Sam & Max: Hit the Road

The Good
Sam & Max Hit the Road is a 256-color point-and-click adventure from LucasArts, which was produced in 1993. Unlike Lucas' previous adventures where you play a human being, in this game, you control Sam, a ferocious dog who acts like a 60's detective, and he is joined his sidekick Max, the bunny with the smartass attitude.

Story: After destroying a mad scientist and rescuing a damsel-in-distress, Sam and Max return to their headquarters to be assigned another mission: find Bruno the Bigfoot and bring him back to the carnival, They must also find Trixie the giraffe-necked girl who may hold the clue to his whereabouts. Furthermore, they must stop country-western superstar Conroy Bumpus, the guy who has a Liverpool accent and is believed to be behind their disappearance.

Gameplay: And so your quest begins. To complete the game successfully, you must travel to locations across the USA. At the very start of the game, you only get to choose between three different Snuckey's convenience stores, where no matter which one you go to, Bernard is always there waiting to serve you. You can also travel to the carnival where your mission begins. More locations will be discovered as you are progressing through the case, just by talking to people or doing certain tasks.

As mentioned above, Sam & Max is another one of LucasArt's point-and click adventures. When you start the game, however, you won't be seeing nine verbs like you did in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Day of the Tentacle, but instead, you will just see a box at the lower-left corner of the game screen. Right-clicking the mouse button cycles through different cursors, including walk, look, speak, use, and inventory, which is similar to Sierra's past adventure games. The inventory cursor represents the item that was selected from inventory, which can be accessed by clicking the box. The other cursors are self-explanatory. If no inventory item gets selected, Max's cursor will appear in its place. Clicking this cursor on something will instruct Max to do something with it, so he doesn't seem useless. Clicking the speak cursor on a character will bring up a series of icons. The ?, !, and the rubber ducky icons initiate general conversations with a touch of humor in them, but the icons after that initiate more serious conversations that focus on the case at hand. The commands can be activated by using the keyboard that corresponds to the action that you want by pressing its first letter. You also can see icon that looks like Sam's palm, and clicking on this ends the conversation.

Like most of LucusArts's adventure games, you cannot die in Sam & Max, so you are free to play around and try to accomplish some of the unusual tasks. The outcome can be quite funny, and more often than not, some of them will work. Speaking of funny, the game is supposed to have a lot of humor, starting from the introduction and carrying it right through to the end. In the introduction, for example, Sam found out that he didn't dispose of the bomb on his way to headquarters. He asks Max where he should put the bomb, in which Max replies "Out the window, Sam. There's nothing but strangers out there." Sam will then say "I hope there was nobody on that bus." This was the first thing that made me laugh. Another example of this type of humor would be speaking to the chief's wife at the Bigfoot party, who changes the subject so she talks about her past conversations but never stops.

What I enjoyed most about Sam & Max is the fact that there are loads of mini-games that you can entertain yourself with. You see, you can play games that include Wak-A-Rat, Paint by Numbers, Dress-Up, Car Bomb, a highway game (where the object is to make it to the finish line by making Max jump over signs while you are driving without running out of time), and a shooting gallery. Some of these games are only made available if you buy them at Snuckey's, and you have to complete the game in order to participate in the shooting gallery. My favorite one of these games is Car Bomb, which is just a version of Battleship but adds some twists to the game. You see, not only can you place your vehicles on your board and bomb another person's board, but you can also use trampolines and two nuclear bombs. Also, with Dress Up, you can turn Sam into a chef, or make Max a pizza delivery bunny,

One of the locations that you will discover in the game is a Mystery Vortex. All weird stuff goes on in there, as both Sam and Max will expand and shrink their heights as a result of magnets that are buried deep below the Earth's crust. One of the rooms is turned upside-down as soon as you enter it. There are at least two hidden features inside the game. You see, if you keep Sam & Max idle too long, either a screen saver will be shown or the screen will keep dissolve until you interrupt again.

The game's installation screen requires no copying of files. You just select your sound cards and run the game. (Your settings are stored in a folder called "samnmax.cd", which is amazing considering that DOS doesn't allow the use of names that exceed eight characters in length.)

Graphics: The graphics are in the same line as DOTT: cute, colorful, and appropriateness to the object to that of real life. These graphics are carried right through the adventure. However, much later in the game, you get to enter a virtual reality world to get an object, and the world itself consists of 3-D graphics

Even though the game has to be played in VGA, you can choose to play in b/w mode, giving Sam & Max a film noir feel, which is similar to those 60's detective shows.

