Sam & Max Save the World
Encyclopedia
Sam & Max Save the World is a graphic adventure
video game developed by Telltale Games
. The game was originally released as Sam & Max: Season One before being renamed in early 2009. Save the World was developed in episodic fashion, comprising six episodes that were released for Microsoft Windows
over the course of late 2006 and early 2007. The episodes were initially distributed online by GameTap
and Telltale Games themselves, although the later retail releases of the game were published by The Adventure Company
and JoWooD Productions in North America and Europe respectively. A Wii
port of the game was published in late 2008, and a Xbox Live Arcade
version for the Xbox 360
was released in mid 2009. The two Sam and Max games are one of the four XBLA games priced at 1600 Microsoft Points
(20$).
Based on Steve Purcell's
comic book series Sam & Max
, the game follows the titular characters Sam and Max—self-styled vigilante
private investigator
s, the former an anthropomorphic dog
and the latter a "hyperkinetic rabbit
y thing"—through several cases involving a hypnotism conspiracy. Each episode features one case with a contained story, with an underlying plot running through the series. The game was announced by Telltale Games in 2005 following the cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police by LucasArts
in the preceding year; many of the employees at Telltale Games were members of the Freelance Police development team.
The game received a positive response from critics, with praise bestowed on the game's humor, graphics and gameplay. However, concerns were voiced over the low difficulty of the puzzles, repetition in design between episodes and the effectiveness of the story. Opinions dissented across the Atlantic; some British reviewers did not appreciate the writing in the way that American critics did. Nevertheless, the game has won several awards and is often cited by commentators as the first successful application of episodic distribution. The game was accompanied by a number of short machinima
videos set between each episode. The game was followed by two episodic sequels: Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space in 2007 and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
in 2010.
graphic adventure game
in which the player controls the character of Sam. The player has Sam explore the environments of the game and solve a series of puzzles using a simple point-and-click
interface. The game's puzzles have logical solutions, although a number of them have far-fetched solutions due to the game's cartoon setting. Depending on the type of in-game entity a player selects using the cursor
, the player can have Sam walk around an area, look at and comment on objects, pick up certain items
or otherwise try to use them. Sam may also engage in conversation with non-player characters; when this occurs, the game presents a dialog tree with several subjects to pick from. Topics of conversation may directly involve the story or provide assistance with the game's puzzles, while others may be entirely unconnected. In some cases, the player may be able to choose dialog for Max to speak as well.
The game implements an inventory system to allow Sam to store any items that the player picks up during the course of the game. The player may select any of the items in the inventory and can then attempt to use them on objects in the game world or give them to other characters simply by clicking on the desired target. Unlike Save the Worlds predecessor, Sam & Max Hit the Road
, inventory items are context specific, and cannot be used together or combined to create new items. Typically, Sam carries a gun that may be used to solve several puzzles.
The characters can travel between a variety of locations in the game using their black and white 1960 DeSoto Adventurer
, which, when selected, will present the player with a list of available destinations. The DeSoto is also used for several driving sequences, usually involving pursuing or fleeing criminals in other vehicles. In these driving sequences, the player can use Sam's gun, the car's horn, or have Max attempt to communicate with other vehicles via a megaphone. In addition, special inventory items may be used to complete specific puzzles within these sequences. Driving sequences are also used for several minigame
s, such as pulling innocent drivers over for fabricated felonies. In keeping with the developer's heritage from the LucasArts adventure games
, Sam & Max Save the World is designed so that the player characters cannot die or reach a complete dead-end.
, and it follows the titular characters of Sam and Max, the Freelance Police, a pair of vigilantes and private investigators. Sam is a level-headed but enthusiastic anthropomorphic dog
who wears a blue suit and fedora. He is inquisitive, knowledgeable in obscure areas and tends to prefer the logical solution to problems, but he is not above using force. Max is described as "hyperkinetic rabbit
y thing"; cunning, uninhibited and reveling in violence and mischief. His reactions to situations usually incorporate force but often with a seeming disregard for his own personal safety. Together, the Freelance Police operate out of a dilapidated office block in a dangerous neighborhood in New York City
where they receive cases over the telephone from an unseen police commissioner
.
Several supporting characters consistently appear throughout the episodes. Bosco is the proprietor of the nearby convenience store
and supplies the Freelance Police with a number of items across the game. Driven paranoid
by repeated shoplifting, Bosco is obsessed with conspiracies, believing that nearly every US government agency, as well as many criminal outfits, are after him. As such, his store is overwhelmed with security devices and contraptions created by Bosco himself. He regularly attempts to disguise himself as a variety of foreign national
s, but to little effect. Further down the neighborhood is Sybil Pandemik, who owns a small office across from Sam and Max. Sybil is unable to keep a consistent job and regularly changes her career choices. Introduced as a psychotherapist
, she is noted to have worked as a tattoo artist
, software tester
, tabloid journalist
and professional witness
. In a hole in Sam and Max's own office resides Jimmy Two-Teeth, a rat who works as a petty criminal, confidence trick
ster and fence
. He profusely dislikes Sam and Max, who he sees as always interfering with his work.
Other characters include the Soda Poppers, a group of three former child stars from the 1970s. The three, each with their own trademark catch-phrase, first appear as victims of hypnosis in the first episode, later acting as the judges on a Pop Idol
parody in the second episode. By the fourth episode, they are elected the governors of the Dakotas
and plunge the region into civil war over ownership of Mount Rushmore
. Also making sporadic appearances is Hugh Bliss, an eccentric magician and leader of the Prismatology cult, a parody of Scientology
. He is often seen attempting to promote his self-help
guides based on Prismatology. Sam finds Bliss irritating, while Max almost idolizes him. Minor characters include Agent Superball, a US Secret Service
agent with a penchant for guarding doors; Chuckles, the pit manager
in a mafia-run casino; and the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society (COPS), a group of outdated computers attempting to find purpose in the technologically advanced world.
host, Myra Stump. At the TV station, Sam and Max deduce that Myra has been hypnotized, and after using other shows in the studio to become celebrities, they convince her to let them become guests on her show. Once on the show, Sam notes a strange toy bear on the host's desk, the source of the hypnotism. Using the studio sound system, Sam electrocutes both Myra and the bear, allowing the audience to leave.
