Adventure games have come a long way since I started gaming, from the text only games on my old faithful Acorn Electron to the huge worlds of Oblivion. The quality of games on downloadable stores is also improving and now the focus is on adventure games of the 90's. The rise of the point and click adventures on consoles is well and truly on it's way with Telltale Games leading the way with Sam and Max Save the World.

 

Sam and Max originated from comics and was picked up by Lucas Arts to continue their trend on great SCUMM games like Monkey Island and Manic Mansion. The original humour and style set it apart from most games on the market at the time and was a very popular game with a large fan base. Telltale Games picked up the license and ran with the popular episodic releases during 2006 on the PC and now finally, us console owners have a chance at playing this great adventure.

 

 

Sam and Max are private detectives that work in New York and always tend to take on the slightly stranger of cases. Sam is a huge dog that wears a fedora hat and carries a huge gun and Max is a maniacal rabbit thing. Their adventures in the past have taken them all over the world and space and this time the pair are involved in a strange conspiracy involving mind control and a troop of faded child actors that goes through corner shops, TV studios and the White House.

 

The download itself is the first season of Sam and Max's return, this includes all 6 episodes, each one is playable separately and whilst each one is complete there is a story thread going through them all. Rather than take the approach of the recent Wallace and Gromit title and control the characters by the d-pad, Sam and Max is more classic and all you have is an on screen pointer. If there is anything of interest move the pointer to it, a brief description will appear and then you can click to interact. It may be a further description or even trigger a cut scene. at certain points, for example when talking to another character you will have a selection of phrases to use, some are relevant whilst others are there just to annoy and ridicule the character. The amount of speech crammed into this game is incredible and what really helps is that it is all of a high quality and very funny. In the bottom left of the screen is your inventory bag, click this and it will show all the contents and from there it is very easy to combine items and interact with them.

 

One of the most fun parts of the game is the interaction and the way you need to use items in order to progress. For example in the first episode you need to combine some cheese, a bathroom, a crate and a security system just to move on, it always takes a while to figure out what you need to do, but there is a great sense of satisfaction once you do.

 

 

To break away from the point and click there is a few mini games that pop up along the way, my favourite being in the first episode where you jump into your trusty motor, from here you drive along the street and with Max taking the wheel you can shoot out tail lights of cars to give them tickets and earn some easy cash.

Graphically the game seems a little dated and whilst not utilizing the HD qualities of the Xbox 360 it’s good enough. The characters are all 3D and are huge in screen with no slowdown and sensible lip syncing.

 

Sam and Max Save the World is a great title to have on you Xbox 360 and will entertain most people with its great humour, story and no fuss controls.