Sam and Max The Devil’s Playhouse is the last game in the Sam and Max adventure game trilogy to receive a remaster from Skunkape Games. Originally developed via an episodic format by Telltale Games, the Sam and Max games tell the story of the anthropomorphic dog and rabbit that act as freelance police and solve crimes.
Original vs. Remaster
Similar to Sam and Max Save the World and Through Time and Space, The Devil’s Playhouse has seen some upgrades since it was released back in 2010. Skunkape Games has added better lighting to the remaster, tweaked the graphics to look better, and also improved the game’s sound quality. Skunkape Games also updated the game to widescreen and updated the character models.
Originally developed by Telltale Games back in 2010, Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse has Sam and Max deal with an alien invasion led by General Skun-ka’pe. General Skun-ka’pe is looking for the Devil’s Toybox which are powerful toys that that can give someone supernatural powers. It’s up to Sam and Max to put a stop to General Skun-ka’pe’s plans and not just save Earth but the galaxy as well.
Gameplay
The gameplay for Sam and Max The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered largely remains the same due to it being a point-and-click game but has been improved in small ways. When selecting objects or people to interact with, instead of just being white text, the text prompt now looks similar to what you’d find in a comic book. Sam’s hand, which acts as the cursor, was very green in color in the original but has been significantly toned down in the remaster. Considering Sam and Max first started out as a comic, it makes for a nice homage.
The dialogue wheel has also been reworked in the remaster. It’s kept the same Mass Effect-style parody dialogue wheel from the original game, with Sam’s upper half in the middle. Instead of being an in-game model of Sam, it now uses a cartoon-looking version of Sam, no doubt a homage to the 1990s Sam and Max cartoon. The gameplay also looks to be smoother as well, no doubt in part due to being remastered for newer hardware.
Audio And Visual
The sound quality and graphics for the Sam and Max remaster have also been improved as well. While the game largely uses the same lines that were in the original version, the remastered version sounds better on all fronts. Voices sound more crisp and clear overall as do the environmental sounds too. The graphics have also been largely improved upon as well. The characters look smoother and less rough compared to the 2010 release. Lighting has also been massively improved upon as well with ghosts looking like actual ghosts instead of like a transparent character model.
From Telltale to Skunkape
Telltale Games first started the Sam and Max trilogy with Save the World, which was released over an episodic period on the now-defunct service GameTap. Before Telltale became known for making licensed games like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, they were known for making point-and-click adventure games. It’s not an untrue statement to say that their Sam and Max games are what helped put Telltale on the map back in the mid to late 2000s.
Unfortunately, Telltale got into trouble financially and was shut down in 2018. LCG Entertainment bought Telltale Games in 2019, and the new Telltale Games under LCG put out The Expanse: A Telltale Series last year in 2023. Skunkape Games are former Telltale Games developers who started their own company “to become the new owners and caretakers of Telltale’s trilogy of episodic Sam and Max games.” which is said on their website. It’s cool to see a company dedicated to caring for early games.
Future Sam And Max Games
While Skunkape Games hasn’t made any indication as to whether they’ll make their own Sam and Max games, it’d be pretty cool if they did. While it may be more of a cult franchise, it’s still a franchise that spawned three popular point-and-click games. It’s also a franchise that spawned a company that was dedicated to remastering the games to bring them up to more modern gaming standards. Even if they don’t make any more Sam and Max games, it’s clear Skunkape Games cares about the point-and-click adventure genre.
While point-and-click games aren’t as popular as they were 10-20 years ago, it’s clear there’s still a market for them with the recent remasters from Skunkape Games. Some might say that point-and-clicks never really went away but instead transitioned into the adventure games we see today, like Disco Elysium, Life is Strange, and Until Dawn. Even though that’s not false, there’s something special in sitting down and playing games like Syberia, Still Life, and Grim Fandango. Here’s hoping Skunkape Games continues where Telltale left off and makes its own point-and-click games.
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