Sam and Max have a second season

ONE OF THE BEST Lucas Arts adventures that no one remembers is Sam and Max Hit the Road, an agonisngly funny point and click adventure. Eight years later, Tellltale Games resurrected it with a monthly episodic games based on the S&M universe. Sorry, couldn't resist.

The idea is simple, it is an old school point and click adventure, the same as most of the *Quest, * being King's, Police, Space and Leisure Suit Larry without Quest, adventures of yore. You might also remember Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Full Throttle and Zak McKracken, if you do, Sam and Max Season One will feel right at home.

The humour of Season One is a bit tamed down from Hit the Road, but it is still really bent and dark. If you read the INQ on a fairly regular basis, you will probably enjoy this one a lot.

Why am I blathering about a year old game? Well, at E For All, Telltale was previewing their latest, Season 2, a catchy title if there ever was one. The first episode is called Ice Station Santa, and from the parts of it I saw, it is even more 'edgy' to use the PR terminology, hilarious and biting for the rest of us, than Season 1.

Crackpot theories and kiddie toys

Here you see Sam and Max in the Torture Me Elmer product testing lab, fresh from a debate over the crackpot 'theory' of magnetism at the north pole. The nice thing about Episodic games that are released in almost real time is that you can make some very topical and timely jokes, quite the intelligent design there. I was almost in tears at points.

The second episode takes place on Easter Island, and is not formally named yet. Sam and Max are fulfilling an ancient prophecy, and in their words, " Uh-Oh, Sam, ancient prophecies can only mean two things: Tedious backstories and work we don't get paid for." You can guess where this goes.

Season One was not perfect by any means, there were some tedious bits like the mini games and similar starting scenarios, but Telltale learned from that. In Season Two they have made the mini games more varied, Wally "Glass-Jaw" Puddlesniffer the rat boxing a Betty Doll for example, instead of the same old repetitive Season One stuff. The locations are also much more varied, backgrounds filled with hilarious little bits, and in general, more tied together subplots.

All in all, the good points of Season One have been amplified, the lows hopefully removed, and the humor darkened. You can see the preview here, but that barely begins to show the humor. Since you can get an episode at a time through Gametap or Steam for only $8.95 each, you can try it out with little lost if you don't like it. Seasons cost $35, and there is more than enough fun there to make it worthwhile.

Season two is set for November 8, and it will probably cost the same $9 per or $35 for the set. I can't recommend this one enough if you like the point and click adventure genre. Go buy it now, you won't be disappointed, and then go hunt down a copy of the original at the local used games store. µ