LucasArts games are typically thought of as comedies rather than character studies, but it was a merging of these concepts that made them so memorable. In The Secret Monkey Island, it’s not just the quips that made the game stand out, it was how Guybrush was a likable and resourceful character, and getting little bits of his perspective as you inspected items and evaluated scenarios made for an interesting journey. Even if he was pretty naive, he was easy to cheer for, since he was such a likable goof that you wanted to see him achieve his dream. Meanwhile, in a game that didn’t focus on the protagonists themselves like Maniac Mansion, a lot of time was spent giving the residents of the titular spooky house a lot of character. Learning what made them the way they were was an endearing little mystery, and this development transformed a basic story about rescuing a girlfriend into something worth remembering. Sam & Max sets up a similar framework with its basic plot hook, where the duo is tasked to find a bigfoot that’s escaped from the circus. The same sort of silly puzzles from Monkey Island are here too, so the structure seems the exact same, but the character development is sadly missing. The leads reliably throw out some good lines, but since the journey isn’t as personal as Guybrush’s was, or as mysterious as the plight of the family in Maniac Mansion, the jokes don’t build into a character piece, the duo just ambivalently quip their way through the story without a care. Their lack of concern bordering on misanthropy is a constant source of humor, but if the protagonists don’t really care about what they’re doing, it’s hard to care as a member of the audience. In Sam & Max, nothing develops or changes, the adventure is strictly a framing device for a series of jokes. Again, this isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, the humor mostly lands and the adventure format is a proven one, it just lacks the sort of involvement that made the other LucasArts games feel special to me. Its cartoonish comedy may be just fine, but I would have preferred something with a bit more character instead.

Reviewed on Jul 04, 2021


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