Sam and Max was one of those old adventure games I adored without playing myself for a very long time. You see, when I watched a Youtube playthrough of the game, everything seemed perfect: the witty retorts of the duo, the grotesque humor, the fantastic art style, and the talented voice acting. It looked like a cartoon, and I imagine when Steve Purcell (or perhaps even George Lucas) were presented with the finished product, they must have thought it would be the absolutely most amazing thing ever. What was NOT shown in the playthrough, however, were the extreme levels of frustration needed to solve some of the item puzzles and the endless pixel hunt for new items, usually with no clues as to how to proceed. I'm not a hardcore adventure gamer, but I did slog my way through Monkey Island and Full Throttle without any hints. This game, however, is on the whole other level of "obtuse" and made me reach for the hintbook on many occasions. Many essential items were easily lost in literal piles of useless junk, most puzzles were lacking any feedback as to what I was doing wrong, and sometimes the game would silently force you to do a stupid and non-obvious thing just to show a brief comedy bit it had prepared. I still love this game, and I'm sure you will too if you like good comedy. Just one thing: keep the hint book handy at all times and do not hesitate to check with it if you're feeling stuck. Chances are it is the game being dense, not you.
