Game Boy :: Genesis :: NES :: Sega CD :: SNES :: TurboGrafx-16 :: Complete System Listings

Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls (Miscellaneous)

Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls review

Game: Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls
Platform: PC
Genre: Graphic Adventure
Developer: Telltale Games

Staff review by Gary Hartley

July 31, 2010

For want of a better word, the third season of Telltale’s Sam & Max has been led by outstanding gimmicks that help set the series above the standardised foundations the genre’s been happily wallowing since the mid 80’s. At first, it granted psychotic lagomorph Max weird mental powers that allowed him to read minds, or transform into given shapes. It promoted him from useless, if not violently hilarious, sidekick to a potent and versatile weapon to be levelled against inventory puzzles everywhere. The brilliant second showing had them live through the eyes of their ancestors via reams of film, allowing them the chance to change the reels mid-story and jump about the time-line as they saw fit. Both chapters existed as an exhilarating evolution of point and click adventures, pushing the boundaries and expectations aside with a telekinetic shove and reaping the rewards. The third episode, then, opened with a lobotomised Max and an infuriated Sam and a new way to question perps through unbridled anger and timed interruptions. But this was to be short lived before Telltale fell back into the groove previous episodes had left in their dust.

The fourth entry, Beyond the Alley of the Dolls seems to share more in common with the third than the initial two, but it finds itself better executed and contains perhaps the best writing of series so far. After defeating the mind-controlled allies and enemies alike last trip, Sam & Max are assaulted by an unending wave of Sam clones clad in skimpy gold biker shorts, gormless expressions and a voluptuous hunger for toy collection. The survivors hole themselves up in Stinky’s diner, board up the windows and make with the zombie apocalypse jokes. While the main clue behind your escape is a (literal) huge flashing button, Episode Four starts its long-running theme of tying the last three episodes together and revealing an eventual nemesis even the most atypical thinker out there will find themselves surprised.

As such, it ties together a lot of old faces and explains their lack of involvement thus far, stringing threads you didn’t even know were loose back together again with aplomb. However, the gameplay’s rigid formula means the adventuresome shenanigans of the series start are replaced with more humdrum affairs. The big upside to this is that in the world of Sam & Max, humdrum still means trying to make a super-powered laser out of an old toy robot to blast teleporting tentacles, or sending Sam through a series of mind-bending alternative dimensions that each break his fragile mind in manners most sadistic. It’s a shame that most of these have at least their foundations in using the same psychic power ad nauseam.

But for what it sets out to do, that being set everything up for the grand finish, Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is a success. Many of the underplaying issues brought forth thus far have been laid to rest and the series now has the shocking cliff-hanger ending episodic gaming is built from to advance. Its grounding doesn’t lend it the ambition of the first two chapters, but the tight writing and dedication to shovelling hilarity and mindless violence into gaping plotholes makes up for many of its shortcomings.

More Reviews by Gary Hartley
	Hudson Hawk (NES) Lame Duck.
	Labyrinth X (Xbox 360) Trial and error so tedious, it even takes the gleam off barely-covered anime tits.
	Spec Ops: The Line (PlayStation 3) Come suffer alongside me. You'll thank me for it.

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls review, you're encouraged to leave feedback and talk about it with members of the site's community. You don't even need an HonestGamers account to get involved in the discussion. Please remember to keep your comments respectful and on-topic or they may be deleted by a moderator. Thank you for your understanding!

comments powered by Disqus

© 1998-2013 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors.