Sam and Max Save the World Review (XBLA)

Different names, same product: This is also known as Sam & Max Season 1. If you have the Wii or PC version, this is the exact same set of six episodic games, just ported to the Xbox 360.

Fans of the point and click adventure genre were thrilled when Telltale began publishing various short ’episodes’ of Sam & Max a few years ago. The original Sam & Max game from the early 90s was one of the funniest games of its kind, and these modern episodic releases keep the spirit alive. The gameplay is pretty simple, as you guide a smart-mouthed dog (Sam) and psychotic rabbit (Max) through a modern but bizarre world, solving puzzles in order to fight crime. Purely as a game, Sam & Max Save the World isn’t very hard or engaging; the game is just a means of telling a hilarious story.

While Sam & Max are freelance police, that doesn’t mean they’re saints. Just about everyone in their world is at least a tad deranged, leading to surreal humor in the vein of The Simpsons, The Critic, and even various Brooksfilms. Just about any topic is fair game for the writers to poke fun at; you’ll see parodies of popular TV in one episode, jabs taken at survivalists and conspiracy theorists more than a few times, and even some affectionate joking about video games of the 80s and early 90s. Sometimes subtle, somtimes blatant with its humor, each episode will definitely keep you laughing. A normal play-through of any given episode will last about three hours, or a little more if you take the time to explore the world and talk to everyone; and you should!

Of course, the differences between each version are worth covering. The PC version is perhaps the definitive one, but not everyone wants to go that route for whatever reason. The Wii version has the best interface, but its backgrounds lose a lot of the subtle humor because the resolution got chopped down and there are numerous audio glitches. The Xbox 360 version fixes most (not all) of those bugs and restores the full video resolution, but uses an analog stick rather than a mouse or Wiimote. Fortunately, the analog stick works fine as a mouse substitute if you’re gentle on it and make subtle motions. With this in mind, I think the Xbox 360 version has its own strengths.

Sam & Max Save the World is hands down one of the most expensive games on Xbox Live Arcade, weighing in at 1600 Points/$20. But that’s as a collection of six episodes that each last a few hours, so you’ll probably get around 15-20 hours of play from it and be laughing quite often. It’s a simple game, but it’s top-notch comedy and comes highly recommended.