The commissioner then tasks Sam and Max with infiltrating the Toy Mafia
, a criminal organisation operating from a casino
. The commissioner's mole
in the organisation has gone quiet; he wants the Freelance Police to find out what happened to the mole. Sam and Max quickly discover that the Toy Mafia are responsible for the toy bear that hypnotised Myra. As they gain the Mafia's trust, they ascertain that the mole has switched sides and is now leading the outfit. After discovering that the casino is a front for producing the hypnotizing bears for mass distribution, the Freelance Police sabotage the factory and destroy the operation. Soon after, the US President starts bringing in bizarre policies; Max is particularly concerned about the introduction of gun restrictions, while Sam believes the President has been hypnotized. At the White House
, Max decapitates the President, revealing him to be a mechanical puppet designed to hypnotize the nation through TV broadcasts. The President's bodyguard, none other than the Toy Mafia's pit boss, activates a giant robot disguised as the statue at the Lincoln Memorial
to run in an emergency election against Max. Sam discredits Lincoln's campaign, resulting in Max winning the presidential election. Lincoln begins a destructive rampage through Washington D.C. but is neutralized when Max fires an intercontinental ballistic missile
at him.
The next case given to Sam and Max involves dealing with a computer crisis that is causing the world economy to collapse. They discover the problem is a virtual reality
program called Reality 2.0, powered by the Internet, which is hypnotizing people so they never want to leave the program. Sam and Max access the program themselves and introduce a computer virus that crashes Reality 2.0 and deletes the digital embodiment of the Internet. Prior to expiring, the Internet reveals that it was following the plans of one Roy G. Biv
. Sam eventually deduces that Roy G. Biv is actually Hugh Bliss, a character seemingly in the background of all their previous cases. The Freelance Police travel to Bliss' Prismatology retreat on the Moon
, where Bliss is preparing a device to hypnotize the entire planet. Bliss reveals himself as a colony of sentient bacteria that feeds off of the endorphin
s produced by human happiness; by hypnotizing the planet, Bliss assures himself of a permanent supply of nourishment. Bliss activates the device but is killed when Sam tricks him into a tank of water and boils it using the rocket engine of a lunar lander
. Returning to Earth, Max takes great pleasure in reversing the hypnotism by personally knocking everyone on the planet unconscious.
shorts. These shorts are set between the episodes; fifteen were released in total. The first short, "Frank Discussion", released on November 30, 2006, has Sam and Max share a discussion regarding frankfurters
and their preservative
properties in Bosco's store. The short was followed on December 7 by "Trainspotting", in which Sam ponders the meaning of life while Max questions the sensibility of being outside, away from the comforts of their office. On December 12, Telltale released "A Painstaking Search": having misplaced the keys to their office, Sam and Max return to Brady Culture's hideout in an attempt to retrace their steps. The first short of 2007, "Reality Blights", was released on January 4 and sees Max volunteer the duo to appear on a reality television
show, Four Freaks in a Terribly Cramped Office. "Egregious Philosophy Platter" was released seven days later on January 11 and features Sam and Max as host the hosts of television show Egregious Philosphohy Platter, discussing the philosophers Socrates
and Descartes
. The final short relating to television shows, "Kitchen Consequential", was released on January 18 and follows Sam and Max hosting Fun in the Kitchen With Sam and Max where they showcase a few recipes of special effect
s.
"Interrogation" was the game's third episode on February 1, in which Sam and Max demonstrate how to properly interrogate a suspect. This was followed by "Coffee" on February 8; in the short, Sam and Max experiment with telekinesis on coffee cups. On February 15, "The Blank Blank Blank" was released, where Sam and Max discuss with Bosco a government agency so secret, the acronym is classified. Following episodes relate to Max's tenure as US President after "Abe Lincoln Must Die!"; "War Games", released on March 1, has Sam and Max engage in military activities from the White House's war room under the pretense that they are mere simulations. It was followed by "The Teapot Drone Scandal" on March 15, in which Max orders a Secret Service agent to recite "I'm a Little Teapot
" over the telephone. "Saving the Economy" was released on March 22, showing a broadcast by Max outlining his plans to make the economy more efficient by irrationally extending daylight saving time
. On April 5, "Artichoke" was released, in which Max holds a press conference where he is unwisely questioned about his gun control policies. The penultimate short, "Bosco", was released on April 12, 2007 and shows Max starting a negative campaign
against Bosco for the presidential election, despite the fact that he is not running. "A Fireside Chat", the final episode, was released on April 19, depicting a broadcast by Max to the state of Idaho
in the hopes of getting them to vote for him.
from 2002 to 2004. Freelance Police was a sequel to the 1993 title Sam & Max Hit the Road
. However, LucasArts ceased production on Freelance Police in March 2004. In the subsequent weeks, LucasArts underwent major restructuring; many of the developers who worked on past LucasArts adventure games
were made redundant. Some of the former Freelance Police development team consequently formed Telltale Games
in June 2004 to continue developing the sort of adventure games that LucasArts no longer wished to produce. Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell
, who described himself as disappointed and frustrated with LucasArts' decision, took the Sam & Max franchise to Telltale after the LucasArts license expired in mid-2005. Telltale Games announced the new series of Sam & Max games in September 2005. Brendan Q. Ferguson, who worked on Freelance Police as a programmer, designer and writer; Dave Grossman
, one of the project leaders on Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle; and Purcell primarily led the development of the project.
Unlike Freelance Police, Save the World was developed in episodic form, with episodes being released in quick succession, to allow for reduced development time between titles and quicker delivery of content to consumers. Telltale launched a website for Sam & Max in November 2005 to accompany their new series. The following month, Purcell began publishing a Sam & Max webcomic
entitled "The Big Sleep" on the site; the webcomic ran for twelve issues and concluded in April 2007. Purcell won an Eisner Award
in 2007 for the webcomic. In March 2006, Telltale announced it had acquired in funding from a group of private investors, to help sustain growth until its next round of equity funding.
Telltale released the game's trailer for the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2006, showing the new voice actors for Sam and Max: David Nowlin and William Kasten respectively. However, Andrew Chaikin
voiced Max in the first episode, but was unable to continue in the role due to health reasons. While at the convention, Telltale announced that the first episode was forecast for release towards the end of 2006, via the distribution service GameTap
. Telltale announced a release date of October 17, 2006 over GameTap in early September, with the note that each episode would be made available from Telltale themselves within fifteen days of release. Development on the first episode was completed on September 25, and from October 10, GameTap began hosting the Sam & Max animated series
as promotional material for release. The first episode, "Culture Shock", was released on-time on October 17. The next five episodes were released over short intervals until the series finale in April 2007. The series debuted on Steam on June 15, 2007. Telltale began shipping a special collectors edition of the game in July 2007, while the retail version of the game was published in August 2007. January 2008 saw a significant update to the game, upgrading the game engine and ensuring compatibility with Windows Vista
.
