Does anybody have an opinion on these games? Also, is there a central site where someone could buy multiple episodes? Also, are these games long or really short? Thanks for any input.

Laurette,

The reviews for all the episodes of Sam and Max are here.

Each episode are average size. To me, they are funny and the puzzles are great.

You can buy individual downloads at TellTale Games.

You can buy season 1 on a disk consists of several episodes from TAC.

Thank you again, MaG!

Telltale released one of the episodes for free, which should give you a good idea of what the games are like: http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax/lincolnmustdie

I just saw Sam & Max season one at Walmart for $9.99. It was in a small cardboard sleeve with a jewel case..would have bought it but I already have it for $29.99.

Yep, I got it too for 29.99, and saw it at Walmart too in the jewel case. I think it is just the first three episodes of the six. Best Buy last night had the regular box (6 episodes)for 19.99, so that would be the same price if they do put out the last three on jewel (if I saw it right).

Koalanut

I saw the jewel case version at Walmart too, and it is just the first three episodes. You could then download the fourth episode for free at Telltale Games (see link that fov posted above). But you'd still need to pay for the last two episodes somehow to complete the season.

Ya, definitely play the demo; that should give you a good feel for Sam and Max. Heh, if you don't like their office, and their neighbors, you should stay away; you'll be seeing a lot of them! The game re-uses imagery more than a japanese kid's show. The game features basic inventory puzzles, and a ton of dialogue trees. I've only played 2 episodes so far and there have been no "slider puzzles" or lock based puzzles. I hope that stays true for the entire series. Doors with puzzle locks are a real plague in adventure games. If you don't enjoy the dialogue trees, and all the one-liners from clicking on things, then, again, stay away. If the humor clicks though, you'll be in adventure game heaven!

There are great reviews in our review section.

Clovis, there are many locations unique to each game. Of course SAm and Max have their office and it would be most confusing if it wasn't in the same neighborhood. All the episodes wrap around another episode and comes to a season finale, just like a TV show.

Ana

Walmart near me never has anything useful like that. I'm too tired to go looking now. Maybe I'll remember to check tomorrow after work.

I'm not saying the scene rehashing doesn't makes sense, but Sam and Max reuses a lot of scenery. As time goes on it becomes more and more of a problem. And they really get their bang for their buck on the new scenes in each episode. Modern games are often huge, and you get used to seeing more locales. This doesn't make Sam and Max a bad game, of course, but you must admit it is a deficit. You sound a little fanboyish to be making up excuses for this.

I don't think it would be terribly confusing for an episode to start somewhere else. I guess Sam and Max don't have cell phones, but I'm sure they could be out on a drive and stumble onto a mystery.

Anywho, Sam and Max is a solid game...

Hi Clovis,

Can you please clarify what problem arises in seeing the same scenery.
If you take all the episodes into one game which it is per season - then you'll see the different locales, different episode starts, the storyline progression.
Maybe playing more of the episodes will clarify that for you.

Personally, I think 8.95 per episode is reasonable to charge and is worth it especially for the quality of the game and its length per episode.

Speaking how one views the game is not defending it nor fanboyish - just like you - stating one's impression.

In the case of most of us, our impression is based on playing all the episodes in season one and two. So I think we have more of a solid impression than one that has played 2 episodes only.

I checked out Walmart. They did have it, however, it's only the first 3 games so I passed. Just as well pay $19.99 at Best Buy and get all 6.

What problem arises from the lack of scenery; Perhaps, the lack of scenery. Sam and Max is mainly about funny one-liners, so it is not a big deal, but you really don't want more to explore?? $8.95 x 6 ~ $53. That's a little more than you can get any current game for. Sam and Max is super tiny compared to, say, Oblivion or GTAIV, or even (good) adventure games. I keep repeating that this doesn't ruin the game, but, come on, how can you say this isn't a problem at all? These episodes are short. Being short didn't stop Portal from being great, but it was a significant downer. And I'm not portraying the lack of scenery as my impression, but, rather, as a fact. My impression is that it is a fun game. And my recommendation is to play the demo since the game is not perfect, and I tried to list a few of its motes.

I'm playing Sam and Max now. I don't think anything is going to change my mind, 'cause reviews of Season 2 already mention these problems. I'll obviously be happy if things improve. And, since I'm pretty sure the series is doing well, that might happen.

Isn't there anything bad about Sam and Max?? Are you saying it's perfect? The most obvious problems with it are that the episodes are short, sparse scenes, sparse characters, and fairly easy puzzles. On the good side the game looks great, is actually funny, which is rare in any game, and there are interesting storylines.

I mentioned fanboyism because there's such an adamant response to something that strikes anyone who plays the game. Maybe the next episode will be Sam and Max and the Sacred Cow ;-)

Oh, there is something that is specifically annoying about the scene reuse. I like to see everything Sam and Max will say, 'cause they're funny. I'm forced to click on all the same stuff over and over again just in case something has changed. TV shows may sometimes rely on catchphrases, but they don't literally reuse the exact same joke every episode. Except for Robot Chicken; they do the adorable kid's show from the 80s turned suddenly super violent on almost every episode.

Hi cl0vis -- the full Season Two costs about $35 -- the info is here. Season One can be purchased at Interact CD or Gamestop for $30.00 and Koalanut mentions above that it's at Best Buy for $19.99.