Music & Sound: The music in this game is very good, and the sounds are similar to those of DOTT, since both of them are supposed to be cartoon adventure games. The game can be played using the Sound Blaster (including SB16), Adlib, Roland, or Soundscape, but I think that the sound can be played only through the Sound Blaster.

If you have the CD-ROM version, there is speech throughout the game, delivered by some top actors. (Like the floppy version of DOTT, there is some speech only in the introduction of this game.) Furthermore, the CD has four CD-Audio tracks that are worth listening to.

The Bad
No biggies, but I just found a few problems with some games. For example, once you end up playing the highway game, you cannot quit to resume to your adventuring by pressing the [Esc] key, except let yourself run out of time by smashing signs. In Paint By Numbers, it is impossible to paint a specific area without painting the whole portion. when I tried painting the snake's eyes red, the snake itself becomes red.

The Bottom Line
If you like DOTT with its sense of humor and great graphics and sound, you will certainly enjoy Sam and Max. Buy a copy of the game from somewhere, and show some respect to LucasArts.

Rating: ****½

The Good
"Sam & Max hit the road" based on the cult comic book "Sam & Max freelance police" by Steve Purchell are perhaps LucasArts finest opus. Sam, the dog and Max, the rabbit (well, actually he's a lagomorph a cross between bunny and wolverine but enough about that) are the freelance police, their mission is to find Bruno the Bigfoot and Trixie the giraffe-necked girl from Scranton who has disappeared from the local carnival. During the search for the two missing freaks Sam and Max travels to various wacky tourist attractions and meets up with even wackier characters, my personal favorites were the cursing Uri Geller-lookalike and the demented country-western star, Conroy Bumpus. The game is filled with absurd humor and funny punchlines, you control Sam and uses Max as a tool on various things in the game often with some hilarious results. As you may have understand by now humor plays a large part in this game, there's nothing serious about "Sam & Max hit the road" just plain old fun. Actually it should have a warning text on it: "Warning! May cause you to die laughing if you play it too much.

The Bad
Some of the puzzles can be pretty obscure otherwise it's more than good.

The Bottom Line
LucasArts at their best.

The Good
Hot off the success of Day of the Tentacle, LucasArts crafted another bizarre cartoony adventure game, and this time they upped the ante and delivered the most whacked-out adventure game ever and one (if not the!) best adventure game ever. Seriously, Sam & Max stands firmly as one of the most fantastic adventure games ever even when faced against LucasArts legendary collection of adventure games.

The game puts you in the shoes of the dynamic duo of Sam & Max, the Frelance Police (Tm), who take on the case of finding a missing bigfoot from the local circus. From that point on the game develops into a deranged road trip across the United States filled with equally deranged characters and puzzles to solve in order to single out whoever got away with the circus freaks and put a stop to his obviously machiavellian schemes involving .... shudder Country music...!

Your main avatar in the game is Sam, who (as the most rational and collected of the pair) goes around asking questions and getting items. Max, being the most perfect cartoon incarnation of all that is irreverent and chaotic, goes around raising havoc in the best tradition of Bart Simpson only with far more twisted and dark motivations. He moves around freely, poking and touching things and adding sarcastic remarks or exchanges with Sam whenever you try something in the game thus providing the right ying to Sam's yang and creating some truly amusing situations. He's even available as an individual "action" pointer, but be careful whenever using Max... dire consequences await!

Keeping in tune with the characters, the gags in the game are tremendously bizarre, but also tremendously funny and range from sight gags, to sarcastic remarks and situations (love the Virtual Reality sequence) as well as scatology, jabs at pop culture icons and enough bad jokes to make you die of laughter. I cannot stress how good the comedy writing in this game is, in fact for me (perhaps because of my rather twisted sense of humor) this stands as the number 1 comedy adventure game ever. That's right pal, take your Monkey Island and shove it below the equator!

The locations are some of the most imaginative places ever created for a videogame, with the mistery vortex taking all awards home, and these locations are all lovingly drawn and presented in fullscreen glory thanks to the new interface that thankfully removes the traditional SCUMM-bar that took 30 or so percent of screen room.

Furthermore even if the script wasn't as thight and well-written as it was, the game has plenty of other diversions in the form of memorable characters, multiple mini-games, and loads of funny things to try out and discover! Ain't that enough for you??