Three months later, Telltale announced a Wii
version of the game. Telltale reported that an email campaign and Internet rumors of a port had stirred up interest within the company for producing a Wii version. They redesigned the game's point-and-click interface to accommodate the Wii Remote
, the primary controller for the console. The game was initially forecast for release in North America on October 7, 2008; however, it was released a week later on October 14. The European version was published later in December.
In February 2009, Telltale Games renamed the game from its initial release title of Sam & Max: Season One to Sam & Max Save the World. Telltale's public relations spokeswoman, Emily Morganti, explained that while Season One was thought to communicate the game's episodic nature to potential consumers, the company felt that it was nondescript in relation to the game's story. The message accompanied the announcement of an Xbox Live Arcade
version of the game, which had been subject to media speculation since February 2007. Both Windows and Wii versions of the game are to be republished using the new title.
was thought to be possible with the source material, it "would be kind of wrong". Like in previous Sam & Max games, Sam & Max Save the World used a point-and-click gameplay system, itself a variation of the control scheme used by Telltale in their preceding adventure game series, Bone
. The action sequences implemented in the game, such as the various car chase scenes, still maintained the point-and-click interface.
Very little of the design from Freelance Police was carried over into Save the World; LucasArts still held onto the assets created for use in Freelance Police, and Telltale was wary of using similar design patterns. While Ferguson and Purcell had both been involved with the canceled LucasArts project, Grossman had not. The team decided to just start from fresh, and pursue a different treatment of the game's subject. Purcell himself wanted to ensure that the game conveyed the "gritty" feel of the original comics—something he felt was lacking from the LucasArts renditions of the franchise. Grossman stated that "we wanted to get a little bit more of that dirt on the streets, and the paper cups and people being mean and nasty". This "gritty" feeling also influenced artistic design. For instance, on Purcell's suggestion, the sky was changed from blue to yellow in the street outside Sam and Max's office, instantly making the environment feel "filthy and disgusting".
, who had worked extensively on composition and sound production on LucasArts games since 1994, produced the soundtrack. The Save the World soundtrack was composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson
, Bajakian's former protégé, whose previous work included composition and sound editing for LucasArts. Emerson-Johnson's scores used live performances as opposed to synthesized music often used elsewhere in the video games industry; a small team of five musicians, including Emerson-Johnson and a recording engineer, produced the soundtrack. The score is primarily grounded in film noir
jazz
, inspired by the work of Henry Mancini
and Charles Mingus
. However, Emerson-Johnson noted that as the Sam & Max universe is "open-ended", he had the chance to explore into other musical genres in some episodes, such as "a song-and-dance Charleston
number, faux Philip Glass
, an ode to Nina Rota's music from The Godfather
, and even some inspired retro 8-bit game music". Several songs were incorporated into the soundtrack, performed by Emerson-Johnson or Peter Barto, the voice actor for Agent Superball. Purcell later commented that Emerson-Johnson had seamlessly blended a "huge palette of genres and styles", while Ferguson stated that he believed that it was Emerson-Johnson's scores that created the vital atmosphere in the games, noting that prior to the implementation of the music, playing the games was an "unrelenting horror". The soundtrack to Sam & Max Save the World was published in July 2007.
rank the fifth episode, "Reality 2.0", as the critical favorite, while the third episode, "The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball" received the lowest scores. The entire season holds a score of 88 percent on GameRankings. In addition to receiving several editor choice awards, the game has been recipient to publisher awards for the best adventure game of 2006. As Telltale Games had managed to release a steady stream content with only small time gaps, journalists in the video game industry had considered Sam & Max Save the World to be the first successful application of episodic gaming. Previous unsuccessful implementations of the distribution model included attempts by Valve Software
with the Half-Life series
, Ritual Entertainment
with SiN Episodes
and Telltale themselves with Bone
.
The debut episode, "Culture Shock", was recipient to a mostly optimistic response from critics. The episode was thought to adequately follow 1993's Sam & Max Hit the Road
, with the introduction of the new 3D engine and gameplay being positively received. Criticisms of "Culture Shock" focused on the story; while the humor in the writing was praised, the plot was seen as a "thin excuse for the jokes" and the episode's primary antagonist was described by IGN's
Steve Butts as "a bit of a letdown". The second episode, "Situation: Comedy", was thought to produce a better antagonist than "Culture Shock", with the puzzles linking in well to the story. However, critics described the puzzles as too easy, and expressed disappointment at the reuse of lines from the first episode. The next episode, "The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball", was the lowest rated episode amongst reviewers. Although the episode received compliments for its dialogue and humor, it was criticised for its easy puzzles and short length.
The fourth episode, "Abe Lincoln Must Die!", was held by critics to be one of the series' best episodes, The episode's story of political satire
was subject to praise, whilst the increased length was also appreciated. Puzzles were felt to be more difficult and satisfying to solve. Detractors of the episode, however, felt that the episode suffered from the need to constantly move between locations and from the reuse of old characters and locations. "Reality 2.0", the fifth episode, was the critical favorite of the series. The game's puzzles were cited as stronger than in "Abe Lincoln Must Die!", with a fitting tribute to text adventure games
towards the end. However, the script was thought to be inferior to the preceding episode. The season finale "Bright Side of the Moon" received a more reserved response than the two previous episodes, with criticisms directed at the length of the game and the depth of character interaction. Nevertheless, reviewers felt that the episode had reasonable puzzle design and that it was a respectable end to the series.
Critics gave positive reviews towards the overall gameplay mechanics, although they often presented some reservations. Several reviews praised the simplicity of the game interface. Andre Thomas of GamePlasma described the game's learning curve as "incredibly simple" and the gameplay mechanics as logical extension of those from the adventure games of the 1990s, while GamingTrend reviewer Ron Burke praised Telltale's "intuitive" point-and-click system. Mark Smith of Game Chronicles, however, stated that the streamlined mechanics eliminated "a lot of the exploration and discovery we normally associate with these types of games". Some reviews directed criticism towards puzzle design; according to Smith, the game is "certainly accessible to kids and younger teens", but the adult audience "will find these games way too easy". Reviewing for Adventure Gamers
, Evan Dickens felt that the puzzles took "a bit of thought and consideration, but never to a point of consternation", believing that the low difficulty was intended by Telltale to allow players to "proceed through the story with minimum frustration". Hypers
Tim Henderson commends the game for being "highly accessible [and] almost as funny as the original". However, he criticises it for its episodic content being a "tease".
