Sam and Max: Hit the Road

Greetings, Sam and Max: Hit the Road is a point and click adventure game from 1993. It is the first Sam and Max game to be have been made and remained the only one until the franchise was updated by the Telltale series that lasted from 2006 to 2010. The planned 3D sequel named Sam and Max: Freelance Police was announced in 2002 and cancelled a few years later in 2004. Hit and Run was developed by LucasArts and as such it does not have an episodic approach to storytelling like the sequels do. There are still a few similarities between the two versions such as the whimsical style of humour, musical scenes and unusual puzzles. Hit and Run felt a little strange to play as the characters that I was used to interacting with were created or developed by Telltale and their absence was noticeable. Despite this, some of them were briefly mentioned in passing but never seen such as Bosco or their crime fighting neighbour, Flint Paper. Instead Hit and Run introduced new characters that weren’t included in the later series.

The plot, in usual Sam and Max style, is an unusual and light hearted. Sam and Max receive a call from the commissioner, who is never seen, to head down to the Kushman Brother’s Carnival. Once there Sam and Max are told by the Brothers, who are conjoined twins, that one of their star attractions is missing. The attraction is Bruno, a frozen Sasquatch or Bigfoot, that managed to escape. The Bigfoot isn’t the only one that went missing. A woman named Trixie with an elongated neck that resembles a giraffe’s had also disappeared at the same time that Bruno vanished. Armed with little information or clues, it is up to the freelance police to track the down the two missing individuals.

They explore various locations and tourist sites such as the world’s largest ball of twine or the vegetable resembling celebrities museum. It isn’t long before the duo discovers that a Liverpudlian country singer named Conroy Bumbus and his henchman, Lee Harvey, are also on the lookout for Bruno. They intend to use the Bigfoot for performance purposes, forcing Bruno to aid in his singing career. Sam also uses clues to deduce that Trixie was the one behind Bruno’s escape by unfreezing him from his block of ice. Therefore, the freelance police have to find Bruno and Trixie before Conroy does. There is a wider story beyond finding the two escapees but I won’t delve an deeper into the plot than I already have.

I had a few issues with the game. At times it was difficult to tell what objects were interact able as some items appeared to be in the background and the clues weren’t particularly helpful either. As such it had lead to a lot of confusion because the puzzles aren’t grounded in reality or logic based solutions. One noticeable aspect is that a lot of the characters were one dimensional and served only to further the plot, especially in comparison to the creations from Telltale Games. There were also a few mini-games included in the story such as Whack-A-Mole to break up the plotline. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable experience but I don’t quite get why it is regarded as a cult classic or one of LucasArt’s finest games.

Plot=6/10

Characters=7/10

Graphics=6/10

Overall=7/10

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