The Bad
Can be too weird for some people, and too hard too!! Some of the puzzles here are waaay into advanced territory, especially because of the incredibly crazy leaps of logic you have to take some times...

The Bottom Line
Laugh-out funny, with a clever script and even more clever writing. With enough technology upgrades to be a standout in it's time, winner mini-games like "Car Bomb" and loads of funny extras, a psychotic bunny/wolverine crossbreed and enough wacky and challenging puzzles to spare, Sam & Max is the adventure game to take with if you are going to a deserted island. (that and a computer to play it on!).

Man.... Max is my hero!! I want to be like him when I grow up!!!...well, except for the whole "going around naked poking at things" thing... I already do that on my own thank you very much.

The Good
This game rocks. The main game involves a hare-raising quest to find a missing bigfoot and the giraffe-necked girl that loves him. Along the way, you see the worst of America, aliens, and C&W star Conrad Bumpus!! You'll jump from Mt Rushmore, play golf, laugh at bad jokes, cry at good ones, and see several Star Wars references.

There are also bonus games which, once discovering, you can play at your leisure.

Puzzles are numerous, but are often logical (in their own illogical way). In typical Lucasarts way, they are item based. There are also many individuals to interact with and there are numerous conversation options. This is actually a pretty full and fulfulling game.

Great voice acting, graphics, gameplay, etc.

The Bad
It was literally painful to get this game to run on my souped up PIII system. This is an older game (archaic in computer years) that required running from dos and configuring the sound card. Even still, sometimes the sound would cut out.

Other than that problem, this was a very good game.

The Bottom Line
This is what they mean by a classic game. It has good graphics, sound, story, acting, puzzles- etc. Everything came together and while I wish there was a sequel, I know that they would louse it up.

The Good
Everything was great. The voice acting was right on, the animation was stellar and from the start the game went on a ride that never let up. I found myself laughing out loud at what was going on. There is one part, where Sam plays Wack-A-Mole to win a flashlight, but on the side is Max, if you feel like it, you can whack him a couple of times on the head just for fun. This might be a little hard to find now, but be sure to pick up a copy if you see one. I got mine a few years ago at a garage sale for $5, I knew nothing of Sam and Max before that, but I'm glad I got it.

The Bad
What is there not to like? Everything from the World's largest ball o' string to the ride through the tunnel of love.

The Bottom Line
Quite possibly the greatest adventure game ever made, or at least the funniest.

The Good
You know all those 3d still-life picture slide shows that call themselves adventure games? Those don't got nothing on this game. This game is hilarious. The best thing about Lucasarts adventure games is that you never ever forget the characters. Even the characters that play a minor role in the game have their own personality that you'll remember. Remember the pirates in the bar in "Secret of Monkey Island?" They were HILARIOUS. Evidence exists in too many forms to name in Sam & Max, but it adds another element to the unfogettableness and to the overall enjoyment to the game. You remember the locations. I have to say, the locations in this game are some of the funniest and the most random locations I've ever seen. The Mystery Vortex has to be the weirdest and funniest places ever, and Gator Golf is also way up there. I loved this game from beginning to end; you'll be really fortunate if you're lucky enough to find this game. You'l feel the same

The Bad
Kinda short. You never want this kind of game to end. Oh, and too bad the only version I had was the disk one. I wish I could have listened to all the voices.

The Bottom Line
Witness a true milestone in the history of adventure gaming by playing this game.

The Good
When I first saw this title in the stores I wasnt very impressed with the idea of a comic book game. But when I gave this title a chance WOW! I was impressed that this game could made me laugh that much. Years later when I got married I showed my wife the "wack a rat" scene. She still laughs about it. One of the things I usually dont like about adventure games is that when you finish the game there is virtualy no replay value left. Some games will try to help this with more than one path to finsh a section or multiple endings. But not Sam & Max, they simply placed all kinds of great jokes and comments and hid them all through the game. A good example is in the begining of the game when you are outside for the first time, you can enter a baby products store and talk to the owner. (I wont spoil it for you) I dont know how many times I have played this game but when I cant find a good adventure title on the market (which is been just about every day for the last 4 years) I play this great old classic. Rest assured this game has more laughs per square inch of cd than any other game.

The Bad
They didn't make a sequal.

ENOUGH AREADY LUCASARTS! WHERE IS SAM & MAX II?

