For helping make point-and-click adventure games popular again and for single-handedly proving that episodic gaming could be a successful and creatively fresh way of releasing videogames, I will always love Telltale Games. The company could call me up and ask me to somehow impregnate them, and I would happily agree. Sure, the process would be confusing and messy, but little Chadtale Sammax Threepwood would be one cute, Loom-loving kid, I’ll tell you that right now.

But sometimes these things I love the most in the videogame industry display oddities that get me nervous about their future.

Enter “Dear [insert videogame-related item]: I love you, but ...”, a new randomly-appearing series that focuses on one very specific, very troubling concern surrounding something I absolutely adore from the world of videogames. This week’s premiere target? Telltale Games.

But what could I not love about the designers at Telltale? They make incredible adventure games, they are revitalizing some of my favorite series, and I am going to be the father of their freaky, man/developer child!

Hit the jump for one growing concern I have for a company I thought I would never say anything negative about.

Dear Telltale: I love you, but ...

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Telltale Games have been burning both ends of the wick recently: they just launched the first episode of Wallace and Gromit on XBLA, announced Tales of Monkey Island, and are about to release Sam & Max Save the World. The latest addition to their armory of Sam & Max games will hit Xbox Live Arcade on June 17th, which happens to be this Wednesday.

If you're a little confused, let's backtrack: Telltale released a series of episodic games called Sam & Max: Season One two years ago for PC and Wii. Earlier this year, they renamed the collection to Sam & Max Save the World, bundled all the episodes together, and decided to schlep them onto XBLA. Season Two, re-named Beyond Time and Space, is also on its way to XBLA. 

The XBLA version will put you back a hefty 1600 Microsoft Points (about $20), which averages to 300 Points (about $3.30) per episode. Not bad, I say, especially considering the HD graphics upgrade, widescreen support, and updated controls. If you missed the collection on PC and Wii, why not treat yourself? It's quite good.

On a semi-related note, I just realized that if you try to abbreviate Sam & Max, you get S&M. There's no way in hell Steve Purcell didn't do that on purpose.

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You read that headline right -- Telltale has announced that Sam & Max will be coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade this year. 

Season one and seasons two -- already released for PC and Wii -- will be made available as full-season bundles, called Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space respectively. No word on exact release dates or pricing, but Telltale also says that Atari will release Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space at retail in 2009 as well.

The re-branded Sam & Max seasons join Telltale's other planned XBLA release, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, which is also set to release this year.

Anyone miss out on Sam & Max on the PC or Wii, and looking forward to this? 

I've kept an eye on Symbiote Studios ever since they took the commendable step of transforming Dr. Tran into a collectible I could actually buy and decorate my desk with, and it seems that they are aiming to please even more gamers with the announcement of their latest creation, the Sam & Max statue!

You may recognize the characters from the award-winning Telltale Sam & Max games in this handsome 17-inch statue, sculpted by Joe Simon and limited to 1000 pieces. These will retail for $75 and each is hand numbed on the base. If you'd like to place an order for one, you can do so right here. Don't ask me why, but this got me wishing for some Day of the Tentacle figures.

 

Games that strictly approach from a comedic angle are rare these days. In a time when interactive entertainment predominately consists of badass protagonists wielding large guns, it's refreshing to see that there is still a place for a dog wearing a business suit and a psychotic bunny wearing his birthday suit to run amok. Of course, they too are wielding large guns.

I've been a fan of Sam & Max since their first foray into gaming, the 1993 LucasArts adventure, Sam & Max Hit the Road. It was delightfully strange and quickly became one of my favorite entries into the genre. Yet, my fear that I had an inadequate computer to handle the new, episodic series from Telltale Games prevented me from purchasing them. Imagine my excitement when the first season was announced for Wii.

Now, the promise of Sam & Max on the TV in my living room has finally come to fruition (forgetting, of course, the mediocre Saturday morning series in the mid-nineties). How does it measure up? Hit the jump for the full review.

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After its PC debut on Gametap nearly two years ago, the entirety of Sam and Max Season One will be making its way to the Wii this fall. And considering the game has been rumored to be coming to Nintendo’s console for just as long, I’d imagine many fans are breathing sighs of relief.

