Review

Sam & Max: Season One (Wii)

Point and Click Your Way to Mass Destruction

Platform Wii

Genre(s) Compilation

Name: Sam & Max Season One
Genre: Point-and-click Adventure
Platform: PC, Wii (reviewed on Wii)

It’s now been fifteen years since Sam & Max Hit the Road, a wonderful and hilarious LucasArts point-and-click adventure, hit computers, and two years since Sam & Max Season One launched. As a huge fan of the adventure from 1993, I was thrilled that Telltale was publishing a brand new Sam & Max game back in 2006. The only problem was, I didn’t have a PC to play it on. However, now that the six episodes that made up Season One have come to the Wii in one convenient package, that’s no longer a problem. After more than a decade and under a new publisher, the freelance police have managed to come back as funny and destructive as they ever were, and I couldn’t be happier about their return.

I’ve said for a while that the Wii would be the perfect platform for point-and-click games to make a comeback, and I know I haven’t been alone in this thinking. Telltale has utilized the Wii’s remote and motion controls perfectly for this game. If you’ve never played a point-and-click adventure before, it’s exactly what it sounds like. The entire game is literally pointing and clicking. Of course, these points and clicks don’t come without a purpose: picking up, collecting, and using items are a big part of the game, as are puzzle solving, talking to a variety of colorful characters, and exploring different locations.

Sam and Max are two of the most hilarious characters in video game history, so I was happy that Telltale didn’t lose any of the zany humor with its revival of the series. Sam, a wise-cracking dog, and Max, a mentally unstable rabbit hell-bent on destroying everything in sight just because he can, are freelance police, taking on any case that they can get. I really didn’t expect the writing in Season One to live up to that of the original, but it actually did, and I was very pleased with the dialogue and voice-acting. Having some LucasArts alumni on staff definitely helped, as the game has not lost any of its charm. Fans of Sam & Max Hit the Road will be happy with Season One, but those playing it for the first time won’t be lost not having played the original adventure.

Sam & Max Season One consists of six episodes, which were released monthly back in 2006 and 2007, but they are all immediately available in the Wii version. Still, there is some continuity between episodes, so playing them in order is recommended. Each one is about two hours and has a self-contained storyline, which is part of a larger plot wrapped up nicely at the end of the season. You’ll have to use the items and people at your disposal to get to the bottom of each case, which requires a lot of thinking outside the box—our logic does not resemble the logic used in this game. In a world where a mad rabbit can beat out a statue of Abe Lincoln to become President, while the owner of the inconvenience store down the street spends millions on a satellite defense system and the former tattoo artist next door becomes Queen of Canada, anything goes. The heart of any point-and-click game is its story and characters, and on that front, Season One delivers.

Unfortunately, the Wii port of Sam & Max Season One is marred by some technical difficulties. The most common problem is framerate issues, which happened at least once an episode and usually without any rhyme or reason. I also noticed some audio glitches, with dialogue sometimes cutting out before the sentence was finished and ruining the punch line. This doesn’t matter as much if subtitles are turned on, but it still shouldn’t happen at all. There were also a few instances where I would click one place and Sam would walk in the opposite direction—again, not actually ruining the gameplay, but an annoyance all the same.

The point-and-click genre isn’t for everyone, and a port of an episodic PC sequel to a 1993 computer game may not be as exciting for most gamers as it was for me. However, if you’ve ever been a fan of Sam & Max, or point-and-click games in general, then you should play this game. With no extras other than some concept art, there’s no reason for PC gamers who have already played through these episodes to pick this up again. If, like me, you didn’t get a chance to play through Season One when it first launched, this is the perfect opportunity for you to do so, especially with the discounted $30 price tag. Telltale has done a great job bringing back the point-and-click genre, and I’m hoping that future seasons of Sam & Max make it to the Wii as well.