Gamertell

Sam and Max: Season One: Sam and Max: Season One
Price: $29.95
System(s): Wii
Release Date: October 27, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Telltale Games (Adventure Company)
ESRB Rating: “Teen” for Cartoon Violence, and Mild Language
Pros: Very funny, entertaining story lines, six games in one.
Cons: No mini-games, very dialog heavy and no tutorial for car chase scenes.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up; 97/100;  A;  * * * * 1/2 out of five.

Telltale’s Sam and Max: Season One for the Wii is finally out and ready to be vandalized played.

Though originally an episodic adventure game available for download only for the PC (like most of Telltale’s games), this great six-episode set is now out for the Wii, revamped and ready to go.

Sam and Max (a dog and a bunny, respectively) are two freelance cops who end up taking on the most bizarre cases imaginable. When your freelance you can’t afford to be picky.

In episode one, which is the episode I will be reviewing, a convenience store clerk calls you to his store to report a case of reverse shoplifting. A former child star by the name of Wizzer is trying to give away free video tapes of a new exercise video “Eye-bo.” Sam and Max investigate and find out that “Eye-bo” is run by a strange man who is hypnotizing people with his videos and getting them to do his bidding, like giving away free video tapes.

Play it Again Sam

Let me start by saying I loved the original Sam and Max: Hit the Road, game for the PC that came out many years ago. I found this game to be equally as entertaining and funny as Hit the Road. There is a great cast of characters, great point-and-click action and I guarantee you will laugh so hard it hurts.

Max is a witty, sarcastic and possibly sadistic bunny rabbit, while Sam is a much more sober and peaceful dog who is his partner in the crime… fighting. Max has a witty (or dumb) comment on everything, which makes some of the more boring yet necessary dialogue a lot more bearable. Also, you can get Max to do just about anything, so keep that in mind when you are trying to solve a puzzle.

When you interrogate people, you get to play “good cop bad cop.” Sam’s answers are usually, “Lets talk this over. Can I get you a soda?” type answers and Max’s are more “talk or I’ll dangle you out the window and tickle you with a buzz saw!” style responses. Obviously, the latter are more effective.

You can also drive around and give tickets to people, which you need to do in order to raise money in the game, which you will need to plenty of to buy various weapons and gadgets from the convenience store clerk who doubles as an inventor.

Not So Fast, Buddy!

You have to talk to people throughout the game, to get their story and such. The only problem is there is way too much dialogue. When you click on a character, you can ask many different questions but only a couple are actually relevant, the rest are just to be funny. The worst part was, I didn’t realize until around the forth person I talked to that you don’t have to ask every single question, so I wasted a lot of time doing that.

The car chases were very confusing and I had no idea what I was doing (they don’t give you a tutorial). You are basically in a car chase scene where you can shoot other cars and pull them over with your bullhorn. I keep driving around and around looking for someone who was committing a crime. Finally I realized that I had to make them commit a crime by shooting out their taillight or some other action.

There are also no mini-games of any kind, which doesn’t give the episodes much of a replay value.

It’s Not Easy Being Freelance

So basically the worst part of the game was the long dialogue and, once I realized that I don’t have to ask every single question (although you might if you wanna hear all the hilarious answers), the game became much more fun.

The humor is unbeatable and the storyline is so ridiculous that you can’t help but stay intrigued. Though I only played the first episode, I’m sure the other five are very similar in game play and humor and I can’t wait to play them. This is definitely a game you should pick up at your local game store.

Heck, the game is worth playing just to see Sam kick Max across the room every time he walks by him.

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