In relation to the story and writing, critics felt that the overall plot was ineffectual. Al Giovetti of JustAdventure felt the plot was lacking, while Burke considered the episodic nature to be detrimental to maintaining plot cohesion between the episodes, a point with which Dickens agreed. Despite this, several reviewers thought that the individual episode stories and the presentation and development of the characters were good. Reviewers considered the writing for each episode as one of the best features of the game; they also praised the level of humor in the game, although Dickens felt that it was not until the fourth episode that the writing properly established itself. In addition, they directed some skepticism towards the reuse of scenes and characters, with critical opinion divided on the degree of success in this regard. A point of contention rose between British and American reviewers over the story and setting, exemplified in PC Gamer
; whilst positive towards the first and fourth episodes, the British edition of the magazine felt this repetition was a severe failing of Save the World, and that the writing did not work well. In contrast, the American edition rated each episode highly, stating that the quality of the series was "excellent".
Critics commended Sam & Max Save the Worlds graphics and art direction; Dickens commented that "the cartoonish, absurdist nature of Steve Purcell's characters is captured perfectly" within an "enthusiastically colorful world that is at its best the stranger it gets", while GameZone reviewer Anise Hollingshead praised Telltale for successfully upgrading the characters' graphics "without losing any of their cartoon appeal". Kristen Reed, writing for Eurogamer
, felt that the graphics reflected a "great degree of care and attention to everything from the locations to the standard of character modelling and animation". They also praised the game for its sound, voice acting and music. In a review for The Entertainment Depot, Tim McGowan complimented Emerson-Johnson's soundtrack as "being quite excellent and listenable on its own", and IGN's Alex Van Zelfdendate described it as a "breath of fresh air". However, PC Gamer UKs Alec Meer felt that the opening theme tune was "so busy trying to hint at [the theme for Sam & Max Hit the Road] that it forgets to have a memorable melody of its own". Nowlin and Kasten's voicework also received a positive response.
The Wii version of the game garnered a more reserved view from critics than the PC version; GameRankings and Metacritic gave aggregate review scores of 75 percent and 74 percent, respectively. For better or worse, reviewers felt that the game had not changed much from the PC version in terms of gameplay, story or overall content. While Sam & Max was thought to be a "perfect, naturally cartoony fit for the Wii", the critics noted a number of technical issues with the release. Several critics cited minor issues with using the imprecise Wii Remote
for puzzles requiring accuracy, while observations were made that lines of dialogue could be cut short and that the frame rate could slow significantly, especially in action sequences.
Graphic adventure game
A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...
video game developed by Telltale Games
Telltale Games
Telltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
. The game was originally released as Sam & Max: Season One before being renamed in early 2009. Save the World was developed in episodic fashion, comprising six episodes that were released for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
over the course of late 2006 and early 2007. The episodes were initially distributed online by GameTap
GameTap
GameTap is an American online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System . Dubbed by TBS as a "first of its kind broadband gaming network", the service provides users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content...
and Telltale Games themselves, although the later retail releases of the game were published by The Adventure Company
The Adventure Company
The Adventure Company, is a publishing label of Nordic Games. It is formally a division of DreamCatcher Interactive but was sold to Nordic Games in 2011 following DreamCatcher's parent JoWooD Entertainment being sold after entering administration.-History:...
and JoWooD Productions in North America and Europe respectively. A Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
port of the game was published in late 2008, and a Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
version for the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
was released in mid 2009. The two Sam and Max games are one of the four XBLA games priced at 1600 Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points are the currency of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Games for Windows - Live Marketplace, Windows Live Gallery, and Zune online stores. The points allow users to purchase content without a credit card and to reduce the number of small credit card transaction fees, which Microsoft would...
(20$).
Based on Steve Purcell's
Steve Purcell
Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007...
comic book series Sam & Max
Sam & Max
Sam & Max is a media franchise focusing on the fictional characters of Sam and Max, the Freelance Police. The characters, who occupy a universe that parodies American popular culture, were created by Steve Purcell in his youth, and later debuted in a 1987 comic book series...
, the game follows the titular characters Sam and Max—self-styled vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
s, the former an anthropomorphic dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
and the latter a "hyperkinetic rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
y thing"—through several cases involving a hypnotism conspiracy. Each episode features one case with a contained story, with an underlying plot running through the series. The game was announced by Telltale Games in 2005 following the cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police by LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
in the preceding year; many of the employees at Telltale Games were members of the Freelance Police development team.
The game received a positive response from critics, with praise bestowed on the game's humor, graphics and gameplay. However, concerns were voiced over the low difficulty of the puzzles, repetition in design between episodes and the effectiveness of the story. Opinions dissented across the Atlantic; some British reviewers did not appreciate the writing in the way that American critics did. Nevertheless, the game has won several awards and is often cited by commentators as the first successful application of episodic distribution. The game was accompanied by a number of short machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
videos set between each episode. The game was followed by two episodic sequels: Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space in 2007 and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is a graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games. It is the third "season" of the Sam & Max episodic series created by Telltale Games, following Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space...
in 2010.
Gameplay
Sam & Max Save the World is a 3D3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
graphic adventure game
Graphic adventure game
A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...
in which the player controls the character of Sam. The player has Sam explore the environments of the game and solve a series of puzzles using a simple point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
interface. The game's puzzles have logical solutions, although a number of them have far-fetched solutions due to the game's cartoon setting. Depending on the type of in-game entity a player selects using the cursor
Cursor (computers)
In computing, a cursor is an indicator used to show the position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to input from a text input or pointing device. The flashing text cursor may be referred to as a caret in some cases...
, the player can have Sam walk around an area, look at and comment on objects, pick up certain items
Item (game)
In pencil and paper games and computer and video games, an item is an object within the game world that can be collected by a player or, occasionally, a non-player character...
or otherwise try to use them. Sam may also engage in conversation with non-player characters; when this occurs, the game presents a dialog tree with several subjects to pick from. Topics of conversation may directly involve the story or provide assistance with the game's puzzles, while others may be entirely unconnected. In some cases, the player may be able to choose dialog for Max to speak as well.
The game implements an inventory system to allow Sam to store any items that the player picks up during the course of the game. The player may select any of the items in the inventory and can then attempt to use them on objects in the game world or give them to other characters simply by clicking on the desired target. Unlike Save the Worlds predecessor, Sam & Max Hit the Road
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphic adventure computer game released by LucasArts during the company's adventure games era. The game was originally released for DOS in 1993 and for Mac OS in 1995. A 2002 re-release included compatibility with Windows and Amiga...
, inventory items are context specific, and cannot be used together or combined to create new items. Typically, Sam carries a gun that may be used to solve several puzzles.
The characters can travel between a variety of locations in the game using their black and white 1960 DeSoto Adventurer
DeSoto Adventurer
The DeSoto Adventurer is an automobile produced by the Chrysler Corporation and sold under its DeSoto automotive marque from 1956 through the 1960 model year. It was initially DeSoto's special, limited-production, high-performance model, similar to the Chrysler 300. While in production, the...
