Systems > PC > S > Sam & Max Episode 2 - Situation: Comedy > Staff Review
Sign up for a free user account and you can leave feedback for this review or even submit a game review of your own!
Review by Gary Hartley
December 23, 2006
Happily, the pros far outweigh the cons, which we'll run through for the sake of completion.
Situation: Comedy plonks your right back in the shoes of everyone's favourite sleuthing dog-tective [apologies: I needed to use up the last of this year's pun allowance] and shark-toothed deranged rabbity-thing. It also places you right back in their unchanged office, where clicking on the unchanged items within will offer up unchanged gags lifted right from Culture Shock. Everything from the duo's home street suffers from much the same; former psychotherapist Sibyl's profession may have changed, but many of the dialogue prompts strewn around her office have not. Likewise, although paranoid shopkeeper Brosco may adopted a fake English accent and a monocle to keep hidden from the millions who plot against him, his [in]convince store has been lifted exactly from the previous chapter -- items, comments and retorts included.
It's with a real sense of 'been there, done that', that the initial stages of Situation: Comedy are undertaken. A few recycled gags, a replaying of a slightly altered car chase first seen in the Culture Shock prequel and a gamer faithful to the previous episode might start to worry that they're playing the same game over with a slightly differing set of tasks to undertake.
That is, until they find their way into the TV studio where the bulk of this chapter takes place. Charged with rescuing a literally captive audience from the grips of chat show darling, Myra, Sam & Max have to work their way through a slew of prime-time television parodies that bring back into focus the sharp humour that's always resided within their adventures. To pry themselves onto the Myra show, headed by an opinionated host that seems to be a nightmarish hybrid all of the talk show titans doing the rounds, they'll need to prove they have the star quality needed to appear on such a prime-time slot. Try to talk your way around your lack of stardom at your peril! She has pre-planned spiels on the evils of the encroaching pop culture and the drawbacks pertaining to the ease in which fame is achieved to drown out every point you can ever hope to make.
In order to sassy onto her stage, you'll have to work besides crazed directors with strange teleportation powers, British screen-guild inspired chicken actors that feel they are working well below their station and the growth-stunted Soda Poppers from the first chapter who have reinvented themselves as a judging panel on Embarrassing Idol. Even Bessie the cow makes a cameo from Telltale's Bone series inside one of the many hopeless and cheaply-made shows that manage to draw their ratings from lonely bachelors and social dropouts. You'll need to use a combination of these programs to further your own career towards your more noble goals of audience rescue. One of the pair will also find themselves scarily comfortable inside the warm womb of manufactured celebrity -- I'll let informed readers guess which one.
Hint: It's the slightly psychotic one with bunny ears.
Wherever they spew their spontaneous insanity, they do so comfortably in the knowledge that everything around them works. Sam's laid-back noir voice narrates proceedings with a smooth, practised hands while Max overwrites sense with deranged threats and suggestions. Trying to share an innocent anecdote about the pair's adventures starts our furry chum off on a tale of bludgeoning purse-snatchers with broken parking meters while screaming "DIE! Why won't you die?!," while a nodding Sam looks on approvingly. The universe remains intact from not only the first episode, but from the 1993 hit that spawned the rebirth, Hit the Road, and if it wasn't for the unfortunate slow start, even my practised eye would have found little to complain about (well, aside from the relative ease the tasks are solved with -- a flaw Situation: Comedy has inherited from Culture Shock). Adventure gamers would be well advised to plough through the slow sections of Sam & Max's newest outing; the rewards that await beyond are well worth the wait.
|
|
|
Most recent video game reviews written by Gary Hartley
Medal of Honor: Airborne (Xbox 360) [January 31, 2012]
GET TO THA CHOPPA TWOOO!!2 (Xbox 360) [November 29, 2011]
Tropico 4 (Xbox 360) [November 06, 2011]
Fire Mustang (Genesis) [August 20, 2011]
L.A. Noire (PlayStation 3) [August 13, 2011]
|
You can click the tabs on the above bar to choose whether you wish to read comments from visitors who have posted on Facebook, or from registered site users who have left feedback on the forums. Please leave a comment of your own if you have anything to say!
|
|
|
Follow Us |
Advertise exclusively for 1 month... only $1000!
Recent Forum Discussions
+ Alpha Olympics 2012
+ Where's SkyWard Sword's review ? And please bring back the rating feature.
+ zippdementia's Mega Jump review
+ [News] Schafer has pitched Psychonauts 2, Minecraft dev says 'let's make it happen'
+ holdthephone's Final Fantasy XIII-2 review
+ JoeTheDestroyer's Area 51 review
+ playstation vita, yo.
+ RotW January 29 - February 04 2012
+ Games to be added to the database...
+ The Final Fantasy XIII-2 thread
+ [News] Final Fantasy X HD will be a remaster, not a remake
+ [News] Naughty Dog explored making a new Jak and Daxter, made Last of Us instead
Staff Game Reviews
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| SoulCalibur V |
| The Simpsons Arcade Game |
| Quarrel |
| Star Ocean: The Last Hope |
| Pushmo |
| Medal of Honor: Airborne |
Site Staff
 |  | ||
 |  | ||
 |  | ||
 |  | ||
 |
Featured Reviews [+]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Rayman Origins |
| Othello |
| Scarface: The World is Yours |
| The Last Express |
| Golden Axe II |
| Assassin's Creed: Revelations |
Exclusive User Reviews [+]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Mega Jump |
| White Knight Chronicles |
| Dragon Wars |
| F-Zero GX |
| Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door |
| Pokemon Snap |
Info |
Help |
Privacy Policy |
Contact |
Advertise
© 1998-2012 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site--from reviews, guides, cheats and editorials to message board posts--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 Episode 2 - Situation: Comedy is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Sam & Max Episode 2 - Situation: Comedy, 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.
