In my early years of PC gaming, I remember Sam & Max Hit the Road with great fondness. Its absurdist humor and bizarre characters drew me in the most. It’s often illogical (in my addled mind) approach to puzzle-solving in a point-and-click matrix certainly didn’t. Playing the game frustrated me to no end – that is, until I had memorized the paths I needed to take – and yet, I stuck with it, and it with me. Returning to the game years later provided that good, ol’ fashioned, if perturbed fun the same way I remember it.

Sam and Max began life in the comics in the 1980s; LucasArts’ Sam & Max Hit the Road brought the duo into games, and the mainstream generally, in 1993. Thirteen years would go by before the gaming world would hear any furious peeps from them again, this time courtesy of Telltale. The studio first gained access to the franchise in 2002 through the cancelled game Sam & Max: Freelance Police, which would have been a direct sequel to Hit the Road.  Instead, the PC world would be treated to Sam & Max Save the World in 2006, and various console ports followed, as did two sequels: Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space (2007), and Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse (2010). When Skunkape Games acquired the rights to the franchise after Telltale closed up shop in 2018, they remastered the trilogy, releasing the three spiffed-up games between 2020 and 2024.

Which brings us to Christmastime 2025, when I catch the remastered trilogy on sale in Nintendo’s e-Shop. Only knowing of the Telltale versions, which I had never played, I scooped them up faster than a world-champion kitty litter cleaner. I had to get a little something called Super Mario Odyssey off my plate before diving into these “new” Sam & Max adventures; having finished the first game in the series, it was definitely worth the wait.

Arranged into six episodes, Sam & Max Save the World tells the simple story of freelance police Sam, a canine detective, and Max, a “hyperkinetic rabbity thing,” freeing the world from a deadly hypnotic trance that’s **spoilers** been created and unleashed by alien bacteria. They meet and work with a variety of recurring figures who help then solve various smaller crises along the way. Regulars, and probably the closest “friends,” include Bosco, a conspiracy theorist who runs the world’s most inconvenient convenience store; Sybil, who’s forever changing careers, often in Sam and Max’s favor; and Jimmy, a conniving rat who would stick it to Sam and Max if only he was larger. Each of them play into the cases Sam and Max acquire and solve in each episode, and the cast of characters grows larger and more absurd as the episodes progress…to the point where they’re conversing regularly with a chicken, a cockroach, a set of antiquated electronics, and the head of the Abraham Lincoln statute from the Lincoln Memorial. Not to mention the alien bacteria, the big “twist” of the whole series.

Having only ever known Sam & Max on the PC in 2D, with a keyboard and mouse, in Save the World, I was pleasantly surprised to see them wonderfully rendered in 3D with environments to match. Sam served as the game’s primary protagonist and was at the helm of the controls; though at times, Max popped up as an option to control during some conversations. Sam’s movement was controlled either manually via the analog stick or by selecting on-screen indicators revealed with the left bumper. I quickly preferred to use these cues rather than wander aimlessly. Also, there was quite a lot to look at in the game, and almost every interactable item came with a trademark quip from either/both Sam and Max. I was extremely pleased to see that Sam and Max’s witty and occasionally crass commentary hadn’t been abandoned. Truly, half the fun of Sam & Max game comes from experiencing its wacky writing – you never know what they’re going to say next! – and it helped allay its more awkward moments, of which there were many.

Granted, the game’s awkwardness is subjective, and it stems from one’s predilection for piecing together the game’s “logic.” As I said at the start, I had a tough time with this in the original Hit the Road. The idea throughout the game is that Sam and Max gather up various items to use at specific times and places to trigger specific actions, thereby progressing the story. It’s obvious when the right connection is made, but figuring out how to make those connections in the correct order is the tough part. Sam could sometime consult Max for a hint, but these hints ranged widely from on-the-nose to completely oblique. More than once I found myself totally stumped as to what to do next; this turned these forty-five minute episodes into days-long dramas. Success occurred through both trial and error and Internet searches. When I finally managed to see the duo save the world from a terrible fate, it was a battle hard-won, but one I’d tackle again in a heartbeat.

I enjoy a good point-and-click adventure every now and then, and Sam & Max Save the World is one I plan to keep at my fingertips. Despite how illogical its puzzle logic can be, it’s still a silly, fun, and very likeable game. With memorable characters, great voice acting, solid yet simple graphics and controls, and stories that give Lewis Carroll a run for his money, Sam & Max Save the World is a good time for anyone who likes a healthy dose of absurdism with their puzzle games.

Lede image from igdb.com presskit for Sam & Max Save the World; in-line images captured by author during Nintendo Switch gameplay of Sam & Max Save the World [remastered] (all © Skunkape Games).