Sam & Max - Situation: Comedy

January 6, 2007

Platform: Download (Windows)

Tags: adventure, download, game, gametap, humor, pg13, samandmax, windows

By JohnB | add to favorites | add to your website | Comments (13)

Great galloping cheese goat on the back of a Victorian-era inspired automobile! The second installment of Sam & Max has arrived! Hot on the heels of Culture Shock comes Sam & Max - Situation: Comedy. The follow-up weaves a tale of a loopy talk show host holding her studio audience hostage. To the rescue are Sam and Max, freelance police. In order to gain access to the studio the duo must prove their fame by enduring countless spoofs of modern television. Will they survive the insanity of Midtown Cowboys, or will Embarrassing Idol prove to be their undoing?

Just like the first episode, Sam & Max - Situation: Comedy is packed with tons of hilarious dialogue and witty remarks from the anthropomorphic pair. Most adventure games encourage you to explore your surroundings in order to gather vital information, but Sam & Max is quite the opposite. Examining objects and items usually results in some off-kilter quips from Sam or Max. Actual information is often hidden in-between a joke or two, making clue hunting a whole new kind of adventure.

The entire presentation of Situation: Comedy is identical to the first episode, which is most definitely a good thing. The graphics are a wonderful marriage of 3D and comic book-like art that stays true to the original style while updating it for the modern gamer. You handle movement and inventory management with just the left mouse button, while a right click lets you skip a chunk of dialogue. And the jazzy musical score is so good, Telltale made a few tracks available for download.

Compared to the first episode, Situation: Comedy features much easier puzzles and has a lot more situational comedy. The jokes sometimes fall a bit flat, but that's half the charm of Sam & Max in the first place. Expect a solid 2-3 hours of play in this episode, which is the perfect amount for the casually-minded gamer.

Sam & Max - Situation: Comedy offers another big helping of excellent dialogue and humor weaved into a pleasingly entertaining adventure game. Download the demo (Windows) from the Telltale Games website and give it a try, or if you're in the U.S. you can play the game on GameTap. Be sure to start the experience with the first episode. You don't want to be one of those people who misses out on the inside jokes, do you?

Note: If you're already a Season 1 customer, follow the instructions on this page to get your Sam & Max on!

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Rating: 5/5 (9 votes cast)

13 Comments [leave a comment]

I really, really enjoyed the first installment of this series, and kind of felt let down a little bit by this one. For those of us that really inhale these sorts of point and click focused adventure games, Episode 2 is an absolute breeze. I would recommend this game, though mostly for the extra dose of Sam & Max's sarcastic humor (Hugh Bliss..oh wow, hilarious!).

The puzzles are almost accidentally solved and the game features alot of back and forth betweenthe "TV Studio" and the good ol' corner of Straight and Narrow. Overall, the feel wasn't quite as compelling as the first installment, and if I didn't already have a stong appreciation for Sam & Max, I probably would have come away from the 1 hour and 15 minutes it took me to beat it pretty dissappointed. Another unfortunate aspect of this episode is the lack of further character development for Sybil and Bosco. We are, however, introduced to one of the funniest characters yet, Hugh Bliss, and I hope he continues to make appearances thoughout the rest of the Season.

Overall, decent for story progression, some very funny parts, but overall managing to stay fairly sparse for its short completion time. I look forward to the other installments, but this episode was not quite worth the $9 price of entry.

Posted by: Eric Tramel | January 6, 2007 8:35 PM

I played this the day after it hit GameTap (back before Christmas). I think that it managed to be a solid follow-up to the first episode, and a good example of how episodic content can work with the right story.

The gameplay was good, if light and easy. The jokes were Sam & Max, and a little wittier than the first episode. The story is self-contained, but I can see how it ties and wraps into the overall season plot - which is nice.

I think that, for the money, Telltale is showing us how to make episodic games.

Posted by: Duncan | January 7, 2007 12:05 AM

im lost...how do u act like a rabid dog?

Posted by: rae | January 7, 2007 5:38 PM

rae: Well, how can you tell if a dog is rabid? If it's foaming at the mouth. What else foams that's in the game?

Check Bosco's Inconvenience Store for an item.

It's shaving cream!

Posted by: John Bardinelli

| January 7, 2007 7:16 PM

where do you get the tomatoes to put in the cake to win the idol?

Posted by: nette | January 22, 2007 12:05 AM

how do you get whizzer to vote for you on the idol game?

Posted by: sean | January 28, 2007 10:50 PM

How do I act sad?

Posted by: Join | February 13, 2007 4:18 PM

I cannot download Sam & Max-Situation:Comedy.I want to download the full game.

Thank you.Elisei Nemes

Posted by: Nemes Elisei | March 4, 2007 11:21 AM

Help what to do in the game please help me.if someone has a walkthrough please tell me.thanks.

Posted by: zineddine | June 2, 2007 3:38 AM

Make a cake with some ingredients doesn't matter what it is. But minimum 1. Then take the cake to Bosco's and go to the Nacho machine under it there's a ketchup machine can't remember the name. Then press the cake and press it at the ketchup thing. Then give it to whizzer and SING! then it's done =)

PS. to be sad use the onion thing on Max.

