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Sam & Max are two characters created by
cartoonist Steve Purcell. The titular dog and lagomorph
officially debuted in the comic book Sam & Max: Freelance
Police. From there the duo found their way to their own
LucasArts adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road and their own Fox
Kids cartoon The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
After the demise of LucasArts three seasons of Sam & Max adventure
games would be produced by Telltale Games- Sam & Max: Save the
World, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, and Sam
& Max: The Devil's Playhouse. The first two of those seasons
have been remastered in loving, gorgeous detail by the heroes at Skunkape Games.
Sam & Max work as the Freelance Police. Not quite
freelance, and not quite police the boys investigate crimes, at the
behest of an unseen commissioner, with all the finesse and subtly as a
nuclear bomb while comitting more crimes than they solve. The duo
inhabit an exaggerated cartoony world rife with pop culture references
and absurdist humor.
It's hard to impress just how much I LOVE this dog and rabbity-thing. They are, perhaps, the two fictional characters the most near and dear to my heart. I think my adoration for Sam & Max- like many things in my life- can be traced back to my uncle introducing me to Mystery Science Theater 3000 at an astoundingly early age (nothing attunes a kid to decades old pop culture references like MST3K). One only has to glance at my bedroom walls, phone wallpaper, or jacket to know I'm crazy about the Freelance Police.
As I often say to my significant other- these games, comics and show are just jam packed with pure gold in the form of snappy dialogue. From Sam's long winded exclamations ("Sweet suffering Saint Sebastian on the sousaphone in a short story by Susan Sontag!") to the pair's barrage of pop culture references had me hooked immediately. Kurt Kalata's book The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventure Games describes Sam & Max's interplay like
"Like most buddy comedies, the
charisma derives from the interplay between the eponymous heroes.
Sam has a penchant for overly long, obtuse vocabulary, and elaborate
non-sequiturs, all tendencies which frustrated Max to no end. Max is
completely naked but apparently stores a massive Luger pistol on his
person... A good amount of the banter are vague references to past,
unseen events, leaving the player to fill in the implications."
Some games have protagonists that are blank slates for the player to project onto- not Sam & Max. If you don't jive with either don't waste your time: you should probably play another game.
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Get it here!
Hit the Road was Sam & Max's debut in the adventure game world- and it's a good one. Like the comic Sam & Max Freelance Police On the Road Hit the Road is based in the concept of the all-American road trip and all the icky, sleazy, and morally dubious trappings therein. You see, Bruno the Bigfoot has vanished and the Freelance Police are tasked with finding and returning him to his place in a tourist trap carnival.
Sam & Max: Save the World
Get the all new remastered version here!
Save the World is the second coming of Sam & Max born from the ashes of LucasArts' scraped sequel Freelance Police. Like all of TellTale's games Sam & Max will be in an episodic format from here on out making STW the first "season". TellTale will take our boys to new heights (and depths) of absurdity and brilliance. STW will take the Freelance Police from wacked out child stars to the white house to virtual reality with a new cast of recurring characters to pester!
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Get the all new remastered version here!
Beyond Time and Space or The Season Where Sam & Max Dying and Going to Hell are Completely Unrelated Events. I could take or leave Moai Better Blues, and I've played Ice Station Santa one too many times but overall this season is excellent. It has everything Satan, time travel, romance, a Shambling Corporate Presence- everything you need for a good time.
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
Get it here!
The ambition and pageantry of The Devil's Playhouse makes it mine (and many other's) favorite of the 3 seasons. It's truly the most cinematic Sam & Max has ever been. The absurdity of Sam & Max going up against Space Apes and Lovecraftian Elder Gods might as well have been written for me specifically. Each episode uses a new gameplay mechanic or psychic toy that keeps progression fresh and exciting! It also includes incredible throw backs the previous seasons! And psst, stick around till after the credits!
Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual!
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You're on your own with this one because I haven't played it. Look- it breaks my heart too but I have $40 in my bank account right now. I can't afford to buy a $250+ VR rig to play one game- even if that game is the first brand spanking new Sam & Max game in years. I haven't even watched the trailer that how despondent I am.
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Imagine, you've purchased a sprawling 19-century mansion on the New England coast at shockingly low price. Well, turns out that mansion was previously owned by a magician and practitioner of phantasmagoric theater. And just so happens that magician was possessed by a demon and he married and murdered a bunch of women. And just so happens that same demon escaped when you opened a shoebox you found on a demonic alter in your house. "Oops!" may be the understatement of the century.
Phantasmagoria is far from a critical darling. There actually seems to be a small cult of people who hate this game. It's not the greatest game ever made. It's overly long, objectives can be hard to grasp, and having one of seven discs almost solely dedicated to going into town to buy drain cleaner is unnecessary and hilarious.
The visuals have aged poorly. The acting and writing vacillates from underwhelming to ridiculous. Players complained about awkward character interactions and the gameplay left critics cold.
And yet I unironically love this game- faults and all.
I'm someone with a preference for the horror genre, a collection of over 3,000 b-movies and willingness to suffer through hours of astoundingly boring film- all of which combined make me the perfect Phantasmagoria enjoyer. I'm pretty much primed to enjoy Phantasmagoria for all it's bad effects and acting. I discovered this game as a 12 year-old with unmonitored internet access. I was instantly fascinated with this game. It was my gateway drug for horror films and FMV games. This game was some tasty, tasty FORMATIVE MEDIA for me.
The game's user interface will seem very familiar to fans of the HeR Interactive Nancy Drew games. UIs for adventure games aren't very diverse but there are times where Phantasmagoria looks like a biazarro version of The Curse of the Blackmoor Manor. I personally I believe that Phantasmagoria was a direct inspiration for HeR Interactive when developing the ND series.
Phantasmagoria (1995) is a point and click adventure game designed by mother of the genre Roberta Williams- for better or worse. The game features Full-Motion Video blue-screened over 3D rendered environments- surreal. The game caused significant controversy over it's violent and sexual content. Said sexual content amounts to a not even a minute long love scene with a little side boob.The violence on the other hand is a wonderful gore fest that ramps up in the mid-last part of the game.
Content Warning!
Most of the public outrage was directed
at the game's infamous rape scene. But the thing is, the rape
scene really isn't that bad. It's not explicit at all and is
fairly short. In my opinion it's the most tastefully done scene in the
whole game as it focuses more on the emotion of the scene rather than
the physical assault.
Things really kick up as Adrienne's husband Don is
replaced by the same demon that drove Carno the magician to
murder all his wives in comically ironic fashions.
The game's ending sequence consists of fast moving cut-scenes where the player must quickly click on the right part of the screen to progress (and keep Adrienne from meeting an unfortunate end). This section is probably the most difficult and annoying of the whole game so- save often.
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
There was a sequel though it's
pretty much in name only.There's only one reference to Adrienne from
the first game to unite the two games.A Puzzle of Flesh is a
different beast- it has some heavy Hellraiser vibes and.. umm
aliens? It's not a very enlightened take on mental illness.But, it is
goofy and has a distinct 90s flavor that I love.
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