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I'm not going to bore you with the tired old intro, saying that adventure games used to be big 20 years ago blah, blah, blah. That's been done to death ever since publisher Telltale Games revived the genre. Sam & Max was their first effort and is still one of the best. Formerly known as Sam & Max Season One, the collection has now been repackaged as a downloadable game for Xbox Live Arcade. Sam & Max Save the World has been called gaming's first sitcom. This television definition fits it pretty well, primarily because Sam & Max is funny. Laugh out loud funny. Funnier than most of the situation comedies on TV (I'm looking at you Two and a Half Men). Plus Sam & Max is broken up into episodes which can be played independently but when "watched" in order give a deeper appreciation for the gags in later episodes: like why their office closet contains a gagged poker player, a hypnotic teddy bear, and the president's severed head.
Originally a comic book by Steve Purcell, Sam & Max is about a dog and rabbit duo who work as freelance police. Sam the dog uses wry observations. Max uses threats of psychotic violence. The wickedly wacky humor was a huge computer game hit in the DOS days. A critically praised cartoon followed. Most recently, Sam & Max were an Eisner Award winning Webcomic. The cast of characters has been expanded to include goofy neighbors: Bosco, the paranoid not-master-of-disguise convenience store owner; Sybil, a hipster chick who changes careers every episode and sometimes more; the Soda Poppers, a trio of weird child stars, like Gary Coleman (who got older but not any bigger).
Reflexes are not needed here. In fact, there's no way to die. It's a mellow pace of trying to figure out what you have to do next to move the story along. Brains, however, are needed. Don't expect to use logic and reason because Sam & Max frequently uses a really twisted brand of logic. For example, Jimmy Two Teeth, the shifty rat living in your office wall, is holding your phone hostage. He demands Swiss cheese. You have a closetful of regular cheese (for no apparent reason). The solution? Shoot the cheese with your gun, and that's one of the easy, tame ones. I won't give spoilers, but one of the crazier puzzle solutions is selling the United States to Canada. Congratulations. We're now citizens of Lower Saskatchewan.
Each episode repeats the same neighborhood sets and throws in a few new ones. One of my favorites was a TV station where every room had a different show taping. The bachelor cooking show prided itself on its lack of fruits or vegetables. That's a problem when you need tomatoes to induce an explosive bowel reaction in a game show judge. It's easy to spend too much time trying to solve the problem there before figuring out you have to go to a completely different location. Get used to that. You'll be doing a lot of back and forth. It's not so bad when you know where you're going but you'll want to scream when you don't.
Control-wise, this game handles exactly like its PC and Wii counterparts. That's not a bad thing. Point-and-click using the Xbox thumbstick and buttons, but this is a step back from Telltale's previous Xbox 360 entry, Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventure. In that game, they customized the controls for a gamepad. Losing the ability to control the character directly with the right thumbstick wasn't a big loss, but using the shoulder buttons to cycle through all the clickable items was. Some of the objects are really small or not readily apparent, like the Apollo moon lander and the moon lander door. In some ways, Sam & Max feels like a first effort that got delayed until after the second game was released.
The graphics use very basic 3D models but in the cartoony world of Sam & Max, that style's just fine. In fact, they do some clever things with their graphics. Like in the Reality 2.0 episode, all the settings get reskinned like the movie Tron. A lot of care and detail was put into everything, as shown with subtle gags crammed everywhere. The voice acting is flawless. How the audio director managed to get every line imbued with the right comic timing when multiple dialog branches lead there is an achievement.
Speaking of achievements, the Xbox 360 achievements are divided into half for completing the episodes and half for finding obscure story Easter eggs. Did you expect to use your +2 sword when the game showcases its text adventure roots? Neither did I, but I got an achievement for attempting to use it one some helpless kittens.
The story is warped and hilarious. You'll find yourself trying to solve puzzles to see what happens next. That's also some of the frustration. When you're stuck, you're stuck. Gamers with short attention spans might not be willing to stick with it and lose interest. Like the best sitcoms, if you're patient, a slow build up rewards you with big laughs. Here's hoping Sam & Max gets renewed for a second season.
Fun factor: Comedy in gaming might be harder than any other medium, but Sam & Max will make you laugh out loud while alone in your room.
Game length: Six episodes at roughly 3-4 hours each. Depending on how clever and crazy you are.
Difficulty: Like all other adventure games, you'll likely get stuck. Spending an hour trying to destroy a rampaging Lincoln Memorial can be frustrating. Funny, but frustrating.
On the negative side: Sam & Max was originally released as episodic content, one game a month. Having access to all six episodes at once makes the formula tired if played in a marathon. Do yourself a favor and take an extended break between episodes.
Bang for your buck: Is Sam & Max Save the World worth the hefty 1600 Microsoft points ($20) price tag? Yes, yes, yes. The price is sticker shock for console downloadable content but if it was released new on disc you wouldn't hesitate at that price. Psst, it was. For the PC and Wii. This is a lot cheaper!
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