Sam & Max: Hit the Road

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
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
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/