Back in the day, Telltale Games was renowned for its world-class adventure games. Actually, their episodic Walking Dead series of games broke sales records and had many players enjoying the adventures of survivor girl Clementine. Meanwhile, Telltale also came up with the likes of The Wolf Among Us and the Sam & Max episodic games, the latter not being so well known as some of their other hits.
Sam & Max Season One was released in 2006 and 2007. In this episodic series, players took control of Sam and Max, a 6-foot dog detective and his partner Max (a rabbit) in a weird adventure that featured plenty of brain-wracking puzzles to solve.
It was the first successful episodic video game, and put Telltale Games on the map. Sadly, though, the game does look pretty dated by today’s standards. And taking into account that Telltale Games went bust a couple of years ago, hopes that a remaster would be coming were pretty slim.
But thankfully developer Skunkape Games (which had bought the rights to Telltale’s Sam & Max games after the company went bust) are now getting ready to release a remaster of Sam & Max Season One on PC and Nintendo Switch. The PC version will be available for purchase on Steam and GOG.com, and can be pre-ordered from both now.
Sam & Max Save the World Remastered is coming on December 2, and comprises all six episodes found in season one of Telltale’s Sam & Max game. The game is titled “Sam & Max Save the World Remastered” instead of “Sam & Max Season One Remastered” in order to better match the name of the retail and console editions of the game which came out in 2009 as Telltale explains in its FAQ.
So, what’s new in this remaster? Aside from support for widescreen monitors, the game can now run in the highest resolution allowed by your PC (meaning the game can be played in glorious 4K resolution). There’s also the new dynamic lighting, surely making the game prettier to look at. Improved lip syncing is also welcome.
Read more: Ranking the Telltale games from worst to best
Plus the game’s audio has been remastered too, meaning it will be more of a pleasure to listen to the game’s jazz score. Speaking of which, composer Jared Emerson-Johnson (formerly at Telltale) has provided five new jazz tracks for the game.
The creator of the original Sam & Max comics (Steve Purcell) also participated in the remaster according to developer Skunkape, helping the team tweak the character models (including those of Sam & Max) to better match the comics.
Other additions include a new opening credits sequence, the enhancement of a few key scenes with new camerawork and acting, plus new exterior locations also feature in the remaster.
The game is also blessed with a new user interface, probably a necessity taking into account that Sam & Max Save the World Remastered supports gamepads as well as mouse and keyboard, and that there’s a Nintendo Switch version too.
According to Skunkape, the remaster “looks, sounds, and plays like a game made in 2020, not one made in 2006”, and looking at the trailer below I’m inclined to agree.
And taking into account that Skunkape says Sam & Max’s puzzles, jokes, story and gameplay are “all as you remember them” and how good the original game was, this is certainly one video game remaster to look forward to this year, no doubt.
There’s also the tantalizing prospect that Sam & Max Season Two (“Beyond Time and Space”) and Sam & Max Season Three (“The Devil’s Playhouse”) could get the remaster treatment too, as the names appear greyed out on Skunkape’s website. Season two contains my favorite episode of the lot (Chariots of the Dogs) so it would surely be a great thing if more Sam & Max remasters are on the way.
Note: Sam & Max Save the World Remastered will be released on December 2, 2020. Available on PC and Nintendo Switch.