, which, when selected, will present the player with a list of available destinations. The DeSoto is also used for several driving sequences, usually involving pursuing or fleeing criminals in other vehicles. In these driving sequences, the player can use Sam's gun, the car's horn, or have Max attempt to communicate with other vehicles via a megaphone. In addition, special inventory items may be used to complete specific puzzles within these sequences. Driving sequences are also used for several minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s, such as pulling innocent drivers over for fabricated felonies. In keeping with the developer's heritage from the LucasArts adventure games
LucasArts adventure games
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humour, with a few exceptions...
, Sam & Max Save the World is designed so that the player characters cannot die or reach a complete dead-end.
Characters
Sam & Max Save the World is set in a universe that parodies American popular cultureCulture of the United States
The Culture of the United States is a Western culture originally influenced by European cultures. It has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore...
, and it follows the titular characters of Sam and Max, the Freelance Police, a pair of vigilantes and private investigators. Sam is a level-headed but enthusiastic anthropomorphic dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
who wears a blue suit and fedora. He is inquisitive, knowledgeable in obscure areas and tends to prefer the logical solution to problems, but he is not above using force. Max is described as "hyperkinetic rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
y thing"; cunning, uninhibited and reveling in violence and mischief. His reactions to situations usually incorporate force but often with a seeming disregard for his own personal safety. Together, the Freelance Police operate out of a dilapidated office block in a dangerous neighborhood in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where they receive cases over the telephone from an unseen police commissioner
Police commissioner
Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...
.
Several supporting characters consistently appear throughout the episodes. Bosco is the proprietor of the nearby convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
and supplies the Freelance Police with a number of items across the game. Driven paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
by repeated shoplifting, Bosco is obsessed with conspiracies, believing that nearly every US government agency, as well as many criminal outfits, are after him. As such, his store is overwhelmed with security devices and contraptions created by Bosco himself. He regularly attempts to disguise himself as a variety of foreign national
Foreign national
Foreign national is a term used to describe a person who is not a citizen of the host country in which he or she is residing or temporarily sojourning. In Canada, a foreign national is defined as someone who is not a Canadian citizen nor a permanent resident of Canada...
s, but to little effect. Further down the neighborhood is Sybil Pandemik, who owns a small office across from Sam and Max. Sybil is unable to keep a consistent job and regularly changes her career choices. Introduced as a psychotherapist
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
, she is noted to have worked as a tattoo artist
Tattoo artist
A tattoo artist is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a tattoo shop, tattoo studio or tattoo parlour...
, software tester
Software testing
Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...
, tabloid journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and professional witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
. In a hole in Sam and Max's own office resides Jimmy Two-Teeth, a rat who works as a petty criminal, confidence trick
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
ster and fence
Fence (criminal)
A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...
. He profusely dislikes Sam and Max, who he sees as always interfering with his work.
Other characters include the Soda Poppers, a group of three former child stars from the 1970s. The three, each with their own trademark catch-phrase, first appear as victims of hypnosis in the first episode, later acting as the judges on a Pop Idol
Idol series
The British talent search television series Pop Idol has spawned spin-offs in 42 territories, in what is now referred to as the "Idols" format, as described by FremantleMedia...
parody in the second episode. By the fourth episode, they are elected the governors of the Dakotas
The Dakotas
The Dakotas is a collective term that refers to the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota together. The term has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is continued to be used to describe the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, the economy, and...
and plunge the region into civil war over ownership of Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States...
. Also making sporadic appearances is Hugh Bliss, an eccentric magician and leader of the Prismatology cult, a parody of Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
. He is often seen attempting to promote his self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
guides based on Prismatology. Sam finds Bliss irritating, while Max almost idolizes him. Minor characters include Agent Superball, a US Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
agent with a penchant for guarding doors; Chuckles, the pit manager
Pit Manager
A pit boss is the person who looks after the employees who work in a casino pit. The job of the pit boss is to watch the floormen, who are the supervisors for table games dealers in a casino. One pit boss monitors all floormen in the pit; there is usually one floorman for every three dealers...
in a mafia-run casino; and the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society (COPS), a group of outdated computers attempting to find purpose in the technologically advanced world.
Plot
The game opens with Sam and Max lounging in their office, awaiting a new case after a long hiatus. Eventually, the commissioner sends them out to investigate a group of former child stars, the Soda Poppers, who have been causing trouble in the neighborhood. The Soda Poppers are attempting to promote a self-help video called Eye-Bo, which when watched hypnotizes the viewer. After seeking assistance from Sybil to reverse the hypnotism on the Soda Poppers by knocking them unconscious, the Freelance Police learn that the scheme has been devised by one Brady Culture, another former child star who owes his fall from popularity to the rise of the Soda Poppers. Sam and Max and the Soda Poppers confront Culture, who hypnotizes the Soda Poppers again. However, Sam manages to fool Culture into ordering the Soda Poppers to attack himself, subduing the threat. The next case the Freelance Police gets involves liberating a studio audience held hostage by a TV talk showTalk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
host, Myra Stump. At the TV station, Sam and Max deduce that Myra has been hypnotized, and after using other shows in the studio to become celebrities, they convince her to let them become guests on her show. Once on the show, Sam notes a strange toy bear on the host's desk, the source of the hypnotism. Using the studio sound system, Sam electrocutes both Myra and the bear, allowing the audience to leave.
The commissioner then tasks Sam and Max with infiltrating the Toy Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, a criminal organisation operating from a casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
. The commissioner's mole
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
in the organisation has gone quiet; he wants the Freelance Police to find out what happened to the mole. Sam and Max quickly discover that the Toy Mafia are responsible for the toy bear that hypnotised Myra. As they gain the Mafia's trust, they ascertain that the mole has switched sides and is now leading the outfit. After discovering that the casino is a front for producing the hypnotizing bears for mass distribution, the Freelance Police sabotage the factory and destroy the operation. Soon after, the US President starts bringing in bizarre policies; Max is particularly concerned about the introduction of gun restrictions, while Sam believes the President has been hypnotized. At the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, Max decapitates the President, revealing him to be a mechanical puppet designed to hypnotize the nation through TV broadcasts. The President's bodyguard, none other than the Toy Mafia's pit boss, activates a giant robot disguised as the statue at the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
to run in an emergency election against Max. Sam discredits Lincoln's campaign, resulting in Max winning the presidential election. Lincoln begins a destructive rampage through Washington D.C. but is neutralized when Max fires an intercontinental ballistic missile
Intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...
at him.
