Sam and Max: Save the World - Review
Added June 30th, 2009 by Adam Schedler
Originally released as an episodic series on PC several years ago, Sam and Max finally hit the 360 with Sam and Max Save the World, a compilation of the game's first “season.” Basically what this means is that for twenty dollars, you get what is one of the best adventure games around, with plenty of wit, humour, and everything else you'd expect from an adventure game revival. It's a genuine pleasure to have the dog and rabbity-thing on the Arcade.
The first season's story arc revolves around a mass-hypnosis scheme that seems to be taking over the world. Each case connects to the other, and interwoven characters and jokes make playing through the entire season really rewarding. You will be frequenting the same city block in each epsiode, perhaps more than you'd like. Later episodes mix things up by starting in different locations and limiting backtracking a bit. The game's six episodes also cover a wide breadth of topics and comedic depth. Hypnosis remains a firm compass for the plot. You'll become involved with Eye Bo ocular fitness videos, hot rumps, a virtual reality MMO game, a presidential race, and much more.
The gameplay is essentially a streamlined version of classic adventure game styling. You pick up a variety of items from different places, and it's up to you to find clever ways to use them. Have you ever had to trick some statesmen into saying the word 'war' so you can open the presidential war room and destroy an animated statue of Abraham Lincoln? You will after playing Sam and Max. There's not a whole lot of complicated item combinations to make or any particularly brain-busting puzzles here, which is a good thing, because the game's witty, sometimes hilariously verbose writing demands a quick pace. As long as you pay careful attention to the dialogue and fully explore the different areas available to you, you won't have much trouble going through the episodes. There are thankfully few leaps in logic present here, and things are generally quite sensible, if you can think a bit like a Saturday morning cartoon designed for adults.
Sam and Max are still looking good and sounding fantastic after these past few years. Telltale has added widescreen support to the game, and its cartoony, exaggerated vistas look great on an HDTV. Animations are also good, especially for Max, who stomps around the areas, menacing different characters and objects while Sam solves the case. The audio is the real standout here, though, with tremendous voice acting all around. Sam and Max themselves are the obvious highlights, but virtually every character you come into contact with has the perfect voice, and they deliver their lines flawlessly. As veterans of adventure gaming, Telltale realizes how important the actors are to comedy, and it pays off. The amazing jazz soundtrack by Jared Emerson-Johnson fits the game's sensibility perfectly and is worth seeking out just to listen to throughout your day.
A few problems do rear their heads here; some have been with the game since its PC debut, while a hitch or two is unique to the 360 version. A universal problem that's still not fixed on Xbox Live Arcade is some audio syncing issues. Sometimes, when the camera cuts to a new angle during dialogue, it will repeat the audio clip, overlapping other audio that was meant to come before or after. On occasion, the voices won't come through at all, which can hurt the set up of a few jokes.
Otherwise, this is a package that is really difficult to resist. The first season of Sam and Max is one of the funniest and most enjoyable experiences I've had playing games, and having it available on Xbox Live Arcade for just twenty bucks is an incredible steal.
