An Old Gem Made New Again - Sam and Max Save the World Remastered Review
Sam and Max Save the World Remastered is an adventure game released in 2020 by Skunkape Games, this game is a remaster and modern upgrade to the episodic game released from 2006–2007 by Telltale Games. The game is an adaptation of the comic book series Sam and Max by Steve Purcell, there had already been a prior adventure game adaptation of the series with LucasArts’ Sam and Max Hit the Road in 1993. The game’s creation stemmed from the cancelation of a previous adventure game, Sam and Max: Freelance Police, which was going to be a sequel to the prior mentioned Hit the Road. Partly because of the cancellation, several members of LucasArts’ employees left and chose to form a new company, that being Telltale, and eventually got the rights to adapt Sam and Max games and made this one, originally just called Sam and Max Season 1 but later changed to Save the World to better represent the events of the game. From what little is known about the cancelled game, Save the World seems to have been an attempt to redo what the team wanted to do for Freelance Police but without using any of the original material as LucasArts still had the rights to the specific aspects of said cancelled game as it was made for their company.
This new remaster of the first Telltale season was done by Skunkape Games, a studio made up of mostly former Telltale workers and started out as a simple modern patch to get the games working in modern day, but eventually grew until it was a fully fledged remaster. The game is still the same but now the visuals are greatly improved with more detailed lighting and atmosphere, character models and designs were altered to make them more in fitting with Purcell’s comic style, the music is uncompressed and even several new songs were recorded, the inventory system was streamlined, and the whole season was released together as one package.
The Sam and Max centers around the adventures of the two anthropomorphic lead characters, Sam a talking dog who takes after private detective characters, and Max an energetic and possibly deranged talking rabbit, as they take on cases as Freelance Police, a sort of mix of vigilante and private detective. The series is like a chaotic and cartoony mix of popular culture, pulpy detective topes, with an added dash of insanity and has often always walked the line between family friendly and mature jokes, although it was pushed slightly with the remaster to the family side with the toning down of several jokes.
Unlike many of Telltale’s other games the game plays out like a traditional point in click adventure game with an emphasis on solving puzzles using your wits, dialogue choices, and items you find looking around. Although similar to later Telltale games, this game’s enjoyment is primarily around the writing but this is more due to the quality of the jokes and character writing in the series rather than it being a serious story with the illusion of choice that Telltale would later become known for. You play as Sam as you explore the various environments and try to solve the various problems the game throws your way. While each new episode has its own themes and a new area to go to each time, you will also be spending time solving puzzles back at the duo’s office and the other places on their street. This does get into the feel of an episodic tv show with all the recurring characters and environments, although can sometimes become stale and repetitive with you solving similar puzzles in similar places with similar characters.
The game takes place over six separate but connected cases, and alongside Sam and Max themselves you will also be interacting with Bosco, the paranoid owner of the inconvenience store next door, that's not me making a joke by the way its actual called Bosco’s Inconvenience, and Sybil Pandemik the other neighbor on their street who’s job changes with each episode as she tries to find a job she can actually do. Other recurring characters are, the Soda Poppers, a trio of three washed up child stars from an old tv show, and Hugh Bliss, the central figure of the system of Prismatology a belief system based on the rainbow, and Jimmy Two Teeth a talking rat involved in various criminal activities who lives in a hole in Sam and Max’s office. Each character is well characterized and plays a unique role in the game comedically, with their dialogue being the highlight of the game for me.
The episodes themselves all take interesting concepts very important to pop culture, such as Child Stars, Tv Shows, Politics, and the Internet and uses them to base an episode around joking about the concepts. With a great episode being the last one which does a good job serving as a finale and culmination to the game.
Visually, thanks to the remaster, the game looks wonderful. The enhanced lighting, shading, and character models do wonders in upgrading the game to modern day, with it being really hard to go back to the original 2006 look of the game now. The soundtrack is also great with it mostly consisting of instrumental jazz that plays in the background of each area to fill the game with the pulpy feel it was going for.
While the game, and the remaster, are great it does have some issue that should be mentioned. The aforementioned repetition with the environments does get old, while it is nice having some constant elements for the tv show style, it still would be nice to spend more time at new areas instead of jumping between the same three areas you always see and the new places you only see in that episode. There also was a bug in the remastered version in which lines from Max’s original voice actor, the one from episode one was replaced by someone from episode 2 onward, would still be heard when you interact with objects in the later episodes.
If you're the kind of person who likes good writing, comedy, and likeable characters in your games I would definitely say this game is worth getting, especially the remastered version which improves on the original immensely. The Sam and Max franchise is still one of my favorites and I would also recommend the comics and other games to people if it sounds like something you’re interested in.
