Season One

Blurb

The former child stars of the Soda Poppers TV show are wreaking havoc all over the neighborhood! But this is no ordinary tale of child stars gone awry. There’s a dark force behind the Poppers’ baffling antics. Using only their wits and a slew of heavy household objects, it’s up to Sam & Max to save the day!

Details

While walking around their neighbourhood, Sam & Max discover that a group of former child stars – Whizzer, Peepers & Specs, known as the Soda Poppers – are committing crimes to promote Brady Culture, an ocular fitness guru. Sybil Pandemik, the local psychiatrist, reveals that the Soda Poppers have been hypnotized. It is later discovered that Brady Culture himself is controlling the Poppers, as he is jealous that their 70s TV show was more popular than his. Sam & Max stop each Soda Popper using various violent methods, and as each former child star goes down, Brady Culture’s voice is heard cursing Sam & Max for interfering with his plan, although enjoying the violence Whizzer, Peepers and Specs are enduring.

Once the Soda Poppers are back to normal (if they can be described as that), Sam & Max locate the ‘Asylum For Former Child Stars’, which is where Brady Culture is hiding out. Sam & Max confront Brady Culture – who is casually playing his organ -, but he attempts to hypnotize the freelance police. Max’s unique mental structure protects him, but Sam is not so lucky. Under Brady’s control, he is forced to return to Bosco’ s Inconvience and shop-drop ‘Eye-bo Ocular Fitness’ videos into the store. Sam is eventually knocked out by Bosco’s Anti-Theft system and makes up to discover that Culture has tied up Max. Sam gets Bosco to build him an anti-hypnosis helmet (a coat hanger and dish strainer) so Brady Culture can’t pull the same trick on him.

Sam returns and tries to stop Culture with the Soda Poppers’ help, only to find that they are still under the villain’s control. The dog and afro-man engage in commanding the Soda Poppers, with Sam finally winning by tricking Brady Culture due to his need for everything to be all about himself. While the Soda Poppers beat Brady, Sam & Max destroy the hypno-glasses and leave. A clue about the next episode is shown, and the game fades into the credits.

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Critics

Gamespot – Conveying humor in games is tough, but the original Sam & Max game did a fantastic job and is probably still among the funniest games ever released. Although that’s a hard act to follow, Culture Shock has plenty of fantastic lines in it. … The fully polygonal game matches the style and detail of the comic books quite nicely, and the characters are really well animated. The voices, while not done by the people that voiced the heroes in the LucasArts adventure game, are styled in a similar way and fit the characters just fine.

Adventure Gamers – I felt like the hope that was taken away two years ago had been properly restored and finally rewarded. Culture Shock is as pure and true to its legacy as you could ask for, and a proud bearer of the new standard for cartoon adventure games. There are minor quarrels to be had with some technical aspects, the ease and fairly limited scope of the game, and the general lack of anything truly spectactular, but I challenge you to play this game for any length of time and deny the fact that it is a dose of pure, righteous, unmitigated fun.

Eurogamer – Sam & Max: Episode One: Culture Shock is a wonderful piece of entertainment, and easily the best adventure game since the days of Grim Fandango. It’s not only the most ‘fun’ game we’ve played all year, but also the funniest and deserves to succeed so that other developers are inspired to take the same calculated risk as Telltale and follow their own vision. It’s also, without doubt, the best advert we’ve seen for the merits of episodic gaming. … Go and party like it’s 1993.

Trivia

• An advertisement for Prismatology can be seen on Sam & Max’s office TV.
• A poster can be seen outside the Theater shows Harry Moleman, a character who appears later in the season.
• The box on the top of the filing cabinet is dated when Sam & Max: Freelance Police was cancelled.

Further Reading

• Telltale’s episode page
• Sam & Max wiki

Blurb

Talk show host Myra Stump has gone berzerk! Sam & Max head down to the WARP TV studio to find out why she’s holding her audience hostage. But getting onto Myra’s stage isn’t going to be easy. First the Freelance Police will have to prove they’re worthy of fifteen minutes of fame.

Details

Talk show host Myra Stump is holding her audience hostage, so Sam & Max travel down to the local TV studio to see what is going on. There they meet a director who wants Sam & Max to film an episode for the studio’s latest sitcom, Midtown Cowboys. The show is all about the tale of two people living in an apartment with a “herd” (actually a single cow due to the studio’s budget), and the antics they get up to while trying to keep it secret from the nosy apartment manager, Mr. Featherly. Sam & Max have to ad-lib their way through the script, making sure they slip in a product placement while doing so. Once they finish filming, the director allows them to explore the rest of the studio. They approach Myra, but she won’t let them into her show until they become famous. This involves a clip from a TV show they were in, a recording contract and a big news scandal.