Developer Telltale Games had a playable and final version of the Wii software on hand at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo, and once I got the Wii remote in my hands, I discovered one thing: it’s definitely Sam and Max Season One. That is to say that not too much has changed, and that's a good thing. This is, after all, a port of their award-winning point-and-click adventure.

All six episodes will be making their way to the Wii in one retail package, with everything intact; beyond some game-supplementing extras like bonus artwork, there may not be much for players who have already experienced the wacky adventures of the crime-solving dog and bunny duo.

But for those looking for the Sam and Max experience on your couch, Sam and Max Season One on the Wii looks like it’ll scratch that itch. More after the jump.

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Telltale Games announced today that Sam & Max, everyone’s favorite pair of anthropomorphic animal investigators, will be getting a collectors edition DVD for their second season of downloadable episodes. This DVD will contain the five episodes that make up Season Two, along with behind-the-scenes and other special features like developer commentary and outtakes.

The Sam & Max Season Two Collector's DVD can be preordered from Telltale’s online store (it’s expected to ship sometime in August) for $34.95. The cool part is if you’ve already bought Season Two (from their site) then this is totally free, aside from shipping and handling! It sure is nice for Telltale to essentially be giving (some of) their early customers a free disk full of shiny extras.

Three new Season Two themed items were also announced, including the two-disk Sam & Max Season Two soundtrack, a case file with Season Two related “evidence,” and a poster print based on the DVD’s cover art that is available both signed and unsigned.

Is anyone else going to be picking some of this stuff up?

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We’ve known for a good while that Sam and Max: Season One was headed to the Wii. What we still don’t have is good indication of a release date. The newest information that we have is that the gmes is still slated for the fall of this year, as opposed to the date listed on the publisher’s website which places it in August. Scheduling conflicts aside, Sam and Max is looking like an excellent port. The trailer and screenshots we recently acquired show the same classy and humorous episodic flair that the series has become known for on the various platforms it has come across thus far.

Honestly, I have a strong bias for anything that appears in Monkey Island, even if it’s a small avatar. Even if I were to remove that little nugget of awesomeness from the equation, I always had a good time with the dynamic duo on GameTap. Are you guys going to pick this up when it hits?

Check out the screenshots below, and hit the break for the debut trailer.

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As someone who has the worst PC on the planet (seriously, it barely runs Notepad), I was more than excited about the news that Sam & Max – Season 1 would be coming to the Wii. As everyone was enjoying Sam & Max’s newest adventures on their fancy post-1996 computers, I had to sit alone in a dark room with only the amazing memories of Hit the Road to keep me company.

Well, it looks like I will only have to live in the shadow of my loneliness for a few more months! According to the DreamCatcher Games product page, it looks like Sam & Max – Season 1 will be coming to the Wii in August of this year. In addition to this new release date information, there also seems to be some official box art! Look, it’s Sam and Max!

What do you think? Are you planning on giving the Wii version of this game a try? What do you think of the simple, yet effective box art?

[Via GayGamer]

So look -- Telltale Games' Sam & Max Seasons are consistently pretty awesome. And the forthcoming WiiWare title, the hilariously-named Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People episodic series, definitely has our attention. But how about some original stuff? According to a conversation that Telltale CEO Dan Connors had with 1UP, it's definitely in the works. 

"Right now, we're still building the Telltale brand, and not having enormous marketing budgets to work with for an original title, we work with these franchises that are known, and that helps us build an audience for Telltale," he says of working with existing franchises.

He off-handedly hints at an original game "where you investigate a missing person or whatever," and makes mention of a Flint Paper spin-off series, in reference to Sam & Max's private detective neighbor who investigates with his fists. Of course, this is all just talk, and there are no solid plans to announce at the moment. Connors suspects to announce an original product in 10 months at the "earliest," and 18 months at the "longest."

Let the waiting and speculation begin.

Sam & Max Season 2 finishes up today, with the conclusion of the five-episode season now available on GameTap. Episode 205, What's new, Beelzebub? finds the duo de la awesome bargaining with the devil for control of Bosco's soul.

Those of you without a GameTap account will find the episode available tomorrow on Telltale's web site, where you can view a video and plenty of screenshots in the meantime. If you missed the earlier episodes this season, you can also get this one as part of the Season 2 bundle, and catch up on the whole thing in one shot. 