I haven't played Oblivion or GTAIV, but my impression of Oblivion is that just about anything else is tiny in comparison. If all adventure games were as lengthy and deep as Oblivion, we'd get about ten total releases per year.

I've played all of Sam & Max: Season One and all of Season Two, and for each Season the episodes together compare nicely to the typical, um, "serious," full-length adventure game.

Are the games perfect? No. Do they make me laugh enough that I don't care that they aren't perfect? Yes. Does this make me a fanboy? Well, I don't mind being a cheering section for something as clever as Sam & Max.

Yes, the games reuse scenery and characters -- I'd compare this to the way a long-running television series reuses scenery and characters. The episodes haven't struck me as stale, and I enjoy seeing familiar faces in new/odd places. Some characters that I didn't like much at first (a certain vampire, for instance) have "grown" and developed the next time I see them. Other characters that I thought were brilliant to begin with got even more interesting over time (even if that meant they actually "devolved").

The only character I remember thinking: "What, again?" about IS the cow -- partly because I suspect that Telltale imported it directly from Bone. Still, they've used the cow in unexpected ways -- some of the responses to the various items you can disguise it with in Situation: Comedy are ingenious. (As I recall, one disguise did make it saintly, if not sacred, exactly.)

Is there anything in gaming for which you are a fanboy? Or is imperfection sadly ubiquitous from your point of view?

A fanboy is someone is who is so big of a fan that they refuse to admit that something has problems. There is no game, that I know of, that is perfect, but there are plenty of great games. I am a bit of a fanboy for James Joyce though. I refuse to admit that Finnegan's Wake is really just 600+ pages of complete nonsense, but I'm not smart enough to understand why it isn't.

Video Games are still in their infancy as a genre. They are only just know being widely accepted as an adult activity, let alone being art. That's also what makes gaming fun. Every year brings more and more innovation, and seeing games develop is great.

And to be clear, I am a FAN of Sam and Max.

Cl0vis -- I just read the Wikipedia definition of fanboy. In my extremely old-fashioned way, I confess that I didn't know the difference between fanboy and fan. Having read the definition, I am brought to the difficult conclusion that you may have been trying to be quite insulting with your use of fanboy.

Were you?

I didn't mean to be insulting. I worded it incorrectly. I originally wrote something like, "you risk sounding fanboyish." What I ended up with sounded like I was claiming the post was fanboyish. Oups. It's not a positive term though. I should have skipped the neologism and said what I meant. I'm used to posting on meme and sarcasasm filled sites like Slashdot. All your insults are belong to us, and such. Bleh.

If I am insulting it is mainly because of how difficult it is for me to feel insulted. Pull my string: "Writing is hard."

There are lots of gamers who don't post on sarcasm-filled sites because they are uncomfortable there. GameBoomers is a place where we try to make people comfortable by eliminating flaming or the use of insulting comments, so people who don't enjoy sarcasm can have a place to hang out.

There are people who don't enjoy sarcasm?? These are the same people who didn't like when Jon Stewart hosts the Oscars, right? ;-) Perhaps I'll just use the meme of [sarcasm]sarcasm tags[/sarcasm].

And starting with episode 104, the Sam & Max games don't either.

Originally the designers underestimated how important it would be to have new one-liners, artwork, etc. in the recurring scenes, and they focused their efforts on the locations that were new in the episode. By the time episode 103 came out, it was becoming obvious that people did care about unique lines in the recurring scenes as well as in new locations, and an effort was made to change up the recurring locations. Obviously, what had already been done in the first three games couldn't be changed since the games were released, but I think you'll find that the end of Season One and the entire Season Two are much better in this respect.

In general, Season Two has been praised by press and by fans for being more imaginative and less repetitive than the first season. The team definitely learned as they went. (This is an awesome side effect of episodic gaming -- the team can actually change their methods midstream to deal with these sorts of issues in a way you just can't with a traditional development model.)

As I stated previously - let's get back to constructive discussion of Sam and Max.

Laurette, I apologize for thread being diverted.

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Didn't see you, fov.

Sorry to derail things again, but I can't help defending Slashdot, and, er, myself. Sarcasm != Flaming && Insulting Comments. I don't like that either. Slashdot's complex comment system actually hides the trolls away from all those except the one who really want to read them. If boomers don't read slashdot, it's because it's "news for nerds", which might not be applicable.

To get back on track: I just finished 105, which was uber-great ;-) I couldn't think help thinking that it virtually didn't include a new scene at all! But that's all saved by hilarious Dragon Warrior jokes, and slightly different graphical interfaces.

fov, it's good to know that the series gets even better. The main advantage in the episodic distrubtion is that it has saved and revitalized such a great series.

[sarcasm]
Oh noes! Since getting back on topic I just realised how innappropriate using sarcasm is in this topic!! Sarcasm in Sam and Max! I should be booted! Or gnoshed to death by an anthropomorhic rabbit!
[/sarcasm]

Hey, has anyone read the comic The Maxx? It features little white creatures that look just like Max's head...

clovis,

Check your e-mail please.

Heh also our tech director Jon Sgro is very quick to point out that it's not the exact same cow from Bone