The next case given to Sam and Max involves dealing with a computer crisis that is causing the world economy to collapse. They discover the problem is a virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
program called Reality 2.0, powered by the Internet, which is hypnotizing people so they never want to leave the program. Sam and Max access the program themselves and introduce a computer virus that crashes Reality 2.0 and deletes the digital embodiment of the Internet. Prior to expiring, the Internet reveals that it was following the plans of one Roy G. Biv
Roy G. Biv
ROYGBIV is an acronym for the visible part of the electromagnetic light spectrum:* Red* Orange* Yellow* Green* Blue* Indigo* VioletA rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colors; the distinct bands are an artifact of human color vision...
. Sam eventually deduces that Roy G. Biv is actually Hugh Bliss, a character seemingly in the background of all their previous cases. The Freelance Police travel to Bliss' Prismatology retreat on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, where Bliss is preparing a device to hypnotize the entire planet. Bliss reveals himself as a colony of sentient bacteria that feeds off of the endorphin
Endorphin
Endorphins are endogenous opioid peptides that function as neurotransmitters. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food, love and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce...
s produced by human happiness; by hypnotizing the planet, Bliss assures himself of a permanent supply of nourishment. Bliss activates the device but is killed when Sam tricks him into a tank of water and boils it using the rocket engine of a lunar lander
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
. Returning to Earth, Max takes great pleasure in reversing the hypnotism by personally knocking everyone on the planet unconscious.
Episodes
| Episode | Release date | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GameTap release | General release | |||
| "Culture Shock" | October 17, 2006 | November 1, 2006 | ||
Notes:
|
||||
| "Situation: Comedy" | December 20, 2006 | January 5, 2007 | ||
| Notes:
|
||||
| "The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball" | January 25, 2007 | February 8, 2007 | ||
| Notes:
Mole (espionage) A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access... in a nearby mafia outfit has gone quiet, so Sam and Max are tasked with finding out what happened to him |
||||
| "Abe Lincoln Must Die!" | February 22, 2007 | March 9, 2007 | ||
| Notes:
|
||||
| "Reality 2.0" | March 29, 2007 | April 9, 2007 | ||
| Notes:
|
||||
| "Bright Side of the Moon" | April 26, 2007 | May 10, 2007 | ||
| Notes:
|
||||
Machinima
For the release of each episode, Telltale Games released three corresponding machinimaMachinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
shorts. These shorts are set between the episodes; fifteen were released in total. The first short, "Frank Discussion", released on November 30, 2006, has Sam and Max share a discussion regarding frankfurters
Hot dog
A hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
and their preservative
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....
properties in Bosco's store. The short was followed on December 7 by "Trainspotting", in which Sam ponders the meaning of life while Max questions the sensibility of being outside, away from the comforts of their office. On December 12, Telltale released "A Painstaking Search": having misplaced the keys to their office, Sam and Max return to Brady Culture's hideout in an attempt to retrace their steps. The first short of 2007, "Reality Blights", was released on January 4 and sees Max volunteer the duo to appear on a reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
show, Four Freaks in a Terribly Cramped Office. "Egregious Philosophy Platter" was released seven days later on January 11 and features Sam and Max as host the hosts of television show Egregious Philosphohy Platter, discussing the philosophers Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
and Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
. The final short relating to television shows, "Kitchen Consequential", was released on January 18 and follows Sam and Max hosting Fun in the Kitchen With Sam and Max where they showcase a few recipes of special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s.
"Interrogation" was the game's third episode on February 1, in which Sam and Max demonstrate how to properly interrogate a suspect. This was followed by "Coffee" on February 8; in the short, Sam and Max experiment with telekinesis on coffee cups. On February 15, "The Blank Blank Blank" was released, where Sam and Max discuss with Bosco a government agency so secret, the acronym is classified. Following episodes relate to Max's tenure as US President after "Abe Lincoln Must Die!"; "War Games", released on March 1, has Sam and Max engage in military activities from the White House's war room under the pretense that they are mere simulations. It was followed by "The Teapot Drone Scandal" on March 15, in which Max orders a Secret Service agent to recite "I'm a Little Teapot
I'm a Little Teapot
"The Teapot Song" is a song describing the heating and pouring of a teapot or tea kettle. The song was originally written by George Harold Sanders and Clarence Z...
" over the telephone. "Saving the Economy" was released on March 22, showing a broadcast by Max outlining his plans to make the economy more efficient by irrationally extending daylight saving time
Daylight saving time
Daylight saving time —also summer time in several countries including in British English and European official terminology —is the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summertime so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less...
. On April 5, "Artichoke" was released, in which Max holds a press conference where he is unwisely questioned about his gun control policies. The penultimate short, "Bosco", was released on April 12, 2007 and shows Max starting a negative campaign
Negative campaigning
Negative campaigning, also known more colloquially as "mudslinging", is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one's own positive attributes or preferred policies...
against Bosco for the presidential election, despite the fact that he is not running. "A Fireside Chat", the final episode, was released on April 19, depicting a broadcast by Max to the state of Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
in the hopes of getting them to vote for him.
Production
Sam & Max Save the World originates from Sam & Max: Freelance Police, a graphic adventure game that was developed by LucasArtsLucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
from 2002 to 2004. Freelance Police was a sequel to the 1993 title Sam & Max Hit the Road
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphic adventure computer game released by LucasArts during the company's adventure games era. The game was originally released for DOS in 1993 and for Mac OS in 1995. A 2002 re-release included compatibility with Windows and Amiga...
. However, LucasArts ceased production on Freelance Police in March 2004. In the subsequent weeks, LucasArts underwent major restructuring; many of the developers who worked on past LucasArts adventure games
LucasArts adventure games
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humour, with a few exceptions...
were made redundant. Some of the former Freelance Police development team consequently formed Telltale Games
Telltale Games
Telltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
in June 2004 to continue developing the sort of adventure games that LucasArts no longer wished to produce. Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell
Steve Purcell
Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007...
, who described himself as disappointed and frustrated with LucasArts' decision, took the Sam & Max franchise to Telltale after the LucasArts license expired in mid-2005. Telltale Games announced the new series of Sam & Max games in September 2005. Brendan Q. Ferguson, who worked on Freelance Police as a programmer, designer and writer; Dave Grossman
Dave Grossman
Dave Grossman is a game programmer and game designer, most known for his work at Telltale Games and early work at LucasArts. He has also written several children's books, and a book of "guy poetry" called Ode to the Stuff in the Sink....
, one of the project leaders on Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle; and Purcell primarily led the development of the project.
