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Sam N' Max hit the road opposed to?

thatdude98thatdude98
edited August 2009 in Sam & Max
Just finished playing sam and max hit the road for the first time in a couple of years... And I think I like the Telltale seasons much better. There were very few moments that made me laugh out loud, and the old actors just seemed... bland. Plus it was much, much, more frustrating than the Episodes.

Thoughts?

Comments

  • bobdevisbobdevis
    edited August 2009
    Ye sure. HtR was way harder since you end up having so many locations unlocked all at the same time. It becomes confusing since it's less clear as what to do next. Also you may not realize you forgot to explore some rooms.
    It took me a while to figure out you could go up into the restaurant from the elevator and I totally missed the yellow magnet room.
    Telltale addressed this by not letting you go to so many areas at once and by labeling every item and exit on mouseover.

    I did get genuine LOL's from HtR though. I don't think it's less funny. The way you solve the Tunnel of Love puzzle for example is hilarious.
    One thing that I miss in Telltale's from HtR is the ability to use Max on something :)
  • ShwooShwoo
    edited August 2009
    I agree. I played Hit the Road after playing the Telltale games, and I didn't like it as much. I don't think it was less funny, but it was less interesting. The characters were really flat, and the one liners sometimes contradicted the story. If Sam and Max are colour blind, how'd they solve the magnet puzzle? If Conroy Bumpus likes collecting things with grotesque features, why does he show no interest in Sam or Max?

    It was a good game, and really funny, it just wasn't very interesting in the character or story department. I like games that can tell a story and get me interested in the characters. I really like games that are funny and don't take themselves too seriously as well, but my favourite games are the ones that combine all four.

    The puzzles were kind of annoying as well, but I got most of them without having to look them up.
  • bobdevisbobdevis
    edited August 2009
    Hehe, at the magnet puzzle I just tried all 8 possible states to see if any of them gave me access to anything. It didn't even occur to me until now that you can use color to solve it :)
  • The CommissionerThe Commissioner
    edited August 2009
    Yeah, I think there's a lot more character development in the Telltale games. After all, Max keeps getting
    more and more titles - President of the United States, High priest of the sea chimps, etc. And Sam won Embarrasing Idol and starred in a TV sitcom...

    One of the things I like about the episodic series is that these developments carry on into future episodes and you can joke about them/or they have an impact. I hate things like TV shows where everything resets at the end of the episode and next time the characters are just the same as they are every week and nothing they did in the episode matters.
  • The HighwayThe Highway
    edited August 2009
    I wish I had Hit the Road, so I could try it... Is there a place to buy a CD-ROM, or would I have to download it?

    Also, you know what just hit me? Seeing as LucasArts remade SMI, what if Telltale remade Hit the Road? That would be pretty cool, huh?
  • JazzyJazzy
    edited August 2009
    I managed to find it on Amazon along with other LucasArts classics for a decent price recently (bought it so I could play it before trying out the Telltale series), but I'm in the UK so I dunno if you'll be able to find it on any website in Aus.

    If you do manage to get it you might need to download something like ScummVM to get it working, as it's quite an old game and might not run on your PC without it.
  • The HighwayThe Highway
    edited August 2009
    Cool thanks. I actually just looked on eBay and they sell them in the Eastern States of Australia, so I might be able to find one over here. Also if it doesn't work; I'll know - get ScummVM. Thanks!
  • LogicDeLuxeLogicDeLuxe
    edited August 2009
    bobdevis wrote: »
    and I totally missed the yellow magnet room.
    You mean the magnet switch room? When I played the game for the first time, I didn't need to switch the right magnet, but when I played the game a second time, I needed it, and it took me a while to realize than the screen can scroll.
    Telltale addressed this by not letting you go to so many areas at once and by labeling every item and exit on mouseover.
    Actually, Hit the Road has a mouse over effect too. No labels, but still the game let you know that you are on a hotspot.

    And I agree, they could have removed locations from the map when you solved the puzzle. Eventhough, Telltale episodes are smaller, they removed available locations occasionally to keep it less confusing.
  • Pantagruel's FriendPantagruel's Friend
    edited August 2009
    Shwoo wrote: »
    It was a good game, and really funny, it just wasn't very interesting in the character or story department. I like games that can tell a story and get me interested in the characters. I really like games that are funny and don't take themselves too seriously as well, but my favourite games are the ones that combine all four.

    That's evolution for you, I guess. Before The Longest Journey and Grim Fandango, I don't think there was a game that really excelled in every area you mentioned.