Although the news broke last week about Sam & Max: Season 1 coming to the Wii, it looks like the first image of the game actually running on Nintendo’s point-and-click friendly console slipped through the cracks. Luckily, our very own Adam Dork picked up the slack and found the above picture on Telltale’s Web site.

While not much is shown, just seeing it being played on the Wii gets me even more excited than I was last week after hearing the big news. It is also nice to see that the game looks pretty good, with a healthy level of polish and crisp, vibrant colors.

I wish I had more for you, but this post was really just an excuse to express my unbridled enthusiasm for this game on the front page. And now I am out of things to say.

Holy jumping weasel fritters on a hot cross bun! Now all you people who have Macs don't have to kill yourselves over your previous inability to play the Sam and Max episodes (they're really good)!

Today, Telltale games officially confirmed a retail version of Sam and Max Season One will be made available to Wii owners come Fall 2008. Collecting the first six episodes of the episodic series in one singular package, Season One will be published by Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company in North America, and by JoWooD in Europe.

I dunno what else to say, except that I'm incredibly happy that all the people (both of you) who asked me how to play the Sam and Max episodes without buying a PC finally have a way. The full press release, which you can check out after the jump, unfortunately doesn't say anything about downloadable episodes on WiiWare, but hey -- baby steps, baby steps.

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Since late 2006, PC fans have been enjoying the triumphant return of world-famous anthropomorphic detective duo, Sam and Max. Its point-and-click style has been a hit with gamers since the 1993 release of Sam & Max Hit the Road, but the team has never made its way to consoles. 

With the Wii's mouse-like pointer controls, fans have thought it would be the perfect match, and rumors of a pairing have long haunted the hallowed halls of the Internet. The game's retail publisher, JoWood, seems to have confirmed Sam & Max on the Wii in a German press release for one of their Agatha Christie titles:

JoWooD plant weitere seiner erfolgreichen Lizenzen aus dem Adventure Games für Nintendo® Wii™ zu adaptieren. Eines der nächsten Projekte: Sam & Max. Als Adventure des Jahres, gewählt von den Lesern des deutschen Computerspielmagazins „PC Games“ (zu finden in der aktuellen Printausgabe 2/2008), gehen Sam & Max bald auch bei Nintendo® Wii™ auf Verbrecherjagd. 

In simple English: JoWood plans to adapt their successful licensed adventure titles for consoles, one of which is Sam and Max, which will soon be brought to the Wii. A betting man would put money on the Wii release being ports of Sam & Max Seasons, already available on the PC. But one can always hold out hope for an all-new adventure, right? 

[Via GoNintendo]

Another month, another Sam and Max episode. If you haven't subscribed already, you should have; if you have, you might wanna know what you're in for; if you don't know what I'm talking about, then shame on you and shame on those who raised you.

Episode Two of Season Two takes everyone's favorite furry freelance crime fighters to Easter Island for an adventure full of intrigue, comedy, and cultural references. We already reviewed the first episode of season two -- does the second improve upon any of its faults, or is Sam and Max hitting its sophomore slump?

Hit the jump to find out. 

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Gather round, lads, it's full disclosure time: I didn't play Sam & Max Season 1. I didn't play Sam & Max Hit the Road. I'm only perfunctorily acquainted with the entire adventure genre. I have failed you.

This, along with my crippling insecurity and stunted legs, can be blamed on my parents -- I wasn't born in time to have developed higher-level critical thinking skills necessary to play adventure games during their 80's heyday.

Much like old people, these adventure games of yore command a certain amount of respect, the Holy Grails of an age long gone. A game where critical thinking, problem solving, and character interaction take precedence over headshots and homophobia? How quaint, yet sublimely mystical and arcane! 

However, like a modern-day sin-eater, I have atoned for the shortcomings of my father, dutifully playing through the debut of Sam & Max Season Two, the follow up to Telltale's successful foray into episodic content. 

So, did Sam & Max Episode 201 live up to my lofty, perhaps inflated, expectations? Or am I too green to recognize the sweet, subtle beauty of the adventure genre, upon which my profane eyes had not hitherto alighted? Just in case, I've also roped in Reverend Anthony -- who has played every other Sam and Max game ever created -- for a second opinion.

