The third season of Sam & Max represents a shift in tone and gameplay. The changes are obvious from the very beginning - a narrator to set the scene, new control scheme (same as Tales of Monkey Island; clearly favouring consoles), a new villain, an opening tutorial of sorts (which is so entertaining and interactive that it puts most other tutorials to shame), psychic powers for Max and a grainier, darker graphical style.

It may sound like a lot of changes to a successful formula, but it works well. Not only does it provide a quite accessible introduction for newcomers to the series (including clever little pop-up profiles of characters and notes in a journal about the case and clues), but it also provides a fresh spin on the series for veterans.

Of course, the series lives or dies by the writing and puzzles, and thankfully both are still strong. The new villain, Skunkape, is wonderfully voiced and a highly entertaining character. A few old favourites are missing, while others return (as well as some who are not quite favourites; the Stinky clan seem only slightly more popular than the late, unlamented Soda Poppers…). There are some wonderful lines, with even more smashing of the fourth wall than usual – a few particularly good remarks about non-player characters, for instance.

Puzzles are made a little more interesting through Max's future vision, which offers a glimpse of dialogue from a later scene. It's generally relevant to a puzzle at a particular location, and offers an idea of what to do without giving too much away. Another power, teleportation, saves a lot of the tedious trekking around, which is especially useful as load times seem a little longer than previous games. There's also a bit of a change in mindset with collecting items; they're no longer all directly used for puzzles, with some being clues to unlock new locations. Those new locations look quite similar to the old ones (lampshaded by Max), but at least offer a bit of a feeling about a wider gameworld.

There's a few scripting oddities, with certain events not triggering when they are supposed to (the intended initial teleport scene, for instance, didn't come up for me until quite late in the game because I chose something they apparently didn't expect the first time), but other than that the game seems to work well.

The episode is probably the most promising start to a Sam and Max season yet, and with the tease of more powers to come, and hints at future storylines, there's a lot to draw a player into the following episodes.

Out of all three seasons of Sam & Max, this is easily the best. If you come off playing the first two season (which are great don't get me wrong) you might feel overwhelmed at first, because there's a lot of new stuff coming at you at once. There's Max's powers, new and old faces. Lots of locales (instead of just about everything happening on their own street). The story is better with this one. It's weird and manages to hold everything together and stuff. The puzzles are btter with two possible categories of solutions, Max's powers and your regular inventory. Coming up with the right solution can be incredibly satisfying. I loved this season and was sad when it was over.

I'll give this game a soft recommend. Sam and Max contains a lot of humor, most of it pretty dry, but it works well for the game. The actual stories are fun and it isn't 100% straightforward so you might have some difficulty finding the answer. Note: in the game, you can actually change the amount of hints that Sam and Max give you as you play.

The controls are pretty bad. This is not a deal breaker because the game doesn't rely on quick actions--far from it. But the movement of characters through the game space is pretty difficult, especially if you are only planning on using a mouse. It was slightly more palatable with a keyboard.

In the end, this was just a small blip in the experience. Sam and Max is a bit of fun and I know each episode I can complete in about 2-4 hours which is nice.

I would recommend not paying the full price--the collection of the five episodes is probably worth it at around $10 or less.

One of the funniest games you'll ever have the pleasuer of playing. It's apoint and click adventure game that holds nothing back. Sam and Max delivers fast witty quips that'll leave you rolling on the floor with laughter. It runs great on most recent machines and if you get it, you won't be disappointed.

If you like point-and-click adventures it's probably good or something. If you're like me and don't, skip it.