Review: Sam & Max Season One

I had only heard of Sam & Max from a TV commercial for the cartoon when I was young.  Although I had never tuned in, it didn’t stop me from enjoying this adventure game for the wonderful writing within.  Even if you don’t know who in the Sam Hill this duo of freelance police are, there’s a bit of humor for everyone.

Sam & Max has is straightforward as far as the basic premise goes.  You play as Sam, a usually calm dog who wears a suit and fedora.  Max is his rabbity-like sidekick who’s a bit on the crazier side.  While Sam is laid-back and methodical about situations, Max tends to want to cut to the chase, become violent and aggressively solve any problem that may arise in a physical sort of manner.  The two are private investigators known as the Freelance Police.  In this particular season, they’re trying to figure out why numerous people have become hypnotized.

The game itself is in a 3-D environment with point and click mechanics.  When you want to investigate a point of interest or item, you simply move the cursor with the Wii Remote over it and tap the A button.  Although it sounds as simple as that, sometimes it can be more of a chore to actually get Sam to check it out.  At times I found it difficult to highlight exactly where I wanted to click with the pointer and when I finally did manage it, Sam seemed to drag his paws getting over to the spot.  

Still, when dialog was triggered, comedy usually glossed over my annoyance either by Sam’s long winded sentences that seemed to utilize the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and punctuated by Max’s often times nonsensical pattern of his own train of thought.  Add in a few zany characters including a shop owner who’s paranoid about anyone and everyone out to get him and a neighbor who keeps switching careers at a drop of the hat and you’ve got a fun cast that delivers the laughs.  The humor helps immensely when you’re trying desperately to figure out puzzles the game is mostly made up of as well.  Although hints are occasionally given at times, you’ll have to be creative to figure out a few.

As far as the actual presentation goes, it leaves a bit to be desired.  When the game isn’t trying to load a section from the disc, all the characters move fluidly on the screen.  Unfortunately I found the game tends to want to stream and my Wii more often than not was reading the disc.  This lead to choppy movements and occasionally missed opening dialog.  It only took away from the experience when I missed a sentence from a character, but since it never seemed vital it was tolerable.  

The sound however was great with the voice actors performing their roles well.  They seemed to fit the job and do it appropriately.  Musically, Sam & Max has many fun jazz inspired riffs and while they aren’t too memorable, are catchy while playing through.

Sam & Max Season One may have its share of follies, but it doesn’t stop it from being fun.  The wonderfully written scripts result in interesting banter between the characters involved and add life to the story.  If you can look past a few presentation issues, there’s a real gem to be found here.