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Admittedly, I've never been part of the PC adventure game crowd. Now before you browse through your inventory for a torch and lighter, or enter things like "/pitchfork", let me explain what I mean. It's not that I don't love adventure games, because I do. Ask for my top ten favorite DS titles and you'll find that Touch Detective and Hotel Dusk make the cut every time. The simple truth is, I've never been a PC gamer. My preference for Mac OSX notwithstanding, (game developers -- are we invisible to you?) I've just never considered my computer to be anything other than just that. I own 14 video game consoles and half a dozen or more handheld systems, why would I want to clickity-clack on arrow keys when God gave us D-pads and X buttons?

Ironically enough, however, I've been a fan of Sam and Max for quite a number of years. I discovered these fuzzy detectives in comic book form back when I started reading things like Bone and the works of Evan Dorkin. It wasn't until we recorded a special adventure game episode of RetroforceGO that I thought to play the game. After some digging, I came across a NOT emulator for my DS and some NOT ROMs, and was eager to catch up on everything I'd missed. The verdict? An old classic has become a new favorite.

Telltale Games was at PAX this year to show off some of their games, so Orcist and I made an appointment to spend a little time with Sam and Max: Season Two on DVD. What we saw was not only impressive and exciting, it also managed to somehow instill in me a new hope for the future of gaming. Read on after the jump and that statement might not sound quite as silly as you think it does. view full story + comments

If you thought I was done relating uncomfortable anecdotes from San Diego Comic-Con, you would be wrong.

Sometime after my humiliation at the LucasArts booth (to which I subjected myself for the Cause), I found myself strolling down one of the more peaceful aisles on the showroom floor.  At a black-draped booth was a dignified older gentleman whose hat reminded me of Terry Pratchett's, and whose face reminded me of Lawrence of Arabia: a quiet fervor, a put-upon sort of intelligence.  But at first, I was interested only in his selection of Sam and Max merchandise, and in a Telltale Games employee that had come for a visit.

The employee, upon seeing my nametag, remembered me immediately from Kotaku.  "Oh," he said, his eyes taking on a reddish tinge, "you were the one who didn't like our game."

Hammer that jump button until you find out why the mysterious man in the black booth should be your new god. 

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I am not an exclamatory sort of guy. I rarely, if ever, choose to exclaim things. And even when I do, I usually never go through the trouble of adding an exclamation mark, instead letting the period (and all the cool, dispassionate indifference it represents) do my punctuating for me.

It is with a great deal of pleasure, then, that I report that Telltale Games' episodic Sam and Max games have been renewed for another season! According to Telltale's press release,

"Season One was a great success, but it's just a starting point for us," says Telltale's CEO Dan Connors. "The episodic model presents so many opportunities to innovate and engage the audience in brand new ways. Just wait until you see what Telltale and GameTap have in store with Season Two." 

Since Season One was hilariously awesome (albeit a bit too easy and confined), it's good to know that the team will have the chance to include more locations (for example, the diner seen above), along with otherwise improving the flaws of the first season.

Given this sequel news, Sam and Max is officially the first episodic series to actually work as intended. It didn't get cancelled (Sin), and the chunks of gameplay tended to come out with a breathtakingly satisfying frequency (unlike the Half-Life 2 "episodes").

In case you've missed out on the fuzzy duo's recent adventures, pick up the full Season One DVD for the bargain price of 35 bucks. You won't regret it...if you have a soul.

Hit the jump for the full press release, if you're so inclined. 

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Subscribers of Gametap have known what's up for awhile -- the digitally distributed Sam and Max: Season 1 was a blast for fans of the point-and-click adventure genre. Now that the six episode season has wrapped, Season 1 will be coming to retail this August.

For fans who don't have an Internet connection or whose tin foil hats won't let them use a credit card online, this will be a great opportunity to finally meet the game's wacky characters, like Brady Culture and Ron Workman. For those who have already played the game, however, Telltale Games and publisher Dreamcatcher are including a slew of extras in order to help lubricate the $29.99 out of your wallets:

    * An all new “Making Sam & Max” behind the scenes video
    * A full-sized printed poster featuring artwork by Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell
    * Trailers for all six episodes
    * Previously unreleased character bios
    * Loads of concept artwork
    * Desktop wallpapers
    * An MP3 soundtrack sampler

While the press release (which you can read after the jump) doesn't mention it, GameStop's listing for the title mentions a "comic generator for making your very own Sam & Max comic strips." I smell a Destructoid Sam and Max contest in the near future. Hmmm ...