The Bottom Line
The age of this title may be showing. But if you can stand a little out of date graphics then..... YOU HAVE TO GET THIS TITLE. WSM

The Good
Undoubtedly one of the funniest, best adventure games I’ve ever played (and I’ve played a LOT!)

Released in 1993 (wow, is it that long ago already??), Sam And Max is a classic comedy adventure game from LucasArts, ranking right up there with Day Of The Tentacle and the God-like legend that is Monkey Island.

As much as I love just about all the classic Sierra adventure game series (the Space Quests, the Kings Quests, the Leisure Suit Larrys, etc.), this game has more "laugh out loud" material than many of those titles, particularly late ones where Sierra just seemed to run out of steam.
Even by LucasArts' often bizarre standards, Sam And Max is REALLY weird – when a game stars a big overgrown canine and a hyperactive, occasionally psychopathic little bunny, you just KNOW your in for something not exactly run of the mill!
There’s some truly bizarre humour that has to be seen to be believed, and as with most bizarre humour, much of it has an underlying dark side to it. But I loved it. Its strange sideways humour, laced with many various pop-culture references, is great is what makes it so memorable.

Many of the gags are of the so-bad-they’re-good variety, but they’re done so knowingly, so tongue-in-cheek and rather self-mockingly that they work.
The often laugh-out-loud material continues throughout the game and barely lets up the pace at all. Even if you hit a spot in the game-play where you're not quite sure what to do next or how, the comical dialogue, supported by top-notch voices, ensure that the game never gets boring.

Asides from the main game, there's also a number of great sub-games tucked around in various areas of the game, such as Wak-A-Rat, Highway Surfing (Max stands on top of the patrol car and has to jump on-coming signs), a very crazy game crazy golf game involving crocodiles, and a wonderful Battleships-type game, Car-bomb (that should be developed into it's own game!). Some have to be completed in order for a certain outcome to somehow advance the game; Others are there for the pure fun of it.

As with most LucasArts games, there’s several nods to other LucasArts characters – IS that Bernard from Day Of The Tentacle working in one of the Snucky’s stores??

The voices on the CD-ROM version bring the characters to life superbly, and are particularly spot on for the two leads.
The graphics look great (especially taking into account the age) and hold up well age-wise.

One of the notable things about the whole game and it's packaging was the instruction manual. Far too often companies dish out a few-paged handbook just with installing instructions (that are usually apply to multiple games anyway), but with this game, the whole book was a little comedy publication of it's own. Complete with little gems like "Make your own Max out of an old paper bag", and a hilarious Sam And Max board game, the instruction manual was a joy in itself. If only more games were as creative with their packaging and extras.

I completed this game a couple of weeks after I got it (it’s one of those games I just had to keep on playing until I completed it). I was actually really sad when the end finally came - I had such a great time playing it, I wanted it to go on forever!!
Even though pretty much linear as to the puzzle solving, the game has re-playability value, as it’s great just to hear the unlikely duo’s comments and responses to everything – especially when you deliberately try something wrong.

All-in-all, a classic, VERY bizarre, VERY funny adventure game; one that ranks right up alongside with the mighty Monkey Island in terms of greatness, and one that will stick in your mind. I'm a HUGE Monkey Island fan, but, dare I say it (shock horror) I think I may like Sam & Max even better - and that's really going some!!

**The Bad**
I think I can honestly say that there isn't a single thing I didn't like about this game, it was just such fun to play.

The only bad thing is that it has to be that it eventually had to come to the end. I wanted it to go on forever! The one big problem I did have was not game-wise, but on the technical side. I found this one particularly hard to get up and running happily, particularly with regards to the sound. On my old 486 system (with a SoundBlaster 16 card), it took a boot-disk with LOT of poking and tweaking of Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files to A) run without coughing and spluttering, and B) to get it to run with any sound at all!

Some players might find the humour in this game a little too dark and too far out – even by Day Of The Tentacle and Monkey Island standards (but personally, I loved it!)

But the worst thing about this game - there's never been a sequel! Criminal! Come on LucasArts, it's never too late (and the adventure games market isn’t exactly crowded these days)!!

**The Bottom Line**
Classic, bizarre LucasArts adventure. Some really warped puzzles; some really funny dialogue. What else can I say? One of my all-time classic adventure games. If you've ever played Day Of The Tentacle, or one of the Monkey Island games, and have remotely enjoyed it, then I suggest... no, I demand that you find a copy and play Sam & Max. It should be made law!!

