"A Sweet Slice Of Hilarious Insanity"

This game, without question, is the funniest piece of software I have ever played. 'Day of the Tentacle' was pretty darn amusing, and I've gained many a chuckle from the 'Leisure Suit Larry' and 'Spellcasting' sagas. But no one single game has brought me more demented laughs than 'Sam & Max Hit The Road.' And it's a darn fine adventure game, to boot. How can you go wrong?
The game is based on the 'Sam & Max' comic books, and if you're into warped comedy at all, you should buy this game and any of those comics that you can get your greedy little hands on. But remember, when I say 'warped,' I mean 'warped.' This is not safe, routine sitcom humor; laughs are gained from exploding buses, intoxicated pigeons, Max being electrocuted, and various manners of loveable circus freaks, among other things. The humor is razor-sharp and smart, but it might turn off people who don't like their comedy with an edge of nastiness.
For this adventure, you control Sam and Max, the Freelance Police. ('Freelance' is definitely an appropriate term; you won't be following any actual police procedure during this game, thank heavens.) Sam is a dog in a street-ready suit and tie, and Max is a psychotic and adorable white rabbit. Both characters talk, of course, and walk upright like humans, so their being animals is just to add a touch of cuteness to contrast the maniacal hijinks that ensue. Sam plays the 'straight man' (although he has plenty of great wise-cracks of his own), and Max is the more demented half of the pair. After playing my first ten minutes of the game, these two characters had already joined my all-time gaming favorites list. They are almost instantly likeable and funny, and they have a great back-and-forth dialogue style that keeps the laughs coming even after you've been playing for hours.
I cannot compliment the voice-acting in this game enough, especially the actors who voiced Sam and Max themselves. The voices are all very appropriate and add a lot of color to the characters. Quality voice-acting isn't one of those things that you appreciate until you play a game that lacks it, so many kudos to the 'Sam & Max Hit The Road' team for coming through in a big way in this often underrated aspect of the game.
As far as the plot goes, Sam and Max get hired to track down a missing bigfoot, although the game is pretty free-form for the most part. You can just sort of cruise along, exploring new places, playing a bunch of extremely fun mini-games (especially 'Car Bomb' and the hilarious 'Whack-A-Rat'), and listening to the great dialogue. There is no time limit, and the game has a very relaxed and laid back feel. If I have one critique of the storyline, it's that it seems to get a little rushed towards the finale, as if the designer threw in a crisis at the end to give the game a larger sense of danger. I suppose that we in America are conditioned to prefer stories that have a dilemma-and-ultimate solution at the end of them, but it would have probably been best to keep the game's laid-back pace throughout. But it's a relatively small problem, all in all.
The graphics in 'Sam & Max Hit The Road' are colorful and expressive, and fit the game perfectly. Keep your eyes peeled for all manners of funny things in each scene, too. (Use the 'look' command everywhere... there are funny descriptions for the most obscure of objects.)
The music is fine, overall. Most of it is quiet background music, and relatively catchy. And as before mentioned, the voice acting and sounds are top-drawer.
The puzzles are surprisingly good; I had anticipated a comedic game and a halfway decent adventure game, but the adventure aspects are way, way above average. Many of the puzzles have very entertaining solutions, and tax the brain without being next to impossible. As with any adventure game, and this one especially, play with a friend or two. Somehow, funny games are even funnier when you have folks to laugh with you.
From the great writing and memorable characters, to the brain-tickling puzzles, this is definitely one of the finest adventure games around, and one of my favorites. If you can handle humor that's a little out-of-the-ordinary, pick this game up immediately. (Man, I am SO proud of myself. I wrote the whole review without taking any of the funny lines from the game and using them in my review to get myself a cheap laugh.)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/00, Updated 02/23/00