While roaming the sets, Sam & Max meet Hugh Bliss, a cheerful (and slightly odd) magician who is trying to sell his books on Emetics, a system he invited to help people feel good based around colours. Using this system, Hugh Bliss can turn himself into any colour that he wishes. Sam & Max make Bliss turn himself green and have a picture taken with him. They then take this to Sybil, who is looking for a picture of a green alien getting romantic with someone for publication in her newspaper called The Alien Love Triangle Times.

Filming nearby is Embarrassing Idol, a singing show with two of the Soda Poppers as judges, and Max as the third due to Peepers competing in the show. Sam auditions with his banjo to back him up to try and win the prize, a recording contract with Bin Bottom Records, but the two Soda Poppers aren’t voting for him. Specs doesn’t think that Sam’s voice is up to scratch, while Whizzer says he will only vote for his brother, as no-one except him remembered his birthday. After getting rid of Whizzer, Sam enters the competition and wins, with a little help from the latest Boscotech invention to give you a deeper voice.

Now that all three requirements have been filled, Myra lets them into her show, but shoves them on the guest sofa for interview. Sam & Max notice that an odd looking teddy bear on her desk seems to be hypnotizing her. The Freelance Police manage to electrocute the bear by putting Myra’s sparking (due to over-use) microphone in water, thus breaking the hypnotic hold the bear had and solving the episode. The camera pans down under the desk to reveal that the bear had come from the Toy Mafia, leaving questions up in the air for their next case.

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Critics

Adventure Gamers – It was probably going to be an insurmountable task for Situation: Comedy to be anything other than a letdown. After all, we waited thirteen years, through numerous emotional peaks and valleys, to get the Sam & Max we dreamed of—and now we get it again two months later. Don’t expect the same sparkle you likely felt during Culture Shock. On its own merits, though, Situation: Comedy is a great-looking, great-sounding game that is a fun two-hour diversion.

IGN – Situation: Comedy advances the story but it doesn’t exactly move the series forward in terms of gameplay or humor. The puzzles are all much too easy and don’t really tax the gray matter too much. Likewise, the jokes are too safe to really do justice to the franchise. … That said, Sam & Max is still enjoyable for its cynical wit and generally inventive situations. Just realize that you’ll be playing it more for the enjoyment of the manic atmosphere than for the challenge it provides.

Gamespot – Situation: Comedy gets by on its charm. The characters are great, the dialogue options are solid, and the game ends up being funny more often than not. There’s some good voice acting in there, too, though some of the lines get cut off. Also, there’s a new voice for Max in this episode, which some may find a little jarring. He turns in a fine performance, though. Visually, the game is well animated, and the different areas you go to look great.

Trivia

• Myra Stump is based on US talk show host Oprah Winfrey. It parodies the time Oprah gave away free cars to audience members.
• While in the cooking show, one of the ingredients on the rack is Red Dye Number 2, a reference to one of the components of grog in the Monkey Island series.
• A table-top with the Telltale Games logo can be seen tucked away behind one of the sets in the studio.
• The shows in the studio are parodies of real ones, such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire and American Idol.

Further Reading

• Telltale’s episode page
• Sam & Max wiki

Blurb

The commissioner is looking into an underground operation at the Ted E. Bear Mafia-Free Playland and Casino, but the mole he sent in has suddenly gone quiet. To find the mole, Sam & Max must infiltrate the operation and become members of the Toy Mafia themselves.

Details

The Commissioner had recently sent a undercover agent into Ted E. Bear’s Mafia-Free Playland and Casino, but the mole had suddenly stopped sending news back. Sam & Max get given the job of finding out what happened by becoming members of the Toy Mafia. Sam & Max travel to the casino to find that it isn’t Mafia-Free as the title suggests, as the workers there aren’t hiding their guns particularly well. They notice a door at the back which is guarded and requires a password for entry. Realising they need to get in the back room, Sam & Max crack the password using Bosco’s latest organic listening device invention. Once inside they are greeted by Chuckles, a senior mafia member who will let them join if they complete three tasks.

Their first task is to place one of the mafia’s teddy bears in Bosco’s Inconvenience store. After tricking Bosco’s security camera system, Sam can put the teddy bear on display in the store. The second task for the Freelance Police to carry out is to kill Sybil Pandemik as she is a court witness to one of the mafia’s operations. Obviously not wanting to kill their friend, Sam fakes Sybil’s death using ketchup. The final task Sam & Max must complete is to recover Ted E. Bear’s original meatball sandwich, which has been stolen. They look around their neighbourhood, but when they return to their office they discover Leonard Steakcharmer making a sandwich-related deal with Jimmy Two Teeth. After some ‘gentle’ persuasion, Steakcharmer reveals the sandwich is hidden in the casino’s slot machine.

