Sam & Max Hit the Road

For most people, the name LucasArts almost immediately conjures up images of lightsabre duels, space dogfights, and high adventure - so some find it surprising that arguably the company's strongest point was 90s adventure games (all of which were unrelated to Star Wars). However, of the many excellent games they produced, Sam & Max Hit The Road is my personal favourite. The script is laugh-out-loud funny, briskly alternating between dry, sardonic wit and outrageous slapstick, and the voice-acting sells it completely. The colourful and cartoonish graphics have aged surprisingly well (especially compared to other games of 1993), and the puzzles are typically interesting without being frustrating - and if you get burnt out on them, you can always take some time to spend on one of the many mini-games scattered around. Sam and Max isn't a long game, but it's got a whole lot of content packed in. If you're looking for a sprawling adventure with characters that feel real, a compelling plot, and interesting themes, go pick up Gabriel Knight 1 or The Longest Journey (or Grim Fandango, which will hopefully be released here soon). But if you're looking for a quick fix that's loaded with laughs and memorable quotes, then pick this up immediately. You won't regret it.

Sam & Max Hit the Road is the first video game adaptation of the freelance police, and it is still one of their best games. This game is fantastic, from its humor, music, voice acting, fantastic puzzles and amusingly absurd plot. It also has a nice cartoon style, which is a slightly cheerier adaptation of the comic book style and still looks good today despite the pixelization. It's one of the great classic adventure games and is a definite must play for fans of the comedy adventure genre.

This is the best, the best of the entire genre. You know how everyone talks about the legendary years of Lucasarts? This game is the biggest reason. How many video games do people really quote funny lines from? 20 years later? The humor in the game surpassed everything of its era, and I still to this day can't think of a funnier game. Psychonauts took a good run at it, and the new Sam and Max games are also good, but everything sort of pales in comparison. Frenetic and nonsensical, the game takes pains to really flesh out the wild world of roadside tourist traps. There is also my favorite mini game of all time, Car Bomb, which is just Battleship played with cars and bombs. There is really no conceivable better value for your 6 dollars, so please just buy it. I'll close with one of my favorite lines: "You're looking hale and hearty today little buddy!" "I'm a coffee achiever Sam!"

I cannot emphasise how wonderful it is that you can now buy this game. It's been out of print for the longest time, and the fact that Disney's decided to let people embrace this game once again should be celebrated to the high heavens. Sam & Max Hit the Road is one of the funniest adventure games ever made, and few titles have come close to its level of crazy sillyness (though its Telltale-developed sequels are worthy successors). If you're looking for a game that'll make you scratch your head and then break out in a great big grin once you realise the crazy yet perfectly logical solution, this one is for you. The setup? You take control of a walking, talking, suit-wearing dog named Sam, one half of the so-called 'Freelance Police' who, along with his partner the hyperkinetic rabbity thing Max, take cases from a mysterious voice over the phone known only as the Commissioner. Along the way, they cause mayhem and destruction as they solve crime and shoot really, really big guns. The plot of this particular game? Investigate the disappearance of a carnival's top attractions - namely, a frozen bigfoot and Trixy the giraffe-necked girl. But as always in adventures like this, things soon spiral out of control and it's not long before you're stealing restroom keys, smashing Max into fuseboxes (FUSEBOX COUNT: 1) and listening to songs about John Muir. If you haven't realised just how insane this game is yet, then you really need to see a Doctor. The mad and crazy world the titular duo live in is every bit as mad as they are and you'll need to adjust your puzzle-solving abilities to adjust. I've just given away two puzzle solutions, but they're far from the randomest ones the game has to offer, and if thinking so far outside the box that you can barely even see it any more isn't your thing, you may want to give this game a miss. Otherwise, I cannot recommend this game enough, and since I'm running out of characters, I'll just say this: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, NEVER RUN TH-