In two weeks, you’ll be capable to play Sam & Max: The Satan’s Playhouse in your Xbox for the very first time. The ultimate season of Telltale’s episodic Sam & Max trilogy was by no means ported to Xbox when it first got here out in 2010, leaving followers of this comedy journey collection hanging for all these years.
For the uninitiated, Sam & Max are the Freelance Police, a pair of canine and rabbity-thing detectives whose esoteric wit and unconventional crime-fighting methods have amused and baffled the unwashed plenty for the previous 37 years. Their credit embrace indie comics, a Saturday morning cartoon, and, in fact, video video games.
LucasArts was the primary studio to make Sam & Max video games, and I used to be working there as a producer when Sam & Max: Freelance Police was cancelled in 2004. If you happen to had been an journey recreation fan on the time, you in all probability keep in mind the uproar—the sport was nearly completed, previews had been glowing, and 32,000 pissed off followers signed a web-based petition to attempt to reverse the choice.
The petition didn’t work, nevertheless it impressed me and a number of other different Freelance Police workforce members to begin a brand new studio, Telltale Video games. After LucasArts’ rights to make a recreation in regards to the canine and rabbity-thing crime fighters expired, we teamed up with the collection creator, Steve Purcell, to make our personal episodic Sam & Max video games.
One motive for Freelance Police’s cancellation was that it was a PC recreation, and all of the best-sellers on the time had been for consoles. Telltale additionally began out as a PC developer (it was nonetheless the largest platform for journey video games, our favourite style), however because the studio grew, we additionally branched out to consoles. In 2009 we ported the primary two Sam & Max seasons, Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max: Past Time and Area, to Xbox 360.
Telltale went on to make another Sam & Max season, subtitled The Satan’s Playhouse, which got here out episodically from April to August 2010—however this one by no means made it to Xbox. At that time within the studio’s historical past (earlier than we actually hit it large with The Strolling Lifeless), we had our arms full as we refined our imaginative and prescient for interactive storytelling and took on new licenses. We couldn’t assist a couple of or two platforms at a time again then, and although we at all times meant to port The Satan’s Playhouse to Xbox, it simply by no means occurred… till now!
In a tragic coincidence, Telltale bumped into monetary bother in 2018 and the studio shut down. I used to be now not working there, however I noticed a possibility to return to this collection that had been so central to my profession. (Even earlier than I labored on Sam & Max: Freelance Police, certainly one of my very first video games as a QA lead was LucasArts’ 1994 journey recreation Sam & Max Hit the Highway.) I known as up a few of the identical associates who had been there at first of Telltale and we purchased the rights to the episodic Sam & Max trilogy.
Since then, we’ve been remastering these video games—an actual labor of affection to get them wanting pretty much as good and enjoying in addition to we at all times needed however didn’t have the assets or experience to realize on the time. If you happen to’ve performed our Sam & Max Save the World or Sam & Max: Past Time and Area remasters, what an enormous enchancment they’re over the originals, with added widescreen and gamepad assist, larger high quality visuals and audio, 4K graphics and HDR assist on Xbox One X and newer, and plenty extra additions and refinements.
The remastered model of Sam & Max: The Satan’s Playhouse will shut out the trilogy on August 14, and you may preorder it as we speak with a ten% low cost. In comparison with the primary two seasons (which had been a few of Telltale’s earliest video games), The Satan’s Playhouse was made by a bigger workforce that had hit its stride. It’s undoubtedly the weirdest and most formidable of the three video games, and we’re at all times listening to from followers that it’s their favourite.
I don’t need to spoil something, however the fundamental storyline is that Max (the rabbity-thing) stumbles upon a magic toy that provides him random glimpses of the long run. His newfound psychic powers appeal to the eye of an alien warlord named Basic Skun-ka’pe, who desires the Toys of Energy for his personal not-so-altruistic functions… and issues shortly spiral uncontrolled.
Throughout 5 episodes (launched suddenly, Netflix-style), you’ll get to fiddle with Max’s psychic powers, play as Sam & Max’s great-grandfathers, plunder an Egyptian tomb, confront Lovecraftian monsters, and fend off a military of Sam clones sporting sparkly gold underwear.
If you might want to get caught up earlier than enjoying this ultimate entry within the Sam & Max trilogy, the primary two remasters are 40% off on Xbox by way of August 12 (our deepest low cost to this point).
And on August 14, we invite you to take your seats, flip off your cell telephones, and put together yourselves for an epic comedy saga. The lights have dimmed, the curtains are opened… the present’s about to start in Sam & Max: The Satan’s Playhouse!
