Sam & Max Hit the Road

6.5
Average

Gameplay	6.0	"It’s funny, but it has definitely aged."
Graphics	5.0
Sound	7.0
Value	8.0

By Alan Bell

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First things first – this is not one of the new, episodic Sam & Max games. This is, in fact, the original adventure (from 1993) packed in with some emulator software (called SCUMM) which allows you to play it painlessly on a modern PC.

However, this is not 1993. It is, in fact, 2007 – 14 years later. Is the seminal classic (and it is a classic, make no mistake) still worth playing after 9/11 and Ms Jackson’s famous wardrobe malfunction? Read on…

Sam & Max tells the tale of our two heroes, Sam and - unsurprisingly - Max, two freelance policemen who are attempting to crack their toughest case. Sam (the dog) and Max (the rabbit) are chasing Bigfoot (he escaped from a carnival) as he makes his way across America’s seedy underbelly. They can’t do it alone - they need your help!

The story plays out via a series of cool gags, rendered by the most cutting edge of technologies that 1993 was able to deliver to PC gamers. Characters are well animated and very cartoony, with lots of ridiculous, over-the-top expansion of heads and such to help punctuate the witty dialogue.

This title is one of the most famous of LucasArt’s famous adventure game series, a series which included other classics such as Full Throttle and Monkey Island. The general gist of these games is simple – navigate the various independent screens (called “locations”) and click on the various parts of each location that look interesting, interacting by choosing one of a handful of simple icons which dictate the kind of interaction you are trying to achieve (such as “talk to” or “pick up”).

In 1993 this represented a sophisticated and yet simple interface mechanic which was easy to use and friendly to new players. Combined with the style of play (“adventuring” or, to describe it, “picking your way through a story for which there is only a single path that you must blunder towards”), which was very much in vogue at the time, and some seriously funny humour throughout, it was a smash hit.

However: as was mentioned in the start of this piece, this is not then. It is, in fact, now. The adventure game genre is dead (or, at least, far, far different from what we see here). Game interfaces have moved on. We have action buttons and exclamation marks hovering over people’s heads and we have a right mouse button which we actually use for stuff. Simply blundering around clicking on things at random, it turns out, isn’t actually fun anymore.

Before you take me for a drag through the backstreets of Auckland behind your Holden, let me point out that hardcore fans of the game from 1993 will still get a kick out of it. The clunky gameplay / interface mechanic will be completely forgiven or not even noticed and you’ll be whisked away on memory bliss, just like P.M. Dawn (1991 in case you were going to check). It’s still very, very funny. The graphics, whilst dated, don’t detract from the clever animation and the very genuinely cool graphical style.

It’s well presented with great voice acting and oodles of style. Just don’t expect to be wowed by the gameplay if you just stopped playing Gears of War, and if you’ve gotten used to the current standard of game interface, make sure you’re in the right frame of mind before attempting to tackle this. It gets tough but don’t fret if you have to refer to a walk through – the real genius is in the dialogue. If you do decide to buy it, make sure you see and hear it all.

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