Game: Sam & Max Save the World
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam & Xbox One)
Developers | Publishers: Skunkape Games
Age Rating: EU 12+ | USA Teen
Price: EU € 16,99 | USD $19.99 | UK £15.29
Release Date: December 2nd, 2020
Review code used, with many thanks to Skunkape Games
Originally released episodically in 2006 and 2007 Sam & Max has been remastered by Skunkape Games. A small indie developer made up of former Telltale employees who acquired the rights for Sam & Max Season One after Telltale shut down in 2018.
All Six Episodes
The Nintendo Switch version is the full six-part game that was originally released in monthly downloadable episodes as Sam & Max Season One. When Telltale packaged the episodes together for retail and console releases, they renamed the season Sam & Max Save the World. Developers Skunkaoe Games have kept that name for the remastered version.
Sam & Max are two freelance police officers (private investigators) who stumble through their cartoon world solving crimes and getting into trouble. Sam is a giant dog who walks on his hind legs, he wears a trench coat and appears to be doing his best Sam Spade impersonation. Max, on the other hand, is a rabbity-thing and a bit of a loose cannon.
Meet Sam the Dog and Max the Rabbit Thingy!
The way that Max acts, and says things give off a devil may care attitude. It gives the impression that either he has a wicked sense of humour or he’s a sociopath that might need some medical help. Max will mostly be walking around everywhere on the screen, minding his own business, but if he ever gets in your way, Sam will just whack him and he will go flying in the air. The first few times of watching Sam throw Max into the air was pretty funny, but it wears thin after a while.
Point and Click to Play
Sam & Max Save the World is a standard point-and-click adventure game. You are primarily solving puzzles to move forward, and you interact with objects by pointing and clicking on them. By moving a cursor around the screen you tell Sam where you want him to go, sometimes that works but other times not so much.
You can also direct him to items you want him to pick up, all of which will be kept in a storage box. In your storage box of items you can use items you have found, either on there own or jointly with other items. For example, you might pick up a plate and set it on a cow’s head. Or maybe you’ll shoot lots of holes in a pile of cheese with your gun!
Take a Drive in Sam & Max’s Car
Most of the puzzles involve using the right items on the right people or objects, and like many games in this genre, the solutions can often be obscure. Completing each adventure takes a bit of experimentation with combinations that don’t make much sense sometimes.
From time to time, you will need to aim your gun or you must drive. I didn’t enjoy the driving sections as the controls felt odd to me. Sam & Max’s car hurtles straight forward along a never-ending city street, with left and right movement on the street directed by the joystick. To turn a corner you touch an icon on the screen. You can drive into the back of other cars and use a megaphone to force them to pull over and drive up ramps, and that’s about it.
A Story Full of Zany Characters
Story-wise there is a lot to play as you will be taking Sam & Max through six different episodes. All are available to play from the start of the game and you can play them in any order you wish. But I recommend starting at episode one as it’s the way to get acquainted with Sam & Max and their neighbours and friends. Not only does episode one introduce all of the characters, but it also introduces the mystery that will link all of these six episodes together.
You will have to deal with a group of child stars that are hypnotized by a crazy villain. Confront a talk show host that has taken her audience members hostage. Find a mole that has gone missing. Become the President of the USA, destroy the Internet. And finally, save the world from world domination!
Sam & Max Save the World is stuffed with zany characters and one-liners. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s quite as funny as the game thinks it is! The back and forth between the two heroes start getting old quickly. Even before they leave their office at the beginning of episode one you start to feel this.
Visuals and Controls
Graphically, the game does look good with its cartoony visuals. There is just enough facial animation for the characters to give glances to each other and the camera. The audio is fine, with great voice acting across the board and okay music backing it all up.
Controls are a combination of joy-con and touchscreen, neither of them felt particularly spot on to me. You control Sam with the left stick and the right stick controls the cursor which you can’t see at all. Quite a few times I heard Sam & Max repeat the same speech over again as I accidentally interacted with the environment. You can’t cancel their chat, you have to sit and listen to it over again.
Conclusion
Sam & Max Save the World is an entertaining point and click adventure. The game is given a new lease of life and a new lick of paint with its spruced up graphics. If you can get past the slightly unruly controls you will find a puzzle game that’s not too hard. There is some repetition in design between the episodes and some overly long dialogue lines from the characters.
A new generation of gamers may find some of the humour more groan-worthy than hilarious.
Final Verdict: I Like It