Strong Bad Episode 5 Demo, Controversy
The final episode of the good fun Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People series is out now, with a demo available. It's the second best of the five (the fabulous Episode 3 beating it), with some top-notch nonsense, and Mike Stemmle Chuck Jordan on puzzle duty, with Mike Stemmle at his side. And of course features the mighty Trogdor, as well as many other favourite Videlectrix characters, including the world of 20X6. A tip-top episode, well worth your money. However, there was briefly some controversy afoot in that regard.
It's not that the series never featured Ol' Timey H*R at any point, even though it should be. And it's not the devastating news of the Telltale/Videlectrix spat. It's that if you want to buy Episode 5: 8 Bit Is Enough on its own, you, er, can't.
In a very confusing decision, Telltale have stopped selling Strong Bad episodically. If you want to buy Ep 5, you have to buy an entire season pass for $35. Which is a teeny bit more than the $9 the other episodes cost.
However, after quite a brouhaha on the TT forums, there's been a swift response to fend off the angry mobs. If you bought the first four episodes, Telltale will have already automatically upgraded your account to have a season pass, and thus give you Ep 5 for free. Which is a bit good. However, if you bought multiple episodes individually, but not all four, Telltale will be sending you an email that has a really rather splendid offer in it. You'll be able to fill in the gaps in your collection for just the price of one more chapter.
Previously the best offer available was the "upgrade", which lets you convert to a season pass for $26. Of course, that options still available to anyone who bought just one episode previously. So in the end, fairness has happened to all (unless you want to gripe that someone gets more free than you do - but then you should have bought a season pass if you bought them all individually, you dimwit).
It does leave the question: why would a company who have made their name selling episodic adventure games for years suddenly stop selling their latest series episodically for the final episode?
Meanwhile, regarding the far more volatile controversy over the Telltale/Videlectrix bust-up, tomorrow we will have a world exclusive interview with Videlectrix as they dish the dirt on Telltale in full.