjoyable.

Poker Night at the Inventory is a worthy spiritual successor of Telltale Texas Hold'em. The music and voice acting is spot-on, with Dave Boat and Andrew Chaikin especially shining in their new roles as Max and Tycho, respectively. The Heavy, Max, Tycho, and Strong Bad bring great conversations that help make up for the fact that it is one-player only. This is one of the few times where a multiplayer mode would actually hinder the game, as it wouldn't be nearly as fun to play the game without hearing the character conversations. 

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Homestar Runner

Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People - Episode 5 review

Halloween Hide & Seek review

Sam & Max

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Episode 5 review

Poker Night 2 review

Telltale poker games

Telltale Texas Hold'em review

Poker Night 2 review

Free Point-and-Click Adventure Review: Homestar Runner - Halloween Hide & Seek

For Halloween 2021, a free Homestar Runner point-and-click adventure was released into the world called Halloween Hide & Seek.

The game follows the setup of early Homestar Runner Halloween cartoons, except this time it's playable. Homestar Runner travels across Free Country USA searching for the residents, including the King of Town, the Poopsmith, Homsar, Marzipan, Coach Z, Pom Pom, Bubs, The Cheat, Strong Sad, Strong Mad, and Strong Bad. They are all wearing costumes based on classic adventure games, and they are all hiding until Homestar finds them all.

It has a simple one-click interface with a non-combinable inventory. However, it's still a lot of fun. Homestar interacts with the characters when he finds them, and sometimes he even can use a dialog tree with funny questions to get funny answers in return.

It's just a short and sweet little experience, which should be expected since the longest Halloween Homestar Runner cartoon, Halloween Potion-ma-jig, was only fourteen and a half minutes long, counting all of the available paths. Once all eleven people have been found, like most of the Halloween toons, running the cursor over a person reveals their costume character. Clicking on characters prompts Homestar to guess their costume, which is always funnily wrong.

There is also a bonus quest with ten actions that will get you an 'X marks the spot' location with a surprise.

Homestar Runner: Halloween Hide & Seek is a fun short point-and-click adventure made by people that clearly love point-and-click adventures. There are tons of references to adventure game classics through dialog, puzzles, and characters. The game was created in Unity and can be played for free from your browser, but a fully-voiced talkie version is also available as a two-dollar download for Windows and macOS. If you're a fan of classic point-and-click adventures, it's well worth a play.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Poker Night at the Inventory review

Free Point-and-Click/Direct Controlled Adventure Game - Dangeresque: Episode 1 - Behind the Dangerdesque

Dangeresque: Episode 1 - Behind the Dangerdesque is a graphic adventure game featuring Dangeresque, the alter-ego of Homestar Runner's one-time luchador acquaintance, Strong Bad.

It is an escape-the-room-style adventure where Dangeresque, a crooked cop, has to fake three pieces of evidence in a case file so that the chief will let him leave. To do so, he has to use the objects around the office to fill the missing evidence, and then mark the case solved.

The graphics and sound are designed to invoke the aesthetics of 1990s adventure games from LucasArts and Sierra. They do a good job with this, right down to the low-quality, sporadic voice samples that were included in floppy games in that era.

The only area that is a letdown is the controls. For the most part, it is point-and-click. You use the inventory box in the corner, ala Sam & Max: Hit the Road, choose an item, and use it in the environment. However, sometimes Dangereque says he can't interact with an item unless he is closer to it. This requires the use of the WASD keys for movement. It's clunky, unnecessary, and takes away from the otherwise enjoyable game.

Dangeresque: Episode 1 - Behind the Dangerdesque is a fun free Flash game with graphics, sound, and gameplay that feels lifted right out of the 1990s. It is mostly point-and-click, but the few times you are forced to use the keyboard take you out of the game. Thankfully, these moments are few and far between.

Flash may be dead, but the game can still be played using the Flash Windows executable. It will also be available to play online again someday when the Flash replacement Ruffle supports Actionscript 3.