With all three tasks are complete, Sam & Max are now official members of the Toy Mafia. However, they discover that Ted E. Bear is actually the mole they came looking for, who has changed sides. They go to the mafia’s back room and find themselves in a production room, with hypnotic teddy bears being created in large quantities. Ted E. Bear notices Sam & Max and attempts to hypnotize them, not knowing that both of them are immune to such trickery. The mole orders Sam to shoot Max, which he does, but instead using the cap gun that they stole from Leonard. Max then fakes his own death (overacting slightly), leaving it up to Sam to find a way to stop production. He replaces a voice box in one of the bears with that of the One Armed Bandit, and uses it to hypnotize Ted E. Bear into thinking he is on fire. Ted stumbles over the fire extinguisher, but Sam sucks him up with the machinery, causing it to jam and the factory to explode.

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Critics

Gamespot – You’ve probably already made up your mind about the series. If you played the first two episodes, you should certainly keep on playing, unless the second episode rubbed you the wrong way by reusing so many locations. And if you’ve held off, or played the first episode and decided it wasn’t for you, you could probably keep right on looking in the other direction. The episodic nature of this adventure is starting to hurt it, as each individual episode is short enough for you to finish it in an afternoon at most–and this one feels even shorter than the other two.

International House of Mojo – So, to recap – less things to do, less people to meet, and less difficulties to overcome. Surely the humour and story can save Episode 3? Well, yes, to an extent. It’s still funny, and the challenges Toy Mafia godfather Ted E. Bear sets you are amusing and entertaining in equal measures. However, this game is much less funny than Episodes 1 and 2. The story is fairly interesting, enough to keep your attention, but nothing more.

Eurogamer – Hopefully we can start to see a return of the more involved, challenging style seen throughout the ’90s. Part of the ‘problem’, if you like, is the general lack of locations and objects on your person – inevitably it’s not long before you join the dots. But then again, the very reason there are so few items and locations is that Telltale is keeping the size of its episodes small, so it’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.

Trivia

• The Whack Da Ratz minigame in the casino is based around a similar one in Sam & Max Hit the Road.
• Leonard Steakcharmer looks very similar to Boris from Telltale Texas Hold’em and Sam & Max tell him “you look more like a Boris Krinkle”. While in Texas Hold’em, Boris Krinke was told that he looks more like a Leonard Steakcharmer.
• Sam asks Bosco “Do you have any hats in the shape of a cow udder?”, a reference to a character in the Bone: The Great Cow Race video game who wears a cow udder shaped hat.

Further Reading

• Telltale’s episode page
• Sam & Max wiki

Blurb

The president’s lost it. Federally mandated group hugs, a pudding embargo… what’s next, gun control? Sam & Max are off to Washington to take care of this bozo, but the political climate will only get stormier… and a new power will rise…

Details

The Commissioner has sent Sam & Max to deal with the President who has gone mad. They discover that the President has been hypnotized, but get kicked out of the White House out before they can investigate further. When they come back they find the Soda Poppers standing around discussing topics of ‘importance’. They use Whizzer to distract the President’s security, leaving the man himself unguarded. Max attempts to knock him out to stop the hypnosis, only to discover that he was in fact a puppet made to hypnotize people. The Freelance Police return outside to find a reanimated statue of Abraham Lincoln running for office, with Secret Agent Chuckles on his shoulder. Max decides to run against Abe, and pulls some tricks to give Abe bad publicity. Not taking the news well, Abe starts rampaging around Washington and causing havoc. It is now up to Sam & Max to stop him.

Back in the White House the Soda Poppers explain that they are all governors – one of South Dakota, one of North Dakota, and one of the newly created West Dakota. A huge argument breaks out about who claims Mount Rushmore, and Sam & Max calm things down by giving Whizzer some truth serum. However, this causes insults to fly from his mouth, and a war breaks out between the Dakotas. A song about war is then sung and danced by the President’s agents. Yes, really.

