[Mechanical R]

Sam and Max, the freelance police return in 6 new episodes of justice and wit in the new addition to the Sam and Max franchise ‘Season 1/Save the World’ Americas most loved crime fighting dog and mentally disturbed Rabbit are back for more.

Originally out for PC, the Xbox 360 Arcade gets a taste of this pairs, unique way of solving the wildest of crimes.

Gameplay takes a lot from the original Sam and Max point and click games only with a very minimalist HUD system. Most objects in an area will be intractable or clickable to either reveal part of the clues to solving the levels objectives or the object comes with some comedic response from Sam or Max.

Keeping to true point and click games you’ll also have interactivity with NPC’s in the game, almost all play a role in your progression through the levels and you’ll have to always exhaust all your conversation choices to get what your after from the character.

Also sticking to familiar point and click game traits is the not so much difficulty, but the way you have to think about playing the game, items you pick up will always be used somehow in the level, but it can only be you to figure out how to use it correctly, some require using a combination of items you find along your travels and chats and some involve a sharp eye and some general sense to work out how to progress the story.

The graphics keep with the cartoon style of the original comic and continue throughout with new and well created settings. What’s really great is how the backgrounds and other set pieces which you may not be able to interact with still keep with the cartoons sense of humour with examples or signs and other items littered around the game.

Fans will be pleased that original voice actors return to deliver the true Sam and Max experience, lets admit, it wouldn’t be right without them!

The game has just 6 episodes, replay able but don’t change on each retry for obvious reasons. Each episode can take up to an hour or two hours to complete, however its suitable that you finish each episode in each sitting as I frequently returned to playing the game after a day or so to not have the foggiest as to what my objective is or what I’m trying to achieve, a lack of objective screens are to fault here as well as a lot of tasks requiring you to have to back track or move backwards and forwards between characters and buildings making things harder to follow aswell as needlessly time consuming.

A well made return for the much loved Sam and Max. Although not something that might be suitable for everyone, people who aren’t already fans of the cartoon or on the same level of humour that Sam and Max contain may not really get the full experience from playing the game.

Season 2 and 3 are on their way.

7.0