Update April 17, 2024:

Ruffle now runs the Flash version of the game just fine and the Homestar Runner website allows it to be playable within web browsers. It's no muss, no fuss, just like the olden times.

Even better though, is the Steam version which includes two more roomisodes. The paid version of episode one has full voice acting and you no longer have to use W, A, S, and D at weird times to get to certain places. It's now a true point-and-click adventure in Unity.

The paid version is well worth the price, and is now my preferred way to play the game. If you want to stick to the old version, it now works well in Ruffle and is just as enjoyable as it always was.

Final Verdict:
3 out of 5

Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People - Episode 4 review

Strong Bad: Episode 5 review

Telltale Games Humble Bundle

Update: 4/19 10:45PM: Two more games have been added to the bundle: Jurassic Park: The Game and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People.

Telltale Games are now in a Humble Bundle. For $1 or more, you can get Back to the Future: The Game, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Poker Night at the Inventory, Puzzle Agent 1 & 2, and The Walking Dead: Season One. If you pay more than the average (currently just over $8), you also get The Walking Dead: 400 Days, The Wolf Among Us, Poker Night 2, and Tales from the Borderlands. Finally, if you pay more than $12, you'll also get Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead: Season Two.

Note that all of these games are redeemed through Steam only, as there is no DRM-free option available. There is about a week left to pick this bundle up, and there are hints that more games will be added to the package soon.

More Telltale Games Come To GOG.com

Four games from Telltale's puzzle era have been released on GOG.com, DRM-free: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, Hector: Badge of Carnage, Puzzle Agent, and Puzzle Agent 2. They're currently available to purchase in a launch sale bundle for up to 74% off regular price if you purchase all four.

Adventure Games in MacHeist 4

The Macheist 4 Bundle gives you 12 applications and games for Mac, for only $29 USD.  There are 3 more games and apps that will unlock at a point when a certain amount of bundles are sold.

Three adventure games are included in the bundle: Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, and Jurassic Park: The Game, all of which are through Steam.

The other games and applications in the bundle are: Artboard, Bejeweled 3 (through Steam), Courier, DiscTools Pro, Evernote, HDRtist, Radium, and Scriviner.  Additionally, Firetask will unlock for all bundle owners after 25,000 bundles are sold, and Bioshock 2 and Painter Lite will unlock after an unrevealed amount of bundles are sold.

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2 for iPhone is Here

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay is now available for iPhone and iPod Touch at the iTunes Store. Chapter 3 is set to come out for the iPhone on December 22.

In addition to that, Telltale has some pretty big sales going on. Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1 is free for the iPhone for a limited time. Most of their iPad and iPhone games are on sale as well for $2.99. Get the full list of titles on sale from this Telltale blog post.

For PC and Mac gamers, most of Telltale's full seasons are on sale for $9.99. Once you buy a full season, you will also be eligible for the season DVD which you can get for just the cost of shipping. The complete list of seasons on sale is here.

In addition to that, three PC and Mac episodes are also free for a limited time: Back to the Future - It's About Time, Sam & Max - Ice Station Santa, and Sam & Max - The Penal Zone.

Autumn Sales

Just thought I'd give you a heads up that Telltale's iPad titles are 50% off and their iPhone/iPod touch titles are $0.99 until November 30th. Also, there's a lot of deals to be had at Steam's Autumn Sale (which ends in just over 7 hours), including most of Telltale's PC titles, the LucasArts Adventure Pack (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, and Loom), and other adventures.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People For PSN

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, the five-part episodic adventure by Telltale Games starring characters from Homestar Runner is now available for the PlayStation 3 through their PSN download service.

Free Telltale Game

I have one coupon for a Telltale game, but since I already own all of their games I can't use it myself. It expires tomorrow. The coupon is for Their store only. Tales of Monkey Island is for Mac and PC now, but if you own a Mac you can use the coupon on any episode and you'll get the Mac version for nothing when it comes out (note that the Bone games and Telltale Texas Hold'Em have not been announced as getting a Mac port in the future).

Since this is so late, I'll do this first come first serve. Here's the coupon BZK-F7H-623-WYN

If you're the lucky person to see this first, just put it in the coupon field when you check out and you won't have to pay anything. Remember that the code expires tomorrow.