The Good
The adventure game world is divided into 2 parts - the part before Sam & Max and the part after....nothing in each part could come close to Sam & Max.... Sam & Max is a humorous adventure featuring a dog and a rabbit who go on a road trip across the USA... the plot may not be a very profound one but it's great nevertheless... The game is filled with wacky animations and sounds ( and voices for the lucky ones with the CD-Full-Talkie Version ) which contribute to the atmosphere... The game is also very, VERY, VERY funny....

The Bad
There's nothing bad I can say about the game but I have something bad to say about the sequel Lucasarts are preparing right now ... It's 3D !!!! if you check out the official website for Sam & Max 2 you can see that characters like these can't live in a 3D world because it's not wacky enough....

The Bottom Line
Great game... get it now !!!

The Good
First of all, the graphics are surprisingly good and have a cool comic-book style that you will love. However, the best thing about this game is it's areas and characters. You'll find weird attractions in the USA such as world's largest ball of twine, a bungee jumping spot set in the nose of president Lincoln at Mt. Rushmore and a weird area ignoring gravity laws called the Mystery Vortex. You play as Sam a dog detective and his pal Max, a rabbit. Max can collect weird items which prove more useful than you think. You may even need to use Max at certain points. The game can be very hilarious at times and once you play for a while you'll be hooked. Sam and Max are trying to find a missing Bigfoot and thus stumble upon weird and funny characters such as Conroy Bumpus, a country singer whose only problem is is small height, an old B-movie actress and an Indian telekinetic tool bending guy. These totally weird and crazy things make it original, which is good because otherwise it would just be another basic point and click game.

The Bad
Sometimes it's difficult what you need to do next, which makes you want to use a walkthrough constantly.

The Bottom Line
A brilliant and totally crazy game that will get you hooked, especially if you liked Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion.

The Good
You thought that Day Of The Tentacle was good? Then check this out! Out of every LucasArts game every made, this is without a doubt the funniest game they've ever made! Max (the rabbit) says "Mind if I drive?" and Sam (the dog) replies "Not if you mind me clawing at the dashboard and shrieking like a cheerleader."! It's funny things like that that made "Sam and Max Hit The Road" such a big hit!

Thanks to the VERY twisted humour, the game has a lot of replay value. It's also worth coming back for the puzzles which, unlike most adventure games, are well balanced in terms of difficulty.

The interface is very original and easy to use. Although different to many other LucasArts games, it does allow you to see more of the action. You just continue right-clicking until the icon represents the action you wanna do, and then left click on a person, item etc and see what happens! Easy!

The graphics are bright, crisp and colourful. The characters are well animated, and there's even some solid 3D graphics - A revolution back in 1993! The sound effects fit in with the action very well, and the music is also very cool and jazzy!

Without a doubt, the CD-ROM talkie version is the best version of the game. The in-game speech allows you to understand the characters better than the floppy version. The floppy version only had speech during the intro.

The Bad
The many mini-games included with this title are too simple to hold much interest. The highway game is a real bore, jumping over signs until the day you die!

The Bottom Line
If you ever have the opportunity to buy this game, then don't just stand there looking at it! Buy it! You can also run the game through this fantastic emulator (highly recommended!):

http://www.scummvm.org/

The Good
HAHAHAHA!!!! Ahem, sorry, I was just reliving some of the very funny moments in this game. You see, Sam & Max Hit The Road has to be one of the funniest, most oddball adventure games ever released on the PC platform. You play Sam AND Max on a roadtrip across America, stopping off at some of the weird roadside attractions such as the world's largest ball of twine attraction - you know the kind of thing on Route 66...well you do now!

The puzzles here are completely off the wall and the difficulty level is high. This will count as a 'con' as opposed to a 'pro' for some people but i like it - I love a challenge and this certainly provided one. The weird humour continues on into the puzzles themselves as well, so you have to tune yourself in or you'll not stand a chance here!

Graphically its looking a little on the dated side these days, very cartoonish though and cartoon graphics never really grow TOO old, but be aware its not top quality artwork boys and girls! you also need to ensure you find the CD-ROM version or you'll lose out on sound effect on te floppy disk version - which sucks.

