Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual Review

The year is 1989. A junior high aged me is introduced to the comic book world by his best friend, but the usual Super-Hero-Whatever-Man suspects were nowhere to be found. Instead, it was The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bone and (which should be clear by the title of the article) Sam & Max: Freelance Police. When the latter made the jump to video games by my all time favorite developer LucasArts, I was eager and pleased at the point and click results. Now, the eponymous duo have made the jump into virtual reality in Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual.

S&M:TTIV let’s players join the freelance police as a fresh faced cadet out to protect the city from aliens, mad scientists, demons and whatever run-of-the-mill criminals the anthropomorphic dog and hyperkinetic rabbity thing (their words, not mine) decide to take on that day at the behest of the city’s unseen commissioner. You’ll tag along with the characters in their Saturday morning cartoon inspired environment, interviewing witnesses and solving puzzles leading to a final confrontation with a shadowy criminal.

Gameplay, for the most part, is a series of minigames, each in the guise of a training exercise and graded accordingly, though failing miserably has little consequence aside from a snarky comment on your report card. The pair take you to an abandoned seaside theme park with attractions that give you the basics for the skills you’ll be called upon to use later. Three attractions – like investigative puzzle solving, throwing items or bomb defusing – set you up for a mini-boss battle that happens to use those specific skills. Rinse and repeat several times until the final confrontation.

The game’s elements are nothing particularly unique to the VR world. You’ll climb ladders. You’ll shoot things. You’ll push buttons, throw balls and use multi-colored keys to open MacGuffin locks to progress. As such, there are many titles of the same ilk that do it better and prettier than Sam and Max. Vader Immortal immediately comes to mind because the mechanics are so similar, but Vader’s environments are richer and the story is a much better glue for the activities you’ll be completing. Moreover, the interactions can be inconsistent and frustrating. Items that you’re sure you should be able to pick up and use are often static environmental elements that sometimes block movement and sometimes can be passed right through. Likewise, items like the “bombs” (talking animatronic heads) have multiple points to interact with, like a Bop-It toy of the 90s, but tend to be overly finicky resulting in failure after failure. This makes challenges less of a skill check and more of a test of patience.

Graphically, it really is kind of amazing to be in the same world with these characters that I grew up with. Sam is appropriately tall and Max always seems to be underfoot, yapping away, which is exactly what I would have expected. Unfortunately, the Toon-Town aesthetic is pretty lacking. Textures are noticeably low resolution and jagged when they exist. Most objects are flat colored simple models that act more as a constant reminder that you’re playing a video game, rather than being immersed in a virtual world. Secondary character animations are similarly dull and lifeless.

What does stand out is the voice acting. Though not their original voices (and they’ve gone through many, actually) both characters sounded like they should sound based on the video games of the past and the short lived animated series. The animated odd-couple have lots to say and the comedy is actually pretty top notch and true to the pop-culture roasting roots they hail from. It would have been a tragedy if this game based on a true “comic” book lacked any actual comedy, but I laughed a fair amount, both at the situational humor and one liners delivered by the denizens of this digital world. Repetition was noticeable, but not overwhelming and has some variety, even when replaying a scene.

Ultimately, I have a hard time recommending Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual. Nostalgia may very well be a requirement in order to enjoy the title. Graphics have an early-VR air about them and gameplay can be quite clunky. Not to mention the plethora of bugs I encountered, even after having downloaded multiple updates. If you’re a Freelance Police fan, you might still enjoy a bit of a comedic romp with the boys. For everyone else, it’s an unpolished, sometimes frustrating and short adventure that might have been better served as a retro point-and-click outing.

A copy of this game for the Oculus Rift was provided to Media Geeks by the developer for review purposes. Sam & Max is available now on Steam VR compatible platforms and the Oculus Quest.