DLC Mini-Review: Sam and Max – Beyond Time and Space (XBLA)

A long, long time ago, an old friend gave me a very special birthday present; two games that I had never heard of before.  As a kid, I was hard pressed to play anything that didn’t have Final Fantasy or Mario in the name…until Sam and Max Hit the Road changed things forever.  While everyone else was busy playing the copy of Final Fantasy IV a friend had brought over, I popped in the disc for Sam and Max and was immediately hooked; it was one of the first games I had ever played that featured voice acting, the characters were entertaining, and most importantly, the game was honest-to-God funny.  While it wasn’t my first brush with the point and click adventure genre (that being 1992′s Legend of Kyrandia), Sam and Max Hit the Road, alongside its pack-in title Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, garnered over 15 plays throughout my childhood.

Flash forward several years, as the original title faded into memory; Conroy Bumpus’ schemes defused, the world once again safe for Bigfoots…Bigfeet…fine, yetis, it seemed that the Freelance Police, fresh off the cancellation of their Fox Kids cartoon show, were being ushered into retirement, especially as LucasArts reshuffled their development focus almost solely towards Star Wars titles.  Not to let a good dog die quietly, episodic content developers Telltale Games partnered with Steve Purcell, the creator of Sam and Max, to revive the franchise as a series of downloadable episodes.  The first season of five episodes, titled Sam and Max Save the World, originally released on the GameTap, and then Steam platforms several years ago, before being ported to the Wii last year, and the XBOX Live Arcade earlier this summer.  Becoming the first episodic title to be considered a sales success, Sam and Max was given a second “season”, titled Beyond Time and Space, that stretched from 2007 to 2008.  Like its predecessor, Beyond Time and Space was also ported to the XBOX Live Arcade as a single five-episode pack for 1600 Microsoft Points.  Is it worth the money, or has this dog’s day finally passed it by?  Now that our little history lesson is done, read on and find out.

As stated before, the XBOX Live Arcade version of Beyond Time and Space is a full pack of the second season of Sam and Max, including all five episodes; Ice Station Santa, Moai Better Blues, Night of the Raving Dead, Chariots of the Dogs, and What’s New, Beelzebub?  The games control with a similar mechanic to the Monkey Island port that was released on Live Arcade earlier this summer; your left analog stick takes the place of your mouse cursor, and you control Sam by clicking on objects in the environment.  The control scheme makes a decent amount of sense, except for one glaring detail; a mouse cursor is considerably faster than its analog-controlled counterpart.  Usually, this isn’t too big of a deal, though occasionally the slow speed of the cursor can interfere with Sam’s walking speed, and if the game changes camera angles while you’re trying to click on something, it can occasionally break Sam’s pathfinding, causing him to wander in a random direction until you tell him to stop.  Your inventory is accessed by hitting the X button, and using items is as simple as clicking on something in your inventory and then clicking the object on whatever you want to use it on or give it to.  All in all, the controls are really pretty unobtrusive, and hardly ever get in the way too much aside from the occasional pathfinding trip-up.

However, the most important issue when talking about a downloadable game like Sam and Max is the question of content; is there enough of it to justify the asking price, and more importantly, is it worth experiencing?  As stated before, the Sam and Max series has always prided itself on sort of an awkwardly twisted version of America; in the original game, the player visited a series of increasingly absurd parodies of American travel culture, including tourist traps and roadside attractions.  Meanwhile, the first series of episodes mainly parodied 21st-century American media, poking fun at politics, reality TV, and even Scientology.  Beyond Time and Space is a little less consistent and a little more “out there” in its locations than Save the World; unlike Hit the Road, each episode is largely focused on one or two locations, one of which is usually the increasingly decrepit city street that the Freelance Police operate from.  For a fan of the original game, the lack of locations in each episode can feel a bit disappointing, but keep in mind that these episodes are roughly two to four hours each and it makes a bit more sense that you’re not traipsing around the entire world in each one.

The episodes follow a “TV show” format; Sam and Max will be in their office before they learn of a new case, at which point they set out to solve the mystery and (hopefully) get paid.  The game generally sticks to the model that LucasArts popularized back in the ’90s; you’ll travel from location to location, clicking on everything and talking to everybody, find items, use them on everybody until you figure out the next course of action, then move on, repeating until the credits roll.  The game features a number of puzzles ranging from deceptively simple to nearly frustratingly obtuse, but rarely does the game truly dwell into frustrating territory; most of the puzzles can be solved with a bit of thought, and if all else fails, the game features an in-built hint system, where if you wait too long in an area or spend too much time without solving a puzzle, one of the characters will quip, insinuating what you should try next.  Puzzle purists, have no fear, this is easily disabled in the option menu.

One of the greatest strengths of Beyond Time and Space is its characters; Sam and Max themselves are in fine form, dispensing quip after quip as easily as they did in 1993, while the franchise’s ever-growing supporting cast puts in solid performances all around.  Due to the series’ focus on continuity, many characters will reappear throughout the episodes in varying levels of importance, seemingly throwaway gags will slowly gain prominence over time and develop into full-on plot points, and items you interact with in one episode will reappear in another one.  While the episodes don’t seem entirely connected at the beginning, everything comes together in a way that’s both entertaining and interesting; in essence, the episodic format works.

The one area that really suffers for the LIVE Arcade port is the technical side.  While the graphics are perfectly fine for the most part, occasional texture flickering may occur, and the frame rate is frustratingly unstable.  Also annoying is the fact that at times, the game will seemingly “hold” for a moment while queuing up a new sound effect or voice clip; if you’re a fast reader like myself this can sometimes result in awkward pauses that damage the pacing of an otherwise hilarious scene.  Despite this, the fantastic writing, the colorful characters and the variety of simple, but rewarding puzzles allow the game to overcome its flaws for the most part, resulting in an entertaining downloadable title, if not exactly the best fit for the LIVE Arcade service.  Just don’t expect to play through it more than once.

Pluses
+ Well written, clever dialogue filled to the brim with pop culture and video game references is a treat to listen to
+ Subtle, largely understated jazz-influenced soundtrack is a pleasure to listen to
+ A large degree of puzzles that are neither too easy nor too difficult; an excellent buy for gamers of all skill levels
+ Cartoon-like, integrated story makes great use of the episodic format and ties up in an excellent way

Minuses
- Analog stick controls work decently, but aren’t nearly as flexible as a mouse
- Almost zero replay value; one playthrough will generally be all you need unless you miss an Achievement or want to see the story again
- Multiple technical issues, including a sluggish frame rate, occasional loading pauses, and pathfinding glitches, mar an otherwise excellent experience

Available now on PC and XBOX Live Arcade, coming Q4 2009 on WiiWare
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Players: 1
Completed all five episodes, unlocked several sidequest-based Achievements.
A promotional copy of the XBOX Live Arcade version of the game was provided to One Last Continue by Telltale Games for reviewing purposes.
Final Verdict: Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space is a well-written, well-acted point and click adventure that does its best to port a classically PC style of play to the console format.  While it manages to accomplish this decently, gamers with a PC capable of running the Steam version may elect to go with that instead.