Sam & Max enter the War Room to discover that they can destroy things by firing intercontinental ballistic missiles, as long as there is a homing beacon placed on it. While flicking through the places to fire at, they notice that Bosco’s Inconvenience is on the list. They take a trip down to his store and discover the beacon behind a sale sign. They take it and stick it to the still rampaging Abe Lincoln, promptly return to the War Room and press the big, red ‘FIRE!’ button with joy. As the camera fades to the credits, it is revealed that Chuckles is reporting to someone with even greater power…

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Critics

Adventure Gamers – Abe Lincoln Must Die!, interestingly enough, feels much more like a game that has been in development for years than Culture Shock, the actual first episode, did. It is expansive, it is brash, it is fearless, it is totally and completely devoid of any sort of moral compass or political correctness, and it is almost twice as long as its predecessor. Plus, it’s still a Telltale Sam & Max game so it’s gorgeous to look at and comes with another fantastic jazzy soundtrack from Jared Emerson-Johnson.

International House of Mojo – Abe Lincoln Must Die! is, for me, the best in the series by miles. Packed full of twists, laughs and shocks, it’s just an absolute joy to play from beginning to end. There are some things in here that really blew away what I thought the Telltale Tool could do, particularly in the animation department. Max’s “adorable” face comes to mind… While some of the repetition from Episode 3 is still there, it’s hidden in much the same way as Half-Life hid its linearity – you’re just having too much fun to notice it.

Gamespot – But just in case you’re still on the fence because you’re waiting to see how the whole season turns out before jumping in, you should know that Episode 4 is probably the most interesting episode since the first one … With great-looking graphics, intelligent puzzles, and a well-written, funny script, Telltale’s Sam & Max series has already had more hits than misses, so if you’ve been holding out on buying any of them until you’re sure that the bulk of the series is worth playing, Abe Lincoln Must Die! is the green light you’ve been waiting for.

Trivia

• While launching missiles in the War Room, one of the places you can fire at is Krypton, the home planet of Superman.
• One of the news stands next to Bosco’s Inconvience has a headline of “Purcell attacked by two-headed monkey”. This references not only to Steve Purcell who created the Sam & Max series, but possibly to the three-headed monkey joke from the Monkey Island series or the headline for Zak McKrakens first job outing in Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders.
• “Here we are, standing in open field west of the White House” is the opening line from Zork, and one which Sam uses during the beginning of the episode.

Further Reading

• Telltale’s episode page
• Sam & Max wiki

Blurb

With an internet crisis looming and a viral video game holding its players hostage, Sam & Max will need to slip into a new reality to set things right. But can the Freelance Police crack this virtual case in time to avoid worldwide system failure?

Details

Sam & Max go to visit Sybil, only to find that she is wearing virtual reality goggles to beta test a new game. The duo realise she is being hypnotized, and so they break her hypnotic state. Sybil explains that a group called COPS have set up in a nearby store, and that they had suggested she (and others) try out the new game. It turns out that they are members of the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society, a support group for computer systems from the past, and they are trying to get everyone into Reality 2.0, their new game.

When Sam & Max enter the online game, they discover that it is based around the real world. Whenever they walk somewhere and take off the goggles, they end up there in real life, and vice-versa. Objects they pick-up also change depending on whether they are wearing the goggles or not, and damage they receive in the game hurts their bodies in the real world. The Internet is represented by a floating green head with a female voice, who tries to lure Sam & Max into never leaving the virtual world, leading Sam to think that the Internet is behind the scheme. Sam & Max obtain Bosco’s handkerchief, which in the virtual world is a computer virus. They mail it to everyone in the game, thus destroying the game. The Internet vows to take everyone down with her, saying that she has lost all her respect for humanity.

The system comes back as Reality 1.5, a text-based adventure game. ‘Respect for humanity’ is now an object, and Sam & Max must find a way of getting this and giving it back to The Internet. Once completed, The Internet releases everyone trapped within Reality 2.0, and tells Sam & Max that “Roy G. Biv” was behind the plot, but she the virus sadly kills her fully before Sam & Max can question her further. The camera zooms out to reveal a wide-shot of the street, with Hugh Bliss’ face in the moon, smiling and winking as the game fades out to the credits.

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Critics

Adventure Gamers – I almost regret the endless string of praise I gave to Abe Lincoln Must Die! … Reality 2.0 is not only a better game, but an even more pleasant surprise, because I had all but ruled out the idea that Telltale could pull off a feat like this in two consecutive four-week development cycles. The uniform excellence, attention to detail, wealth of originality, and evident passion for humor and gaming, continue to underscore the fact that the Sam & Max franchise is in the right hands—and should make us all that much more excited for the upcoming finale.

Gamespot – Sam & Max: Reality 2.0 may be the best individual episode in the series, but what it really does is validate a lot of the work leading up to it. You get the feeling that there’s a good payoff planned for the end of the season. With its solid puzzle design and terrific sense of humor, this is a strong adventure series that is better if taken as a whole rather than as individual episodes that can be burned through in just a couple of hours.