Its difficult to say WHY you'd love this - you just WILL. Its a simply hilarious game, very irreverant and not afraid of poking fun at some icons along the way. A few of these are American 'celebrities' who other countries will have no clue about(trust me, I'm a Brit and they passed over my head until they were explained!), but they're still funny. To play this is to love it - 'nuff said(and its cheap ;o)

The Bad
Ermmm...I'll say it again - I LOVE THIS GAME! But in the interests of objectivity, here's some reasons why you might not:

Too tough: some of the puzzles are ridiculously obscure and some STILL make no sense to me once they have been solved. You will almost certainly find yourself stuck struggling to find a solution which is ultimately impossible by any other means than trial and error...an then still expect to be stuck! f you hate turning to walkthroughs or get frustrated easily then this is NOT the game for you.

Dated: As I said, its looking a little on the old side now, but I think the cartoon graphics mean its not going to age that greatly.

That's Disgusting! : yes it is, sometimes, certainly irreverant most of the time, so if you are easily offended then this isn't for you. Its not bad enough to gain a certification, but if you're particularly protective of your young'uns then you might like to steer clear of this title

The Bottom Line
Simply the funniest game I've played(aside from the Monkey Island series) and well worth a purchase if you can find a copy...

The Good
The best aspect of the game is something that will never go old: it's hilarious. The dialogue is, if possible, even wittier than in Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. And the characters: Sam is a tough-as-nails detective dog who loves big words and inexplicable metaphors. Max is a hyperkinetic, psychotic and violent rabbit. How can you go wrong with a pair like this? The humor, mostly an excellent combination of insane dialogue and creative slapstick, may not be intended for the kiddies, but I still think that this game can be enjoyed no matter what your age is.

Somehow, the game's colorful graphics, animation and music seem to be timeless, and make the game feel like an interactive animated movie. The voice acting is great, especially the voices of the leading duo, Bill Farmer (Sam) and Nick Jameson (Max). Jameson also plays the hilarious lead villain: Conroy Bumpus, a country-western star with an unconvincing British accent and even less convincing hairpiece.

The interface is better than in the earlier LucasArts adventures. The verbs at the bottom of the screen are gone, replaced by a simpler but more effective method. Your options are limited to "use", "pick up", "talk", "walk to" and "look at", but it works fine. Even better is the redesigned dialogue: you can no longer see what you're about to say in advance, so the joke isn't killed by having to read it and then hear the character say it.

Finally, the minigames that you can buy from the "Snuckey's" stores offer a great change of pace, especially if you get stuck. The minigames are something that I'd like to see in more adventure games.

The Bad
It's not perfect, though, and not even the best LucasArts adventure there is. My main problem was with the puzzle design. Though the puzzles in Monkey Island were somewhat absurd, they were still logical. Sam and Max don't care about logic, which sometimes forces you to try pretty much everything until you get the right option. There are also cases when the item you needed to pick up blended into the scenery or was impossible to find. I don't want to spoil the game for anyone, so I'll just use one example: how on earth was I supposed to know where Sam and Max keep their money? Illogical puzzles are a problem in almost every adventure game, but it's still annoying.

The story, featuring Sam and Max hunting a missing Bigfoot, becomes way more interesting than it sounds, but I still would have appreciated something more memorable. Also, the music, despite being made by the same composers, is less memorable and more annoying than in, say, Monkey Island.

Finally, the game somehow feels shorter than other LucasArts games, which was unfortunate.

These are just minor issues and don't ruin the game at all, though.

The Bottom Line
A great adventure game full of madcap, anarchistic humor that can be enjoyed by just about anyone.

The Good
Hey there! I've decided I'm going to review the Sam & Max games. I'll go in chronological order, starting with this masterpiece and then on to Season 1 & 2. I would review each episode in individual reviews, but I don't want to clutter up MobyGames. Anyways, before we get started, a little history. Back in the late 1980s, artist Steve Purcell wrote a series of underground comics called "Sam & Max: Freelance Police." While the comic had a cult following (Including Chie, my girlfriend at the time- now my wife) it didn't really go as far as it should have. Purcell was hired by the LucasArts corporation, and for the company newsletter he would draw new Sam & Max strips usually parodying LucasArts products. The guys at the office loved them, and prepped Sam & Max for their very own game.

That year, the titanic monster known as " Doom" came out, got me addicted, and held my brain hostage. I began writing game & movie reviews for my high school newspaper thing, and that year I got my very first request. Chie wanted me to review this game. The review was delayed because I had to get my brain back from Doom, but once I had my brain back and lodged safely in the moist confines of my skull, I sat down and booted up this little masterpiece.

