It’s been an amusing if sometimes bumpy ride through the first four episodes of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, creating a rather nervous anticipation of the series finale. So I was relieved to find that things look great from the start of 8-Bit is Enough. It begins with a chiptune-y rendition of the soundtrack and some Mario-esque smiley bushes, followed by Strong Bad’s ridiculous and accidental crash landing on the broken Trogdor arcade machine in his basement, making its already unworking condition infinitely worse. The whole setup is quite perfect really, providing the feeling that the game is striving to be artistic—or at least to be a clever ode to retro gaming. Luckily it succeeds in both respects, though like the series as a whole, this episode once again falls a little short of being as captivating or fun as it might have been.

The story is fittingly absurd. When Strong Bad mangles his beloved Trogdor machine, something goes drastically askew. The fire-breathing, one-human-armed dragon breaks loose from the game and begins “burninating” the real world. To stop this craziness, Strong Bad needs a “logic board” to stick in the arcade cabinet, and a means to destroy Trogdor for good. But due to some thoughtless advice from Videlectrix tech support, the “8-bit containment field” breaks, meaning the two worlds become indelibly mixed. From that point on, pixelized sprites can be seen in Free Town, USA, and Strong Bad can enter the game worlds of Videlectrix.

So you’re off, finding a way to Trogdor by weaving through both worlds and picking up party members, many of them characters from Videlectrix minigames encountered in earlier episodes. For example, “Snake Boxer V” provides you with some slithering snakes that fit uncomfortably in Strong Bad’s pants, while “Math Kickers” gives you access to the duelling Algebros. Other party members are variations of series regulars, such as King of Town minion The Poopsmith in his alternate handyman persona of “Mista Fixit”. The added members work as inventory items, each with a particular, usually obvious skill that will be needed in the puzzles to come.

The Videlectrix game worlds you explore, available through a central mainframe hub, don’t quite offer a true 8-bit wonderland, but the few odes to the era are witty and clever. Going inside Peasant’s Quest is a great example of this. It’s a satisfying parody of the arbitrary, grammatically incorrect (think: “look tree” or “talk man”) nature of classic text parser adventure gaming. In one scene there is an irretrievable flask stuck to a wall, and Strong Bad has a great discussion with the innkeeper about needing useless items in such games.

The 8-bit era isn’t the only one represented, either. Late in the game, after working your way through a first-person Wolfenstein 3D parody (in a keyboard sequence so simple that even the most action-phobic gamers will breeze through), you’ll reach the inevitable Trogdor showdown, depicted in glorious low-polygon, first-gen PlayStation rendering. During that encounter, Strong Bad himself appears as a buff, heroic new form of himself that he once imagined on paper. The whole scene is quite a sight, and a fan delight for the Trogdor-obsessed.

It’s these little tidbits that make this game work, and the retro-love in this game deserves some serious credit. The only problem is that the 8-bit bits feel a little sparse, even within the game worlds themselves. With one notable exception, 8-bit tunes are surprisingly absent, which is a shame since they’re so powerful in evoking nostalgic emotion. Even visually the 8-bit influence is often understated. The game “Halfathlon”, for instance, takes place at the all-too-familiar Free Town, USA racetrack. There are (extremely) low-res sprites to be found there, but it comes off as slightly disappointing that there’s so little that’s truly representative of the era.

In fact, the only full 8-bit experience of the episode is the obligatory Videlectrix minigame “Gel-Arshie’s Pro Fruitboarder”. In the new minigame, you jump, collect fruit, avoid pineapple rings, press a key several times to perform tricks—à la Tony Hawk skateboarding games—and hope for the best. It’s tolerable, and necessary to play at one point (no “skills” required), but I’ll be very surprised if I hear of people playing it for fun or for a high score. Videlectrix games hint at good design at times, but they often only hint, and this game just falls too far off the potential mark. Exploring the “Pro Fruitboarder” in-game world works better, as you get to go behind the scenes to witness Gel-Arshie first-hand, and the results are mildly horrifying and brilliant all at once—the Kool-Aid inspired mascot assaults you with his smiley-creepiness, and at the same time you’re getting a faux behind-the-scenes look at the insides of an 8-bit game.