Brutal Gamer

Lookin’ Back #10 – Sam & Max Hit The Road

By Mike - July 12, 2009 - 09:30 UTC - Be first to Comment!

‘You crack me up, little buddy!’

With LucasArts releasing a lot of their classic games on Steam recently, and me having played quite a lot of Sam & Max Season 1, I figured that for the tenth edition of Lookin’ Back, I’d take a look at a classic LucasArts adventure game.  That game is ‘Sam & Max Hit The Road’

Hit The Road was a point and click game that utilised an overhauled version of the LucasArts SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine.  It was based on the Sam & Max characters created by Steve Purcell.  My brother bought the game from the same car boot sale that I bought Civilaztion at, for about 50p if memory serves.  And that may well have been the biggest bargain ever.

So, as you might have guessed, you control Sam in this game, while Max walks around the screen interacting with most things.  The main story of the game involves Sam and Max solving a case to find the two main attractions of the Kushman Brothers carnival, Bruno the Bigfoot and Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl from Scranton.  And so, you embark on a road trip around the USA, taking in many convenience stores and tourist traps along the way.

The game was extremely funny and well thought out, with, as seems to happen in LucasArts games, a lot of references to other LucasArts games and some real world references.  Things such as Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Alfred Hitchcock, Paul McCartney and James Bond all get referenced.  There’s a section of the game involving the game’s main villain, Conroy Bumpus, which is a parody of a very famous scene from ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’   And have you ever noticed the guy in the Snuckey’s convenience store looks very much like he may have been in Day of the Tentacle?  Hmm?

Of course, apart from all the experimental puzzle solving, there are the many tourist traps, such as the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, the Gator Golf Emporium and Frog Rock, which looks nothing like a frog, much to the chagrin of Max.  And of course, there were some funny characters and dialogue along the way.  Including Max’s ability to sing a rhyme for every head on Mount Rushmore.  (‘There ain’t a president alive we can’t ryhme!’)  One of my favourite exchanges in the game had to be with a psychic you meet who has somewhat colourful language.

Sam : Percent sign, ampersand, dollar sign
Max : And colon, semi-colon too!
Psychic : What are you (bleep)ing doing?
Sam : Swearing in long-hand, asterisk mouth!

I’m personally hoping that LucasArts eventually manage to release this classic onto Steam too.  Or maybe remake it.  Who knows?  But in the meantime, I’m happy to play Telltale’s new Sam & Max games, which are just as hilarious and ridiculous as the original game.  In fact, there are references to the first game in the new seasons, including the severed hand of Jesse James, which makes it’s way from the carnival and into Sam & Max’s office.

And that’s about it, really.  This is an excellent game, and if you missed it, you might want to at least check out the new games.  Now time to go to Mount Rushmore for some bungie jumping.

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