Unlike Freelance Police, Save the World was developed in episodic form, with episodes being released in quick succession, to allow for reduced development time between titles and quicker delivery of content to consumers. Telltale launched a website for Sam & Max in November 2005 to accompany their new series. The following month, Purcell began publishing a Sam & Max webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
entitled "The Big Sleep" on the site; the webcomic ran for twelve issues and concluded in April 2007. Purcell won an Eisner Award
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
in 2007 for the webcomic. In March 2006, Telltale announced it had acquired in funding from a group of private investors, to help sustain growth until its next round of equity funding.
Telltale released the game's trailer for the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2006, showing the new voice actors for Sam and Max: David Nowlin and William Kasten respectively. However, Andrew Chaikin
Kid Beyond
Kid Beyond is a singer, beat boxer and live looper based in the San Francisco area.-Early career:Chaikin attended Brown University and was a leader in the co-ed fraternity Zeta Delta Xi. He sang in the Jabberwocks, a student a cappella group...
voiced Max in the first episode, but was unable to continue in the role due to health reasons. While at the convention, Telltale announced that the first episode was forecast for release towards the end of 2006, via the distribution service GameTap
GameTap
GameTap is an American online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System . Dubbed by TBS as a "first of its kind broadband gaming network", the service provides users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content...
. Telltale announced a release date of October 17, 2006 over GameTap in early September, with the note that each episode would be made available from Telltale themselves within fifteen days of release. Development on the first episode was completed on September 25, and from October 10, GameTap began hosting the Sam & Max animated series
The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police
The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police or Sam & Max: Freelance Police!!! is an American animated television series starring Sam & Max, a duo of private investigators composed of Sam, an anthropomorphic dog, and Max, a lagomorph or "hyperkinetic rabbity-thing." The show was created by Steve...
as promotional material for release. The first episode, "Culture Shock", was released on-time on October 17. The next five episodes were released over short intervals until the series finale in April 2007. The series debuted on Steam on June 15, 2007. Telltale began shipping a special collectors edition of the game in July 2007, while the retail version of the game was published in August 2007. January 2008 saw a significant update to the game, upgrading the game engine and ensuring compatibility with Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
.
Three months later, Telltale announced a Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
version of the game. Telltale reported that an email campaign and Internet rumors of a port had stirred up interest within the company for producing a Wii version. They redesigned the game's point-and-click interface to accommodate the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
, the primary controller for the console. The game was initially forecast for release in North America on October 7, 2008; however, it was released a week later on October 14. The European version was published later in December.
In February 2009, Telltale Games renamed the game from its initial release title of Sam & Max: Season One to Sam & Max Save the World. Telltale's public relations spokeswoman, Emily Morganti, explained that while Season One was thought to communicate the game's episodic nature to potential consumers, the company felt that it was nondescript in relation to the game's story. The message accompanied the announcement of an Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
version of the game, which had been subject to media speculation since February 2007. Both Windows and Wii versions of the game are to be republished using the new title.
Design
According to Dave Grossman, the objective for Telltale Games with Sam & Max Save the World was to create a game with a "lot of story and character in it". Grossman explained that the Sam & Max franchise was therefore most ideally suited to the graphic adventure genre; while actionAction game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
was thought to be possible with the source material, it "would be kind of wrong". Like in previous Sam & Max games, Sam & Max Save the World used a point-and-click gameplay system, itself a variation of the control scheme used by Telltale in their preceding adventure game series, Bone
Bone: Out from Boneville
Bone: Out from Boneville is the second video game endeavor by Telltale Games, and the first episode of the Bone adventure game series. It was released in September 2005 after around seven months in production...
. The action sequences implemented in the game, such as the various car chase scenes, still maintained the point-and-click interface.
Very little of the design from Freelance Police was carried over into Save the World; LucasArts still held onto the assets created for use in Freelance Police, and Telltale was wary of using similar design patterns. While Ferguson and Purcell had both been involved with the canceled LucasArts project, Grossman had not. The team decided to just start from fresh, and pursue a different treatment of the game's subject. Purcell himself wanted to ensure that the game conveyed the "gritty" feel of the original comics—something he felt was lacking from the LucasArts renditions of the franchise. Grossman stated that "we wanted to get a little bit more of that dirt on the streets, and the paper cups and people being mean and nasty". This "gritty" feeling also influenced artistic design. For instance, on Purcell's suggestion, the sky was changed from blue to yellow in the street outside Sam and Max's office, instantly making the environment feel "filthy and disgusting".
Audio
Bay Area Sound, a company set up by Clint BajakianClint Bajakian
Clint Bajakian is an American video game composer and musician.-Biography:Bajakian was born in Massachusetts, United States. He was linked with music since age of 8. In middle school Bajakian played in marching bands, and also played in range of rock bands...
, who had worked extensively on composition and sound production on LucasArts games since 1994, produced the soundtrack. The Save the World soundtrack was composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson
Jared Emerson-Johnson
Jared Nathaniel Emerson-Johnson is an American video game music composer, sound designer, voice director and voice actor, and protégé of veteran video game music composer Clint Bajakian...
, Bajakian's former protégé, whose previous work included composition and sound editing for LucasArts. Emerson-Johnson's scores used live performances as opposed to synthesized music often used elsewhere in the video games industry; a small team of five musicians, including Emerson-Johnson and a recording engineer, produced the soundtrack. The score is primarily grounded in film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, inspired by the work of Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
and Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
. However, Emerson-Johnson noted that as the Sam & Max universe is "open-ended", he had the chance to explore into other musical genres in some episodes, such as "a song-and-dance Charleston
Charleston (dance)
The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...
number, faux Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, an ode to Nina Rota's music from The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, and even some inspired retro 8-bit game music". Several songs were incorporated into the soundtrack, performed by Emerson-Johnson or Peter Barto, the voice actor for Agent Superball. Purcell later commented that Emerson-Johnson had seamlessly blended a "huge palette of genres and styles", while Ferguson stated that he believed that it was Emerson-Johnson's scores that created the vital atmosphere in the games, noting that prior to the implementation of the music, playing the games was an "unrelenting horror". The soundtrack to Sam & Max Save the World was published in July 2007.
Reception
Sam & Max Save the World received positive critical reaction from reviewers. Aggregate review scores on GameRankings and MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
rank the fifth episode, "Reality 2.0", as the critical favorite, while the third episode, "The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball" received the lowest scores. The entire season holds a score of 88 percent on GameRankings. In addition to receiving several editor choice awards, the game has been recipient to publisher awards for the best adventure game of 2006. As Telltale Games had managed to release a steady stream content with only small time gaps, journalists in the video game industry had considered Sam & Max Save the World to be the first successful application of episodic gaming. Previous unsuccessful implementations of the distribution model included attempts by Valve Software
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
with the Half-Life series
Half-Life (series)
The Half-Life series of video games share a science fiction alternate history. Nearly all of the games are first-person shooters on the GoldSource or Source engines, and most are linear, narrative, single-player titles....
