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Sam & Max Episode 202: Moai Better Blues

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Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Genre: Adventure > General
Released: Jan 10, 2008
Players: 1

- Sam & Max Episode 202: Moai Better Blues Review

Sam and Max have been signed on for a full second season after the first one met with a very positive reception from fans and critics alike. The first episode released last November had the duo scurrying to the North Pole and subduing a manic Santa Claus, and this second episode of Sam and Max: Moai Better Blues picks up back at their office block where mayhem has descended.

The title pretty much sums up the game itself: the Moai are human figures carved from rock on Easter Island between 1250 and 1500 CE (information plucked from the infinite wisdom of Wikipedia); and Mo' Better Blues was a 1990 film starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee (yea, I haven't seen that either). So this game for the large part revolves around the Moai statues on Easter Island and their troubles, with more of the pop culture references and topical humor that series fans have come to love.

The game starts off with our unlikely heroes porting through a Bermuda triangle which had been chasing Sybil (a recurring character in the series) up and down the street. On the other side lies Easter Island, where they get into all sorts of wacky situations with a trio of talking Moai and infant island inhabitants. It turns out that an incensed Volcano god is about to unleash hell on the island, and our crime fighting duo will have to navigate a series of obstacles, presented in the form of point-and-click puzzles, on their way to stopping the volcanic eruption.

Lots of comedic mayhem ensues, including hilarious interactions with the talking Moai and a couple of infants that drank from the fountain of youth. They were all actual missing people from years past including aircraft hijacker D.B. Cooper and jazz musician Glenn Miller. For a non-American, I didn't recognize most of them until I actually googled them, but for people who �"get it', they are great laughs. There are a lot more trivia and Easter eggs in the game, including references to Duke Nukem Forever (more like Neverever by the way) and the TV series Lost.

For new players to the series, it is basically a point-and-click adventure game in the tradition of the old LucasArts and Sierra games. Many objects can be picked up and used in conjunction with specific environmental items, while others exist merely as red herrings. The puzzles in Moai Better Blues are well-designed and relatively straightforward compared to some of the fiendishly twisted puzzles of old (the original Monkey Island games come to mind). However, newcomers to the adventure game genre might take a while to get used to the unconventionality of the puzzles which involves thinking out of the box. Fortunately, the new hint system introduced in Season 2 is very well-implemented with adjustable levels, and serves to subtly point the player in the right direction without snatching away the joy of solving a puzzle and moving the plot forward.

There is also a driving and a balancing-on-a-surfboard mini-game included. Both are trivial although the surfboard game does feel interesting and innovative. Overall, the flow of the storyline and events felt smooth and engaging, but the ending was a little abrupt and lackluster when compared to the rest of the game.

Graphics:
Characters and environment are rendered in 3D and exudes great artistic flair. A vibrant color palette was used in the design of the scenes and adds to the overall exuberance of the game.

Sound:
Voiceovers are excellently done in typical Sam and Max tradition and imbue a great deal of personality in the various characters, even ones as supposedly inanimate as stone heads. The background music complements the storyline well and effectively sets the overall mood and ambience of various scenarios.

Gameplay:
This game is a simple point-and-click affair, with an essentially non-existent learning curve. Overall, the gameplay in the Sam and Max series can be summed up pretty much in 2 words: fun and laughter.

Concept:

The adventure game concept has been around for many years, but the episodic nature of the Sam and Max series as well as a few others also from Telltale Games is a refreshing one. Playing an episode is not much different from watching a cartoon or animation, except that you get to participate in it. Compared to some of the older adventure games that can take hours upon hours to solve, not to mention guiltily poring over walkthroughs on the web, the Sam and Max series just feels more fun and less of a chore, which is what games should be about.

Value:
Each episode is priced at $8.95, with a discounted bundle price if you sign up for the whole season. Moai Better Blues can be completed in 2 – 3 hours, slightly more if you, like me, have OCD and absolutely have to click on every single item and hear the witty remarks of the duo. Compared to most other games, this is one which you can literally finish during your lunch break.

Overall:

If you're already a fan of the Sam and Max series, you're probably not reading this. If you're not, but you like having fun and enjoying a good laugh, there's no reason why you shouldn't get this game now. While you're at it, you might also be interested in checking out the fourth episode from Season 1 (Abe Lincoln Must Die!), which, in a nice gesture by Telltale Games, had been made available for free download on their website.

By: Freddy Lim
Posted: Saturday February 16, 2008