IGN – Reality 2.0 takes things a step further in terms of quality. The jokes and puzzles are much more satisfying than we’ve seen in the series so far. Our only complaint now is that there doesn’t seem to be enough connection between the episodes. We still don’t feel that the series is building to anything worthwhile in terms of the narrative. Even without the promise of a season-wide story arc, this adventure is well worth exploring.

Trivia

• Whenever Sam obtains an item while playing the virtual reality game, he raises it above his head, with the camera angle and music both resembling the Zelda series.
• To try and distract Bosco, Sam shouts “Look behind you, a three-headed internet”. This is a reference to the well-known phrase from Monkey Island, “Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!”.
• When Sam & Max turn 2-D, Sam says that “this feels… oddly familiar”, referring to Hit the Road, their 2-D adventure game.
• Sam says “Look Max, it’s a-me, Sam!” while collecting floating coins, a spoof on Mario’s catchphrase.

Further Reading

• Telltale’s episode page
• Sam & Max wiki

Blurb

What started out as a local mind-control scheme has grown to global proportions, and Sam & Max are off to the moon to save the entire planet from a lifetime of hypnotic enslavement. But when chaos collides with tranquility, have the Freelance Police finally met their match?

Details

Sam figures out that the pseudonym “Roy G. Biv” is actually a cover name for Hugh Bliss, who has set up base on the Moon. The pair fly to the Moon in their car, and enter the secret base after tricking the security at the door. Inside they meet the head of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Featherly and the C.O.P.S., all characters from previous episodes and who have joined Hugh Bliss’ prismatology cult. They each own a talisman that do different things (such as x-ray vision, and bending materials), but will not easily give them up without help from Sam & Max.

Sam & Max help each character with their need (for example, perfecting the C.O.P.S. new game) and obtain each of their unique talismans. The Freelance Police enter the inner sanctum and see Hugh Bliss insert himself into a giant crystal, aim it at the Earth and send waves of bliss out to the whole population. Hugh says that only one force can stop him – Max – and so Hugh magically separates and scatters parts of Max’s body. Max’s violent hand, gluttonous stomach and slothful tail all form a new Max, based around each personality trait, leaving Max brain-dead and a slave to Hugh Bliss.

Sam defeats each Max (except the real one) and each body part rejoins onto his little buddy. They return to Hugh’s headquarters, and Sam tries to kill Hugh by shooting him. However, Hugh reveals that he is actually a large colony of space-faring bacteria aiming to enslave the Earth and use the slaves as food, and that there is nothing that can stop him now. Tauntingly, Hugh swaps places with Max in the crystal (which makes the whole world act like Max) while he places Sam through various magical death traps. Sam obtains the Magician’s Talisman, allowing him to pull of the same switching trick as Bliss. However, Hugh Bliss escapes each one easily as they were not designed to kill bacteria. Sam is too smart though, and points the lunar lander’s engine at one of the tricks (the Cleansing Bath of Annihilation) and is able to boil the water and the bacteria of Hugh, thus destroying him.

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Critics

Gamespot – There are plenty of laughs to be found, plenty of returning characters, and the puzzles in this installment are pretty interesting, making this a fitting end to the season-one story arc. The only real negative about this installment is that it feels shorter than some of the others, and it’s awfully straightforward. You know who you need to take on right at the beginning of the episode, you take him on, and then it’s case closed.

Eurogamer – In terms of gameplay, that’s easy: Telltale’s simple, refined interface is a vast improvement on the horrendous icon system LucasArts employed, but you can’t help but feel that Telltale needed to be a little more ambitious with the gameplay mechanics in Sam & Max than it was this time. It’s one thing staying true to the beloved gameplay that we all still cherish, but that heady whiff of nostalgia only gets you so far.

IGN – Bright Side of the Moon is definitely one of the better episodes in the series and a fitting capstone to this first Sam and Max season. It’s not quite as funny or incisively satiric as Reality 2.0 but it does have its inspired moments. It’s great to see Lincoln’s head again and it’s nice to wrap up the whole season’s adventures in a neat little package. Admittedly, it’s not a staggering climax, but the build up all through the year has been pretty light as well.

Trivia

• This episode was originally called From the Jaws of Certain Bliss, but it got changed to Bright Side of the Moon after a suggestion from a member on Telltale Games’ forum.
• The title of the episode is a parody of the album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.
• Sam claims he can hold his breath for 9 minutes, a reference to Guybrush Threepwood from the Monkey Island series who can hold his for 10 minutes.
• The ending credits song ‘World of Max’ is a parody of the theme for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Further Reading

• Telltale’s episode page
• Sam & Max wiki