What makes Sam & Max so great is one simple thing: The humour. While it is yet another top notch adventure game from LucasArts, there are some more apparent flaws once you strip away the laughs which I will cover below. Yet Sam & Max is easily the funniest of LucasArt's adventure games, and considering they did the hilarious Monkey Island games and other very funny games like Day of the Tentacle, that's saying ALOT. The humour in Sam & Max is hard to describe, but lets just say that if Salvador Dahli was a comedian, Sam & Max would be his brainchild. Calling Sam & Max surreal just isn't doing it justice.

The graphics, while sadly heavily pixelated, are great. Purcell's rather distinct art style is brought to life and the animation is great as well. The game also has some very vibrant colours which please the eyes, especially when replaying the game in the modern era where the only colour necessary in video games is red for blood and gray for everything else. It's also funny to see Max wander around the sets and interact with some of their unique props.

The game sounds great too, from an excellent Jazzy soundtrack, to the superb voice acting which only enhances the funny. Back in 1993, I'd say that Sam & Max was worth buying a CD drive just so you could have those voices. The voices really do make the game funnier, with pitch perfect voices for everyone, especially Sam & Max. They sound just how you would expect them to. There are various good sound effects too, often very cartoony and sometimes just as random as some of the games jokes.

The game has a very simple, user friendly interface and improves upon the classic interface from previous LucasArts games which was a little more cluttered and complex. By having only a few icons and symbols representing each function when you mouse over something usable really helps. The game also does away with red herrings, meaning every item that you stash in your handy box o' stuff will have a purpose at some point or another and there are rarely any dead end stops. Pixel hunting is also not found here, with every object that you might need clear as day and every object you need to use even clearer.

The puzzles are surprisingly difficult, and while many are good and require logic, others aren't so good; something I will cover below. I like the difficulty, but Sam & Max does push it a little, and I will cover that below as well.

The game has a great and relatively lengthy campaign and gives you plenty of bizarre locales to explore and equally bizarre people and creatures to meet. My favourite location is The Mystery Spot, a place where the laws of physics are pummeled to death as horrifically as possible. I also love one of the characters in the Mystery Spot, a gay hippie mole creature that uses a psychic mood ring to find people or things. His part is small, but I thought he was awesome.

The game has great replay value, not just to chuckle at the jokes again, but also to find new dialogue trees and jokes you would've normally missed on your first playthrough.

The Bad
Although there are several good puzzles and there's no question as to the fact that they will boggle your mind, sometimes the puzzles are a little too mind boggling and insane. I know that it ties into the humor, and I definitely found these funny in the end, but the frustration in learning these solutions is ridiculous since they often throw out all logic; something necessary in these games. Would you know without a hint that you are supposed to attach a severed hand holding a fish shaped fridge magnet to a broken golf ball retriever with a convenience store drink cup on the end into the worlds largest ball of twine? No? Didn't think so.

There are also a couple mini-games which are more tedious than they are fun (Although I did like the battleship variant), and the convenience store locations are somewhat copy-pasted and the jokes wear thin, making it an annoyance to have to repeatedly go to them. The highway surfing minigame is also annoying because it will not let you leave until you reach a certain goal, and sometimes a bug will cause it to be impossible to leave and you will have to reboot the game to go back to the locales you need to go to to complete the game.

Speaking of bugs, this game has a surprisingly large amount compared to other LucasArts adventures, and many of them can be game breaking. They can usually be fixed by restarting the game, but they still might happen which is a real pain.

The Bottom Line
Sam & Max Hit the Road is undoubtedly the funniest game I have ever played. It still makes me laugh my butt off, and like I said in my Full Throttle review, these adventure games are like your favourite movie. They may not be immediately replayable, but you'll want to pop it in from time to time and enjoy it all over again. If you like adventure games and if you need a good cure for your depression, Sam & Max hit the Road will do just that.

The Good
The characters, especially the sarcastic bunny. The locations and characters all seemed to have an exaggerative, stereotypical quality that was hilarious yet so true.

The Bad
Where to go next wasn't always clear- also once the game never spawned the next location when I fulfilled the reqiured tasks-leaving me frustrated.

The Bottom Line
A hilarious experience- a must have in your PC game collection.