Tales of Monkey Island now on Mac, Vote for next game to get a Mac update

Telltale's Mac games page is now up. With it comes the news that Tales of Monkey Island is now available for Macintosh at no additional cost to people who have purchased the PC version. On that page you can also vote for the next Telltale series to get the Mac treatment (Sam & Max, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, or Wallace & Gromit). One lucky voter will get their name in the credits of the next Telltale Mac game series.

Also, as a bonus to Mac gamers, according to Adventure Gamers, the Mac version of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal includes voice over work by Earl Boen as Zombie LeChuck. The PC version hasn't recieved the voice update yet.

Pirate God on Wii, Telltale to be at Macworld Expo

The final episode of Tales of Monkey Island, Rise of the Pirate God, is finally available on Wii in North America. European Wii owners will have to wait a bit longer.

Also, Telltale Games will be at the Macworld Expo. There's a lot of rumors going around that Telltale is planning on releasing their back catalog (except for Bone and Telltale Texas Hold'Em) on the Mac. If the Mac Life article is true, Telltale is planning on releasing the MacOS versions on their website at no extra cost together with their PC releases.

This could be good news for Mac users who don't want to worry about using Bootcamp to play the Telltale games.

Strong Bad Episode 5: 8-Bit Is Enough Is Free Today Only

Telltale is offering the fifth episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People for PC, 8-Bit Is Enough, for free for the 7th birthday (Trogday) of the dragon e-mail that introduced Trogdor, on January 13, 2010 only! :)

More Telltale Season Packs for $20

I'd just like to point out that not only is the season of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures $20 for a limited time, but Sam & Max Season One, Sam & Max Season Two and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People are also $20 each for a limited time.

So, if you haven't picked up any of those seasons yet, now is the time to get them!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween again everyone! Once again, the treats are a-plenty on this holiday! Telltale's Dave Grossman has posted another one of his annual pumpkin pictures in The Pumpkin House of Horrors. He goes all out this year, with a total of eight carved pumpkins in the picture!

Next up, is the Telltale Halloween contest! Thanks to the flood of Monkey Island fans into Telltale's fanbase this year, the contest had more entries than ever! That means that the winner won't be announced until about the second week of November, but it also means there's a lot of really impressive fan art that can be shown off! Check out the Telltale Blog for those! Telltale's been adding more fan drawings in their blog posts every day! Oh, and of course, I entered in the contest again this year. Check out my video "A Telltale Halloween" if you want to. :)

And, for the final piece of Telltale-related Halloween goodies, The 2009 Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon is out!

Point-and-Click Adventure Game Review: Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - 8-Bit is Enough

Here at long last is the highly anticipated* review of the fifth and final episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, 8-Bit is Enough, by The Adventuress.

This episode takes place immediately after the end of the last episode. After Strong Bad says the trademark line of Dangeresque, "Looks like I'm going to have to jump", he jumps off of the couch. Unfortunately, he lands right into his Trogdor arcade machine, causing the machine to spark profusely. In typical Strong Bad fashion, he blames Strong Sad for breaking the machine and coerces his big baby brother into telling him how to repair it.

Unfortunately for Strong Bad, Homestar gets in the way of the repairs and inadvertently causes Trogdor and many other characters from Videlectrix video games to appear in the "real world" of Free Country, USA. This is where the fun really starts. Just like Sam & Max Season One's Reality 2.0 before it, 8-Bit is Enough is a fun satire of video game cliches. Here though, fans of the Homestar Runner universe get treated to some great injokes since Strong Bad visits video game worlds of the flash video game "company" Videlectrix, from the creaters of Homestar Runner, the Brothers Chaps. This is definitely a love fest to the fans, so a familiarity with the Videlectrix games is highly recommended. There is also some fun general video game injokes, especially in regards to Nintendo, probably as a result of both the Brothers Chaps love for the company and due to the fact that this series is made with the Wii in mind.