Sam and Max: Episode 1 ships to retail this August, or you can just bite the bullet (you cheap little freaks) and play it right now on Gametap.

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In an interview with Shacknews, Telltale CEO Dan Connors has revealed that he has hopes to bring the popular and critically adored Sam & Max episodics to Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii’s Virtual Console.

When asked about recent job postings with his company relating to Microsoft and Nintendo’s consoles, Connors had this to say:

Well, we're hoping to get [Sam & Max] on to both consoles, with Live Arcade and Virtual Console -- I'm sorry, on all three consoles! But we're starting with Wii and Xbox, on both of their online services and retail as well. We want to open as much distribution as possible and reach as many people as possible, so when we go out and talk to a license holder we can say, "Hey, we can get your license in front of all these people. Come with us and we'll make sure it's a great product." The distribution channel drives a lot of that, especially if you're independent and you're an emerging media publisher. I think there's some room for us to grab a stake.

I have on occasions been seen wearing my “I [heart] Classic Adventure Games!” sandwich board and I have always thought that the Wii would be the perfect platform for old school point-and-click adventures, so, needless to say, this news makes me very happy. I am not saying that I had anything to with this recent resurgence of adventure games, but, hey, never underestimate the power of a good sandwich board.

Does this mean that more adventure games are going to be coming to the consoles? Here’s hoping. But just in case, I am putting on my “Adventure Games 4-Ever!” cut-off T right now.

Gamespot has done some investigative snooping only to come up with the hypothesis that the recent Sam and Max games may be heading to the Xbox 360. While it is just a rumor, signs including Telltale's (the developers behind Sam and Max) posting of a job offer for an Xbox 360 programmer with the ability to port a PC game to that platform, as well as a love of adventure games, could be considered a very Telltale sign (see what I did there?) of their intentions.

As a gamer who has been enjoying the newest Sam and Max titles via the goodness that is Gametap (see the upcoming DToid's Games of the Week post for how much we all love it), I'd love to see Telltale's funny-as-Jesus-in-a-yamolke game ported to the 360, almost as much as I want to spend my days in the clammy embrace of Zombie Lennie Briscoe.

A few days ago, superstar editor and sometimes gastrointestinal specialist Aaron Linde said to me, "You know, I want to check out Myst Online: Uru Live and Gametap is having an introductory special where the first month is 99 cents." I am a longtime Myst fan myself and even have been caught listening to the Riven soundtrack on occasion (translation: constantly), so this piqued my interest equally. Not to mention, it's cheaper than crack. So it was then that we decided to forage bravely forward and waved our crisp George Washingtons in the air with wild abandon.

Hit the jump to see where our adventures lead us. 

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Last week Dexter345 brought you Gears of Wario Ware, this week reader Marky7474 sends us yet another game idea: his epic RPG filled with toy heroes. "Think FF7 with Source engine graphics." With Homer plush toys, medusa Barbies, and Skeletor action figures you fight off cockroaches with massive damage around every dusty toy shelf.

Keep reading to check out his full layout for Forgotten Toys, and if you want to submit a fake game idea of your own, submit it to our forums or email it to RevAnthony.

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Gametap and Telltale have released the first gameplay video for the new, appropriately-titled Sam and Max episode, "Situation:Comedy". This episode takes place in a TV studio, and the video shows Sam and Max hosting a cooking show, in which you can "violate the laws of God and Man." I'll admit, I lolled.

Don't be fooled into trying to find any more videos though, the "Play Trailer" and "More Videos Coming Soon" buttons are just there to upset you - they lead to Episode 1 trailers and videos, respectively. Real sneaky.

I know a lot of Dtoid readers are into Sam and Max, so we'll keep you posted. For future reference, "Situation:Comedy" will be availble on Gametap in just under 2 weeks, on 12/21/06.

Update 1: View the "Situation:Comedy" trailer here.