Posted by: emil | October 23, 2007 2:31 PM

After playing through all six cases (and beating my head against some of the ending puzzles), I wish there'd been reviews of all six here. Anyway, noticing the lack of a walkthrough, some more recent comments, and due to the problems of spoilers on adventure games, I'm gonna whip up a few "invisiclues" for some of the problem areas in the game.

"How do you win the audition?"

Okay,Sam has to act rabid, to foam at the mouth, to froth at the hint hint...

You'll most likely have rescued Bosco's shaving cream before you got to the studio. Adventure games tend to reward methodical behaviour!

Next, Sam has to cry, even though he's about to commit a permitted act of violence to a friend. He ain't gonna do it on his own.

Fortunately, you already have something that can make him cry.

Oh, I dunno, maybe the Tear Gas Onion Launcher Thing you got in case 1?

Finally, Max has to shoot Sam.

Don't worry too much about this part, since Sam gets his revenge later on in case 3... Oops, nevermind.

If you haven't got the bulletproof kevlar spray can I just made up, uh... Uh-oh, hopefully something serendipitous will happen.

"How do I finish the stupid sitcom clip?"

Well, the premise goes that you've got to disguise the cow, so try that.

Remember: it's a sitcom! Stupid (read: madcap/zany) ideas work better there.

:\GET LAMPSHADE
:\USE LAMPSHADE ON COW

Y'know, that lampshade on that cow looks kinda like a chef's hat... Kinda.

So, unless you want to cycle through all the possible phrases, let's continue the farce by picking up the plate on the table, and doing something with it.

Why don't you use it on the, er, interactable object behind the cow?

Hilarity ensues, apparently.

"How do I cross the chasm?"

Remember when adventure games were text-only?

And when they'd make up random clues that had nothing to do with the game at hand, and talk about Pan-galactic Gargle Blasters and non-existant areas?

Me neither, let's move on.

"How do I win the creepy midgets' talent show?"

They're pretty annoying, and now you have to sing for them? Anyway, Max will always pick Sam, so you need to do something about the two midget judges.

The singing itself won't matter, as trying it will show.

Why not give it a rest, and come back after swiping the singing midget's cue cards?

...and sneakily switching them with the ones Hugh Bliss is supposed to read?

After trying to wipe the almost otherworldly smile off of Hugh's face, why not cashing your prize in for Bosco's Pathetic-yet-Necessary Key Item of the Day?

Use it before you sing for a little performance-enhancing boost where it counts.

Well, that's one down. Now, you know the last guy won't pick Sam, and you don't have any creepy mind-control things to use on him. You'll just have to take him out of the picture somehow...

Put that oversized revolver away, I didn't mean that! Try talking to him, and he'll reveal a weakness surprisingly quickly.

Okay, 1, it's his birthday, and 2, tomatoes give him gas. You can use that.

To bake something for him to eat, you'd need, like, a kitchen or something with an overn and ingredients...

Oh, right, the cooking show! Just pick "cake" and use whatever.

Now, red dye ain't gonna cut it. What's tomatoey enough to work on him?

Man alive, it took me the longest time to remember about the condiments in Bosco's. Why not search through every scene in the game if you can't remember either?

"And the scandal?"

It isn't all that hard to figure out, if you went to Sybil's earlier on.

Okay: Picture, Green, Three. The solution should stare you in the face at some point.

and if it doesn't, why not look for someone Sam & Max can take a picture with? Preferably if they can get one of them to look green?

Two words: Hugh Bliss.

"The Final Battle!"

The systematic approach won't really work: it's best to look at everything around you, and think of the different ways they could accomplish your goal.

In this case, it'd be to destroy the stuffed brainwashing thing on the other side of the desk.

If you accuse someone else of being Hugh Bliss or whatever, they'll get invited to the show, along with Myra moving her short-circuiting mic along the table.

She also has a glass of water on her table. It is clear what must be done.

To get the water on the table, try that ancient technique of glass-breakery Sam knows.

By that, I mean singing on helium.

Now, let's invite up, say the cow? That should do it.

Congratulations! Infatuations! Salutations, we've, I mean, you've won!

Posted by: Gar | October 30, 2007 7:15 PM

How do I win the election in episode 4. I have got the signs for the Issues but cant figure out how to win on the family values question to raise max's popularity

Posted by: Jacqueline | February 25, 2008 8:13 AM

To win on family values:

You have to bring abraham lincoln's campaign flyer to sybil. She will then take it as a dating application.

You then need to use the organic listening device on lincoln. Once you have him recorded, go to the office, go to your phone, and use the listening device on the phone. Call Sybil. You then have to select the right answers to make her think abe wants to go out on a date with her at the white house.

Then you go back to the white house and ask about family values / just wait until sybil shows up. You might have to do something else, I forget for now.

Hope this helps.

Posted by: Sam

| March 30, 2008 4:06 PM