Skye Prower

Er.... didn't you post them about a month ago? They still look good though!

Thanks to the Steam sale, I recently got all three seasons of Telltales Sam & Max games, even if they are a decade old.  And have now finished season 1, consiting of 6 episodes.   For those who don't know, Sam & Max (a suited dog and psychotic rabbit respectively) are freelance police, solving cases in a setting with is sorta Loony Toons but more deranged (like the aforementioned rabbit).  The series is a continuation of the classic Sam & Max Hit the Road game from Lucasarts, and has a similar game-style. That is, a point and click game where you solve puzzles by interacting with the environment and items to follow the bizarre but amusing logic chains needed to solve the puzzles. Each episode is around 2-3 hours long, depending on your puzzle solving skill.  As a general rule, the puzzles are decent and satisfying to solve (and often hilarious too).  Though some might be a bit too easy.  Generally, the times I did get stuck on a puzzle, it was because the puzzle required interaction with something that in previous episodes was just a background element.  That is one of the main criticisms I have of the whole season, the lack of areas.  Each game has the same starting street area, and then only a handful of new areas.  The other criticism is that sometimes the humor can be rather crude, which is disappointing.   As for each episode: 101: Culture Shock A decent intro to the games, though there are a few *finding its feet* issues.  Good, but not great.   102: Situation: Comedy The weakest episode.  Set in a TV studio, some of the humor comes from pointing out how some shows pander to the 'lowest common denominator', yet it plays right into such humor.  To quote Dave Charnley "Knowing it's crap does not make it less crap".  While the humor is worse than part one, the puzzles are much better and enjoyable to solve.   103: The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball I ran into some bugs with this one.  Twice when trying to use an item on an environment object to solve a puzzle, the game wouldn't let me.  Despite it being the solution to the puzzle.  Weird.  This was also the shortest and easiest of the games.  It also varied in quality.  Some of the humor and puzzles were great.  Others... well.... there is a puzzle based around 'yo mama' jokes.  I wish I was kidding.   104: Abe Lincoln Must Die! By the time I'd finished 103 I was ready to write this series off as just a minor diversion, but things really picked up here.  It was hilarious from start to finish, great puzzles, and the utter unexpected *redacted by the Secret Service*.  The only criticism was that this was the first time I had to hit a walkthrough.  Despite knowing what the puzzle needed, I couldn't find the item in question.  And the walkthrough told me it was one of the aforementioned 'background items' I mentioned before.   105: Reality 2.0 Another strong episode, though not as good as 104.  It mainly suffers in that the new areas are almost all just recolors of older ones.  Still fun and funny.   106: The Bright Side of the Moon And we come to the season finale.  And it was.... disappointing.  Not from a story point of view, that was still decent.  But the logic chains of some of the puzzles just didn't seem to make sense.  It was less of 'Ohh, if I did this it could work because...' and more 'I'll use this because it's the only thing I HAVEN'T done'.  And even afterwords it's more of a 'Really?  That's what happened.' than a 'Oooh!  I get it!'. So, in terms of a puzzle game, Season 1 starts good and get better as you go through, only dipping in quality at the end.  For the story and humor, they start out weak, but do rise as you go through. I wonder what season 2 will be like?

Ziona smiled.  "Good recovery." "Pinocchio jokes aside, do you want me to cast the same spell on you?" asked Skye. ---------- Miles grinned as he entered the lab.  "Let's see.. what was the spell again...?" -------- "Why nwot?" asked Skye.

"I know I need to get back, but...." Skye paused.  "Myra... You're worried, aren't you?  About not hearing from your friends?"

"I guess you've never met a robot before," whispered Zoe.

"Right, lets get to practicing," said Miles. ---------- Stacey nodded again. ---------- "Oh you have, have you?" asked Ziona, crossing her arms. --------- "Like how Ally is?" asked Skye. "Would you rather not play with MAX?" whispered Zoe to Honey.

Looks good Shinomi!

"Maybe levitating some objects?" suggested Miles. ----------- Stacey nodded in agreement with Ally. --------- Ziona smiled.  "You slithery charmer!" "Kid stuff?  Hmm.... I guess Zoe and Honey might be able to help..." said Skye looking around.

"But if you'd like to do that, I know some good practice spells," said Miles. ---------- Stacey grinned.

"Hmm... I think a flying spell might be too advanced for you," said Miles. ---------- "It's okway Sawah!" said Stacey encouragingly. 

"Flying.... hmm...." Miles pondered a moment. ---------- Stacey gave a beaming smile as he helped Sarah into the water.

"Incapasciting?" asked Ziona amiuused. "Whatdo you want to do now?" Skye asked MAX. ------- "Any ideas?" asked Miles. --------- Skye gave a little cheer and help out his hand.

Miles laughed.  "Can you narrow it down?" --------- Stacey looked down. --------- "I know Vipey," said Ziona, kissing his forehead.

"So a cool spell that Zoe would like?  Hmmm... what does she like?" asked Miles. -------- "You swuwe? The watwer's wuvwy!" said Stacey.

"There's nothing at all that you've wanted to be able to do?" asked Miles. ---------- "You couwd jwoin us..." suggested Stacey. ---------- "Just you Vipey," smiled Ziona.

"Anything in particular?" asked Miles as he made his way to Skye's lab. ------- Stacey had started getting into a combat pose, then looked shocked when Sarah said it was fine.  "Rweawwy?" he asked. --------- "Just don't do it again silly!" laughed Ziona, giving Seviper a light tap on the head. Zoe patted Honey's back.  "This a bit much?" she asked gently.

"There's... not much I can do to help with that," admitted Skye.

"Wellllll.... I guess I could teach you a little something," said Miles smiling. ---------- "Eep!  Sowwy!  Sowwy!" apologized Stacey, running over to the shore where Sarah was. ------------ Ziona waged her finger making a tutting sound.

"What do you wanna do Dominic?" asked Miles. ---------- Stacey gave a large splash back towards Ally, and likely Sarah too. --------- "Do you want me to get the jail cells warmed up then?"teased Ziona. ----------- Zoe gave Honey a hug.

"But how about we have some fun without the grown-ups getting in the way," suggested Miles. ----------- Stacey laughed happily splashing back. --------- "That better?" asked Skye, then looked to Seviper.  "Do you two really want to start arguing about this?"

"That's good," said Miles, putting Dominic down and rubbing his head. ------------ "H-hwey!" squealed Stacey before splashing back. ---------- Skye laughed.  "I see your rivalry's not completely gone," he commented as he inputted the code. "Then what is it?" asked Zoe.

"Feeling better?" smiled Miles. ----------- "Oh... o-okawy," said Stacey, starting to swim after Ally. ------------- "Got it!" said Skye.

"Anything to help my little friend," smiled Miles. ----------- Stacey watched just in case Ally needed help. ---------- "Alright!  What do I do"? asked Skye.

"Want me to talk to them?" asked Miles

Stacey shook his head a little bit, then smiled at Ally.  "Yweah!  It dowes!" --------- "That's... strange," said Miles.  "They should let you play at least." ----------- "Can I help fix them?" asked Skye. "Hey.  Don;t be angry Honey!" said Zoe coming over.