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Penny Arcade’s creators, Tycho and Gabe, claim that nowadays they see PA as more of a franchise than a webcomic. Never has this been more apparent than in Hothead Games’ Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, a godsend to children of the ’90s that spent their days with point-and-click adventures and turn-based console RPGs. While it’s short, and the bosses are somewhat cheap, $20 is a perfectly fair asking price for PA’s first video game.

Story:
Rain-Slick’s story and all of the dialog in the game was written by Penny Arcade writer Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, and it shows. You begin in the surreal Lovecraftian world of New Arcadia, circa 1922. Your first playable character is a happy suburbanite of your own design, taking care of his or her lawn. Suddenly, your home and all your worldly possessions save your trusty rake are destroyed by Fruit Fucker Prime, being chased by main characters Tycho and Gabe. You follow them and team up to stop it from bringing any more terror to the world.
Like any good RPG, Rain-Slick prides itself on witty, well-written dialog, and you get this by the barrel. Every object has its own description, written in the deranged style of LucasArts adventure games, and every dialog tree has several options. Admittedly, they don’t change anything in-game, but some of the dialog and the reactions you get from the NPCs is its own reward. I found myself having to take a ten-minute break from laughing too hard. I won’t say where for the sake of spoilers, but advise the readers to tell the truth when you buy the Ferris wheel. The cutscenes are all shown in 2D, an animated version of Gabe’s art, complete with a Penny Arcade-style rendering of your character, which is a nice touch.
It’s not all fun though. While it’s very deliberately tongue-in-cheek, there are a few dramatic moments, particularly when Tycho realizes who the final boss is, and they’re enough to almost kind of get a reaction from the player. Rain-Slick should not be considered a dramatic game though, and any attempts at classifying it as such would be madness (and also Sparta, which is the only pop-culture reference in the game).
STORY: 9/10

Graphics:
The graphics in Rain-Slick are cel-shaded 3D with textures done in the style of Penny Arcade’s Mike "Gabe" Krahulik. While they keep the PA "feel", I would definitely choose the 3D graphics as Rain-Slick’s low point. Stylized or no, they could easily be done on any last-gen console, and the only thing really amazing are the explosion effects when you break open a box of fireworks. However, if this is a game-breaking issue for you, you likely aren’t this game’s target audience, I’m afraid. I’m told by a friend that the text doesn’t show up quite right on the 360 version if you play it on an SDTV, something like what happened with Dead Rising, but I reviewed the PC version and don’t own an SDTV regardless, so I can’t be sure.
GRAPHICS: 7/10

Sound:
Rain-Slick’s sound is very impressive for an episodic game. The music is well-done, doesn’t get annoying, and very nicely suits the mood of every scene. I would definitely buy a soundtrack if one was made. The sound effects are equally good, from the flamethrower to fireworks to a clockwork robot’s creaks, everything sounds like you would expect. There’s not much voice acting besides a few gasps and grunts, but I like it that way. My greatest fear was that they would use Tycho and Gabe’s real voices, and they get a point just for not doing so.
SOUND: 9/10

Gameplay:
I’ll admit right here that I am not a fan of turn-based RPGs. Rain-Slick, though, has found a solution to my greatest gripe with them: Random encounters, tedious battles, and grinding. Both of these are more or less entirely absent in this game. All enemies appear on the main map, and the battles occur there, with the only change being a different camera angle and the combat HUD. The engine is more or less Active Time Battle. Each character has a speed stat and three options: Item, Attack, and Special Attack. Bars next to each stat fill up in that order at a rate decided by the speed stat, and when a bar fills, you can use that option. Items can be recovery packs, weapons, buffs, debuffs, and even distractions to use on the enemies. You also get double/triple attacks, where two or all three characters use a special attack together. Tycho and Gabe for example, shoot the enemy while punching books at them. Finally, you have summons, which call forth The Cat, Annarchy, or a repainted and reprogrammed Fruit Fucker to do insane amounts of damage for you. Of course, these bars take much longer to fill than Tycho, Gabe, and your attacks. Grinding is eliminated by having a set number of enemies in the game. When you beat an encounter, it’s gone and doesn’t come back. When you beat every encounter in the game, they won’t ever respawn. This works because your level caps at 15 and you can only reach this level by beating every enemy and every hidden Fruit Fucker in every map. The only gripe I have with it is that the second boss is incredibly cheap, and the only way I beat him was getting 15 of every damage-dealing weapon, using them in order, and then using all three summons (one of which was, miraculously, a critical hit).
GAMEPLAY: 8/10

Final Thoughts: Rain-Slick is a perfectly competent old-school RPG with plenty of humorous dialog and entertaining puzzles. The $20 price is totally worth it, and it’s only not worth it if you aren’t a fan of Penny Arcade

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 1600 MS Points, or on http://www.playgreenhouse.com for $20.