The game world has considerably expanded this time, as you get to explore both Free Country USA as before (but with 8-bit video game artifacts spread about). You also get to explore the inside of the video game world and interact with the Videlectrix games inside of the Trogdor cabinet. The map returns, and both Free Country USA and game world locations are marked there for easy access, thankfully meaning you don't have to keep going out into the field to find the cabinet to get into the game world.

The puzzles seem to be the most fine-tuned out of the whole season here. They start out fairly simple, then get progressively harder as the game goes on. There aren't any real nailbiters here like some of he classic adventure games, which is expected since its been mentioned difficult nearly-nonsensical puzzles is something Telltale wants to avoid. Some of the puzzles are a little off the wall, but thankfully they all make perfect sense once you put your mindset into the world of Homestar Runner.

One extra that didn't make it (and wasn't in the last game either, is Teen Girl Squad). Like I mentioned before though, the customizable feature didn't really work, and the pre-made Teen Girl Squad was the most fun out of the season. If Telltale can make the comics more customizable and more funny next season, they'll be a good addition, but as it stands, I'm glad that they aren't in there just for the purpose of being there. The rest of the extras are still here though, and the trend of using the extras as plot devices continues. In this game, the Funstation game and the treasure hunting shovel are both used as plot devices. It really feels that Telltale has finally found the right amount of gameplay vs. extras ratio, and I hope that if there is a second season, Telltale continues to integrate the extras into the main gameplay.

8-Bit is Enough is the strongest game of the season in my opinion. The gameplay is tightened, the jokes are top-notch, and the ending has the best end boss yet in all of Telltale's games, including those in the Sam & Max games. The only thing that brings the score down a little bit is that it is such a fan-service episode that pre-hand knowledge of the Videlectrix games is pretty much required.

Final Verdict: 4 out of 5


* Like Strong Bad's dubious claims, the claim this review is "highly anticipated" may not be true.

Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People - Episode 4 review

Poker Night review

Telltale Seasons Only $19.99 This Weekend

Telltale Games Seasons on the PC are only $19.99 for this weekend only! If you've missed out on one of Telltale's seasons of Sam & Max, Strong Bad, or Wallace & Gromit, now is the time to pick them up!

Telltale is 5 Years Old!

Telltale is celebrating their fifth anniversary, and they are celebrating the occasion by offering any of their downloadable games (Telltale Texas Hold'Em, Out from Boneville, The Great Cow Race, or any single episode from Sam & Max Season One or Two, or Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People) for $5 instead of the usual $8.95. If you are a Telltale customer, you can visit this page to get a coupon code. You can give that code to friends so they can get a game for $5 too. What's more, for everyone that uses your code, you will get $1 in store credit to use at Telltale's Store.

If you aren't a Telltale customer, or you're feeling generous, you can Use My Code to get your $5 game and let me get $1 in the process. :)

Telltale has also reached another milestone to coincide with their anniversary. This press release states that Telltale has sold over one million episodes of their games across all distribution channels since the company began! Congratulations Telltale! Here's to 5 more years, and many millions more sales and games on more consoles, computers, and distribution channels to come. :)

Strong Bad Collector's DVD Pre-Order

The Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Collector's DVD is now available for pre-order. People who ordered the season bundle for PC can get the DVD for just the cost of shipping. The DVD comes with neat extras like the full "Behind the Bad" documentary, never-before-seen footage from our panel at PAX 2008, and a bunch of hidden surprises and Easter eggs. There's no custscene footage here, and no commentaries, unlike the Sam & Max Collectors DVDs, but the extras should still be a lot of fun, especially for the price. :)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Telltale has a weekend only deal going on for Sam & Max Season One! If you order the game from their website this weekend, you can buy the game for only $19!

They have a similar deal going on for Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Nintendo raised the storage limit by allowing SD Cards to save and load games directly on the Wii, so now users can store as much as 2GB of data on a single SD card. As a direct result of Nintendo's raising of storage limits, sales of the Wii version of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People have doubled. As a celebration, Telltale is offering the PC version of SBCG4AP for only $19.99 if you buy the game through the game demo.