The quirky music for the makeshift bands in the game really enhances the rock vibe of the episode. The alt-rock, neo-political blasts from Marzipan's group, The Cool Tapes, are pretty funny. Coach Z and Bubs rap treacherously, while Homestar requires headphone prompting for his spoken word act with Pom Pom's musical backup. The painful reality of how horrible each band sounds makes the situation all the more hilarious. Strong Bad's group takes the cake, sounding like a cross between the gates of hell opening and a heavy metal guitar dying.

The series' puzzles continue to increase in cleverness, though many of Episode 3's challenges run a tad on the easier side this time around. The solutions seemed to come a little quicker, due to the puzzles being more intuitive in nature. It's not quite as hard to figure out where to go next and what to do as it was in some of the past episodes. That's not really a complaint as much as it is an observation. The point-and-click genre often suffers from inanely unintuitive puzzles that require in-depth walkthroughs to overcome. The joy of this series comes more from its humor and quirkiness - not its brain teasers. Quite a few of the puzzles are delightfully absurd in and of themselves. For example, Strong Bad will have to assemble the components required to make a killer Limozeen album cover featuring a bikini-clad blond wielding a giant sword while atop a flaming car. Not to be forgotten are the snarling dinosaur and an exploding star in the foreground.

Like the episodes before it, Baddest of the Bands is wildly ridiculous and largely entertaining. It doesn't pack quite the epic feel or the challenge of Episode 2, but the rocking subject matter is a perfect fit for Strong Bad's outrageous wit. The first season continues to go on strong through its mid-point, and we're hopeful the team at Telltale can keep the funny rolling through the remaining two episodes.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor