#dangeresque 3

[dailyhsrclips]

[bladexjester]

UZI BAZOOKA 2.0

(If he was made functional again after the events of DANGERESQUE 3)

[dailyhomestarfacts]

Fact 267:

Out of all the sbemails, only 6 have all been included on the strongbad_email.exe DVDs, the Sbemails' 50 Greatest Hits DVD and the SBCG4AP Collector's DVD, these being sbemail dragon, stunt double, army, video games, dangeresque 3 and best thing

[art-i-choked]

i learned what sultry means because of her

[kinogane]

Way Too Much Thought on the Last Two SBCG4AP Episodes

There was a recent poll on the Homestar Runner subreddit about people’s favorite SBCG4AP episodes. Dangeresque 3 is the clear winner, and 8-Bit is Enough is near the bottom, which roughly tracks with how I rate the episodes as well.

But isn’t 8-Bit is Enough being that low a little weird? It’s certainly the most flashy of the five episodes: front-and-center for the episode is Trogdor, who is one of the most enduring things from Homestar Runner writ large. The premise of Trogdor and the other video games escaping into reality lends itself well to the video game format. The TROGDOR! cabinet was just sitting there, unused for four episodes, which builds anticipation. And as the conclusion of SBCG4AP, it certainly ends on the showiest note, with a low-poly PS1/N64-era confrontation between Strong Bad and Trogdor. So why does it seem like not a huge favorite?

8-Bit is Enough is identifiably a Homestar Runner video game; it has all the trappings of one with the likes of Trogdor and Stinkoman and so on and so forth. But it’s also the SBCG4AP episode that feels the least tied to Homestar Runner as a universe. Most of the gags and interactions are more predicated on video game humor (more specifically, NES-era video games and point-and-clicks) than it is to anything specifically from Homestar Runner, because most of the trappings are largely Homestar Runner by association. Trogdor is from Homestar Runner, but Trogdor’s main connection to Homestar Runner is the fact that he was a cool thing created by Strong Bad in a sbemail. By design, there’s not really that much you can do when Trogdor shows up besides point at him and go “look at that cool ass dragon”.

Dangeresque 3′s entire premise, meanwhile, is literally the continuation of a running gag that started five years before its release. It’s ostensibly a spoof on cop/detective stories, but the real meat of the Dangeresque movies is the gulf between Strong Bad’s creative ambition and the movies’ incredibly amateurish feel, ranging from laughably revealing editing to stilted acting to a mostly a cappella soundtrack. All of this, besides being funny, serves to emphasize Strong Bad’s pathological need to make himself seem way cooler than he actually is by, which is basically his entire schtick in Homestar Runner.

Dangeresque 3 is initially framed as if the player is controlling Dangeresque scene-by-scene, but it becomes clear quickly that the player is actually controlling Strong Bad acting as Dangeresque while trying to ensure that the shoot goes smoothly. It, of course, does not, with multiple obvious cuts to redo mistakes, multiple instances where Strong Bad very obviously gives stage directions, and a sequence where the movie is paused mid-playthrough as Strong Bad and The Cheat argue about a huge failure in editing.

The game literally tracks how many outtakes you’ve seen.

The premise of playing through a dude’s really bad vanity project he made with his friends associates(?) isn’t exactly difficult to pick up on and appreciate, but because said dude in question in Strong Bad, an established Homestar Runner character, and said associates are also established Homestar Runner characters, the specific ways in which they chafe against the movie and flub it are core to the enjoyment of the game.

For instance, in Dangeresque 3, Strong Bad intends to cut a bit of Marzipan’s hair for the movie (which in itself is reminiscent of the haircut sbemail, where Strong Bad unsuccessfully tried to do the same). Marzipan won’t comply, so the solution is to take her beloved ficus, Credenza, and toss it into a “shark pond” so that Marzipan will be sufficiently distracted. Both the dialogue setting up the puzzle (where Strong Bad explicitly refers to Marzipan) and the scene afterward, with the cut to Strong Bad (as Dangeresque) with a pencil stuck in his ear, makes clear that this was an in-the-moment, improvisational scheme that Strong Bad cooked up to keep the movie going. The set-up, solution, and payoff play off what we know of Strong Bad, Marzipan, and their dynamic.

Contrast the Stinkoman 20X6 puzzle in 8-Bit is Enough, where Strong Bad can only insert himself into the game world if Stinkoman dies. The solution is to tell the enemies to be faster and less predictable, which charitably speaking could be seen as a nod to I Wanna Be the Guy-style precision platformers that operate on those rules, and more likely is a manifestation of the “boy, these enemies are real dumb, imagine if they didn’t move in set routines” thought that’s crossed the mind of anyone who’s thought about enemy AI patterns, difficulty, and/or their theoretical agency in the game’s world, jokingly or otherwise. There’s nothing strictly wrong with this puzzle, but nothing about it is relevant to the fact that it’s in a Homestar Runner game besides the aesthetics of Stinkoman. (And maybe a general sense of irreverency.)

The net effect is that Dangeresque 3 rewards you much more for having a deep knowledge of Homestar Runner. When you see Strong Bad trying to foist Senor Cardgage into an important role because he still thinks Cardgage is an aspirational figure, when you see Bubs trying to shill his merch while his character is in a prison that is just his concession stand, when you see Marzipan start preaching about environmentalism and get fast forwarded, it all plays better because they’re follow ups on threads already established by the cartoons that you’ve almost certainly already watched. Meanwhile, 8-Bit is Enough is largely content to show you the thing you recognize and make spoofs on and references to video games, something that is undoubtedly part of Homestar Runner, but is not a large part of what makes it something people still fondly remember and quote over a decade after its heyday.

[thunderlina]

I made a 2D Sultry Buttons!

I'm in the process of making sprites for some of the Dangeresque 3 characters that were only ever seen in 3D. What's posted here is a PNG file, though she was originally made as a Vector image (.SVG file). If I had a way to post the SVG I'd do it but I don't so have this instead.

I think she looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

[woods-of-mal]

Coming Winter 2014 Summer 2015 Summer 2016 February 2017 April 2017 We’ll see...

[dailyhsrclips]