Welcome to day two of the GIO unofficial Advent calendar, The ADVENTure Game Calendar, where I reminisce about some of my favorite adventure games, both old and new.
One of the big parts of adventure games and probably one of the main drivers that defines a game's genre as "adventure" is the focus on puzzles and the story. Sometimes the stories are dark and sometimes the stories are funny, like yesterday's featured series, Space Quest. Today's title would be borderline insane...funny/insane. I am talking, of course, about:
Sam and Max was originally a comic book series that was eventually turned into an adventure title by the late LucasArts called Sam and Max Hit the Road. The series features Sam (a six foot tall dog in a suit) and Max (a bunny-like creature who needs a serious dose of Valium whose first major line is "gratuitous acts of senseless violence are my forte") who work as private investigators, the Freelance Police. The game featured the Freelance Police tracking down two carnival sideshow acts, a frozen Bigfoot and a giraffe-necked woman, across the United States. Along the way they hit up the world's largest ball of yarn and even search through the home of Elvis in Graceland.
I got my hands on Sam and Max as a part of a collection of LucasArts games that included X-Wing, Indiana Jones, and a bunch of other great PC titles from the "old days". At first, I had little interest in the game, spending more time playing X-Wing and Indiana Jones. One summer, I got bored and didn't have money for any new games, so I went ahead and installed the game and was hooked for the next two weeks.
It has been years since I last played the game and I am sure some of the jokes aren't as funny anymore, but darn if that game didn't keep me entertained and laughing for the weeks I played it.
In 2002, LucasArts announced they would be releasing a sequel, finally, to Same and Max Hit the Road. Unfortunately, in traditional LucasArts fashion, the announcement came too early and the project was scrapped late in the development cycle. Some of the original LucasArts staff who worked on the game broke off to form Telltale Games specifically to work on LucasArts titles that were no longer considered marketable by LucasArts, believing there was still a market for adventure games like Sam and Max. Years later, LucasArts' control of the Sam and Max gaming license expired and Telltale Games got the nod for the license, putting together an episodic Sam and Max tale: Sam and Max Save the World.
Sam and Max Save the World followed a similar setup as Hit the Road, but it introduced a 3D aspect to the game and was made episodic. In fact, certain industry professional-types have credited Save the World with being the first truly successful episodic title, paving the way for other episodic games like Back to the Future and The Walking Dead.
The popularity of Save the World lead to additional seasons of the episodic Sam and Max adventures titled Beyond Time and Space and The Devil's Playhouse. All are extremely fun and funny titles worth a play-through by any fan of the adventure genre.
There are rumors out there that Telltale is going to abandon the license or already has. To this date I have not seen the official statement and I doubt it exists. Here is to hoping season 4 of the Sam and Max episodic series will be out soon...