Reader reviews for Sam & Max Hit the Road

Animation in Hit the Road is gorgeous, smooth and jaw-dropping, it’s one visual gag after another, animation for the sake of animation, and it feels so authentic! Unlike many other counterparts such as Toonstruck, Torin’s Passage or Day of the Tentacle which simply copied the Warner Bros. or Disney cartoon styles, here the team led by the multi-talented Steve Purcell created something of their own. A loony - and in a very, totally nuts sense - world feels absolutely natural and alive, exactly what an established comic book would look like if it came to life.

The pair of detectives travel on their old DeSoto from one corner of the map of the United States to another like it’s no big deal, visiting a whole bunch of fictional tourist traps on their way, and discovering them is a treat to the eyes and your imagination. All locations are full of bright colours, very rich in detail and like nothing you’ve ever seen: my favourite was the Celebrity Vegetable Museum in Texas where they could grow up your favourite celebrity face out of a vegetable of your choice.

Of the two Max the rabbit stands out as the main source of fun, entertaining himself by poking his fingers everywhere, jumping on beds or simply looking back at you with the wide grin over his face. And, of course, he could be used in many creative - and destructive - ways to solve puzzles which are another strong point of this great adventure. Of course, you really have to learn to think Sam & Max-style in order to succeed. I don’t remember how many weeks I spent during my first playthrough, but even today I get stuck on a thing or two.

Other characters you meet on your way are fairly insane as well, and what they say and do, while often just plain out funny, is not meant to entertain us, viewers, - it’s how they naturally act in this universe. Which gives a certain sense of involvement, but it’s also where my main problem with the game lies. I know it’s only a small sip of comics entertainment that wasn’t meant to get under your skin, but I always felt disconnected from most of the characters. Oh, yet another weirdo briefly introduced to us, righty so. Even the antagonists feel underdeveloped, like something we shouldn’t worry about. And we won’t after 2/3 of the game. In fact an already thin storyline ends at that point, and the rest 1/3 plays like a whole new quest that was added at the last minute to make Sam & Max last a bit longer.

Yes, it’s a game written by artists and programmers, same as many other games back then. And I can’t really complain here - deadpan comments by Sam alone are enough to make you roar with laughter. It’s that I wish it was something more than just a running joke, like The Secret of Monkey Island with its many moments that made it so memorable and resulted in a line of equally great sequels. With Sam & Max they waited 10 years to greenlight one, it was too late, the development stopped, the company died, and the episodes by Telltale that followed felt far less focused or mature than the original game (not to mention they were much uglier). So if you have to choose, always, always Hit the Road!