, Ritual Entertainment
Ritual Entertainment
Ritual Entertainment was a computer game software developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller and Tom Mustaine...
with SiN Episodes
SiN Episodes
SiN Episodes is the title of a series of episodic games for the PC that would have expanded upon the 1998 computer game SiN. A total of nine episodes were planned with only the first one released...
and Telltale themselves with Bone
Bone: Out from Boneville
Bone: Out from Boneville is the second video game endeavor by Telltale Games, and the first episode of the Bone adventure game series. It was released in September 2005 after around seven months in production...
.
The debut episode, "Culture Shock", was recipient to a mostly optimistic response from critics. The episode was thought to adequately follow 1993's Sam & Max Hit the Road
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphic adventure computer game released by LucasArts during the company's adventure games era. The game was originally released for DOS in 1993 and for Mac OS in 1995. A 2002 re-release included compatibility with Windows and Amiga...
, with the introduction of the new 3D engine and gameplay being positively received. Criticisms of "Culture Shock" focused on the story; while the humor in the writing was praised, the plot was seen as a "thin excuse for the jokes" and the episode's primary antagonist was described by IGN's
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
Steve Butts as "a bit of a letdown". The second episode, "Situation: Comedy", was thought to produce a better antagonist than "Culture Shock", with the puzzles linking in well to the story. However, critics described the puzzles as too easy, and expressed disappointment at the reuse of lines from the first episode. The next episode, "The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball", was the lowest rated episode amongst reviewers. Although the episode received compliments for its dialogue and humor, it was criticised for its easy puzzles and short length.
The fourth episode, "Abe Lincoln Must Die!", was held by critics to be one of the series' best episodes, The episode's story of political satire
Political satire
Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...
was subject to praise, whilst the increased length was also appreciated. Puzzles were felt to be more difficult and satisfying to solve. Detractors of the episode, however, felt that the episode suffered from the need to constantly move between locations and from the reuse of old characters and locations. "Reality 2.0", the fifth episode, was the critical favorite of the series. The game's puzzles were cited as stronger than in "Abe Lincoln Must Die!", with a fitting tribute to text adventure games
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
towards the end. However, the script was thought to be inferior to the preceding episode. The season finale "Bright Side of the Moon" received a more reserved response than the two previous episodes, with criticisms directed at the length of the game and the depth of character interaction. Nevertheless, reviewers felt that the episode had reasonable puzzle design and that it was a respectable end to the series.
Critics gave positive reviews towards the overall gameplay mechanics, although they often presented some reservations. Several reviews praised the simplicity of the game interface. Andre Thomas of GamePlasma described the game's learning curve as "incredibly simple" and the gameplay mechanics as logical extension of those from the adventure games of the 1990s, while GamingTrend reviewer Ron Burke praised Telltale's "intuitive" point-and-click system. Mark Smith of Game Chronicles, however, stated that the streamlined mechanics eliminated "a lot of the exploration and discovery we normally associate with these types of games". Some reviews directed criticism towards puzzle design; according to Smith, the game is "certainly accessible to kids and younger teens", but the adult audience "will find these games way too easy". Reviewing for Adventure Gamers
Adventure Gamers
Adventure Gamers is a computer game website created in 1998 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game designers....
, Evan Dickens felt that the puzzles took "a bit of thought and consideration, but never to a point of consternation", believing that the low difficulty was intended by Telltale to allow players to "proceed through the story with minimum frustration". Hypers
Hyper (magazine)
Hyper is a multi-platform Australian video game magazine. Australia's longest running gaming magazine, it has been in publication since 1993, and was released the same month as the better known UK magazine Edge...
Tim Henderson commends the game for being "highly accessible [and] almost as funny as the original". However, he criticises it for its episodic content being a "tease".
In relation to the story and writing, critics felt that the overall plot was ineffectual. Al Giovetti of JustAdventure felt the plot was lacking, while Burke considered the episodic nature to be detrimental to maintaining plot cohesion between the episodes, a point with which Dickens agreed. Despite this, several reviewers thought that the individual episode stories and the presentation and development of the characters were good. Reviewers considered the writing for each episode as one of the best features of the game; they also praised the level of humor in the game, although Dickens felt that it was not until the fourth episode that the writing properly established itself. In addition, they directed some skepticism towards the reuse of scenes and characters, with critical opinion divided on the degree of success in this regard. A point of contention rose between British and American reviewers over the story and setting, exemplified in PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
; whilst positive towards the first and fourth episodes, the British edition of the magazine felt this repetition was a severe failing of Save the World, and that the writing did not work well. In contrast, the American edition rated each episode highly, stating that the quality of the series was "excellent".
Critics commended Sam & Max Save the Worlds graphics and art direction; Dickens commented that "the cartoonish, absurdist nature of Steve Purcell's characters is captured perfectly" within an "enthusiastically colorful world that is at its best the stranger it gets", while GameZone reviewer Anise Hollingshead praised Telltale for successfully upgrading the characters' graphics "without losing any of their cartoon appeal". Kristen Reed, writing for Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
, felt that the graphics reflected a "great degree of care and attention to everything from the locations to the standard of character modelling and animation". They also praised the game for its sound, voice acting and music. In a review for The Entertainment Depot, Tim McGowan complimented Emerson-Johnson's soundtrack as "being quite excellent and listenable on its own", and IGN's Alex Van Zelfdendate described it as a "breath of fresh air". However, PC Gamer UKs Alec Meer felt that the opening theme tune was "so busy trying to hint at [the theme for Sam & Max Hit the Road] that it forgets to have a memorable melody of its own". Nowlin and Kasten's voicework also received a positive response.
The Wii version of the game garnered a more reserved view from critics than the PC version; GameRankings and Metacritic gave aggregate review scores of 75 percent and 74 percent, respectively. For better or worse, reviewers felt that the game had not changed much from the PC version in terms of gameplay, story or overall content. While Sam & Max was thought to be a "perfect, naturally cartoony fit for the Wii", the critics noted a number of technical issues with the release. Several critics cited minor issues with using the imprecise Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
for puzzles requiring accuracy, while observations were made that lines of dialogue could be cut short and that the frame rate could slow significantly, especially in action sequences.
External links
- Sam & Max website at Telltale GamesTelltale GamesTelltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
- Sam & Max: Season One at The International House of Mojo