Snake Boxer 5
83 Percent Snake Handler Approved!
So much better than Snake Boxer 4.
"Must. Punch. Snakes."
Snake Boxer 5' (or Snake Boxer V) is the fifth game in the Snake Boxer series, and it is one of the minigames in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive Peoples Homestar Ruiner, accessible by using the FunMachine in Strong Bad's Room. Strong Bad comments that it is "so much better than the unfortunate Snake Boxer 4: Lady Snake Parade" and "fifty times cooler than Snake Boxer 2: The Biting of Boxer Joe", and that it put the Snake Boxer series back on track after Snake Boxer 3: Solving Problems Through Diplomacy. Gameplay resembles that of Boxing for the Atari 2600. The Homestar Ruiner gameplay video "Around the Field" shows an updated cover of the Snake Boxer 5 manual, which features the Videlectrix logo. This was the first confirmation that Snake Boxer 5 was made by Videlectrix.
The game has an unlockable cheat code, which is unlocked by finding all the pages of Strong Bad's long-lost manual. According to Strong Bad, it unlocks "Snake Boxer 5's Super-Secret Forbidden mode". In the Forbidden Mode, you play as another, larger snake. Instead of punching, the snake lunges with the attack key. The guard key draws the snake back instead of defending, but holding the button down allows your snake to breathe fire, causing more damage.
On May 9, 2008, Telltale Games announced a contest to come up with Snake Boxer 5's tagline. The winning taglines were not used in the game, but the tagline creators' names were used on page three of the instruction manual. [1]
Manual
Manual Pages
SNAKE BOXER V
VIDEO GAME MANUAL
After failing to lead the Lady Snake
Parade into space, Boxer Joe returns
to his roots as a New York deli owner.
It isn't long, however, before the
local Snake Mafia learns of his
return and forces him back into
the ring!
How long can you last against
wave after wave of deadly snakes,
and can you unlock Boxer Joe's
deadly secret before it's too late?
SNAKE BOXER V
VIDEO GAME MANUAL
Lead Game Cartridge Cleaner • Dan Kaskoun
Graphics Tightener: • John Wallace
Beta Max Tester • Edd "RabidZombie" Shaw
Bleep Composer • "Pikey"
Assistant Tongue Forker • David D
SNAKE BOXER V
VIDEO GAME MANUAL
notes
cobra secret mode
↑ ↑ ↓ ↑ start
Easter Eggs
- Pressing + (Wii version)/"S" (PC version) during gameplay will ring the judge's bell heard at the beginning of each round.
Fun Facts
- This game features snakes.
- Snake Boxing is a style of Chinese martial arts. Practitioners imitate the movements of snakes with their fists rather than actually fighting against snakes.
- Strong Mad mentions wanting to play Lady Snake Parade in Baddest of the Bands, expressing worry and sorrow that the Fun Machine was broken.
- Boxer Joe, as well as some of the snakes he fights, appear again in 8-Bit Is Enough, this time in Free Country, USA.
- In Poker Night at the Inventory, Strong Bad mentions to Tycho that Videlectrix had recently released a sequel to Snake Boxer 5, called Snake Boxer 6: Now The Snakes Have Fists Too.
Real-World References
- The phrase "Graphics Tightener" (in the credits found in the manual) likely references a commercial for Westwood College Online, which used the phrase "we just need to tighten up the graphics on level 3". The commercial achieved memetic status on the internet for being an absurdly unrealistic depiction of what it's like to make video games.
- Betamax (from "Beta Max Tester", a play on "beta tester") was an alternative to VHS tapes. Betamax never achieved success, and is mostly famous for having failed despite being a technically superior format.