    To the original topic, I already mentioned in one of the threads that I prefer the Sam&Max Seasons to Hit the Road, except for the difficulty :)
  • The HighwayThe Highway
    edited August 2009
    So it seems that Hit the Road is
    easier to play than
    Telltale's ones
  • manicmmanicm
    edited August 2009
    Look, I've played HtR and Season 1, and many may disagree, but HtR was funnier as it did not try to cater to a 'family' audience. And especially the opening sequence where there is a static picture of Max playing drums on 2 skeleton heads! You just don't get this funny kind of grusomeness in Season 1, little details like these. But I'm not criticising Telltale, I'm just making my own observations, and I understand TT is reaching out to a broader audience.

    I'm going to play Season 2 however and enjoy the better graphics, and hopefully it will be a bit funnier.
  • thatdude98thatdude98
    edited August 2009
    manicm wrote: »
    Look, I've played HtR and Season 1, and many may disagree, but HtR was funnier as it did not try to cater to a 'family' audience. And especially the opening sequence where there is a static picture of Max playing drums on 2 skeleton heads! You just don't get this funny kind of grusomeness in Season 1, little details like these. But I'm not criticising Telltale, I'm just making my own observations, and I understand TT is reaching out to a broader audience.

    I'm going to play Season 2 however and enjoy the better graphics, and hopefully it will be a bit funnier.

    I don't know about that one... HtR was 'E' while Season One was 'T'. I don't think Season 1 or 2 were "watered down". I couldn't imagine a family playing it with their kids. Heck, I couldn't imagine anyone under the age of 13 playing it.
  • Pantagruel's FriendPantagruel's Friend
    edited August 2009
    manicm wrote: »
    Look, I've played HtR and Season 1, and many may disagree, but HtR was funnier as it did not try to cater to a 'family' audience. And especially the opening sequence where there is a static picture of Max playing drums on 2 skeleton heads! You just don't get this funny kind of grusomeness in Season 1, little details like these. But I'm not criticising Telltale, I'm just making my own observations, and I understand TT is reaching out to a broader audience.

    I'm going to play Season 2 however and enjoy the better graphics, and hopefully it will be a bit funnier.

    The first 3 episodes of the 1st season were definitely tamer, I think Telltale was being a bit cautious about going too much overboard, but from Abe Lincoln Must Die, they started pulling plugs intensely. It's hard to think of anything more scary than Max becoming the president of the #1 military power in the world - also, if the resolution of the "bossfight" in Ep6 wasn't gruesome, then I don't know what is.

    Season 2, then, is a deliberately crazy romp through the universe (and time, obviously :D ).
  • GinnyNGinnyN
    edited August 2009
    Pantagruel's Friend wrote: »
    The first 3 episodes of the 1st season were definitely tamer, I think Telltale was being a bit cautious about going too much overboard, but from Abe Lincoln Must Die, they started pulling plugs intensely.

    Since Abe Lincoln must Die
    Leonard was in the Closet
    . The larger dialogs involving him always make me cringle. Max been president wasn't that scary for me compared to the conversation Sam and Max have about him in the Bright Side of the Moon before
    Max become... well, not Max
    .
    Sam: Leonard looks better today.
    Max: I was feeding him!
    Sam: Aww... you Big Softy...

    I guess for something
    Telltale finded an excuse to free him at the end of Season 2
    . ;)
  • The CommissionerThe Commissioner
    edited August 2009
    Jagger88 wrote: »
    I wish I had Hit the Road, so I could try it... Is there a place to buy a CD-ROM, or would I have to download it?

    Also, you know what just hit me? Seeing as LucasArts remade SMI, what if Telltale remade Hit the Road? That would be pretty cool, huh?

    I don't think they would do that unless they were desperate. People like the original Sam and Max the way it is. It's like what happened when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg kept trying to go back and do special editions of classic movies by adding tons of CGI - like Star Wars Trilogy special edition or ET: 20th Anniversary Edition. It was nice looking, but people also thought, why mess with my favourite originals which were perfect the way they were?

    I think the main reason Secret of Monkey Island got a Special Edition makeover was because it didn't have voiceovers. Most of the other old LucasArts games do - Sam and Max, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, The Dig, even LOOM - which is mentioned in SoMI - has a CD voice talkie version (which I have :)!)

    I think the most likely choice for another Special Edition is LeChuck's Revenge, because that hasn't had a voice version either.
  • Pantagruel's FriendPantagruel's Friend
    edited August 2009
    GinnyN wrote: »
    Max been president wasn't that scary for me compared to the conversation Sam and Max have about him in the Bright Side of the Moon before
    Max become... well, not Max
    .

    I see - that may be because you didn't do anything that caught Max's attention, and he didn't dispatch a team of giant battle robots to resolve the issue :D
    Leonard's treatment was quite painful on the person level, though.
  • LogicDeLuxeLogicDeLuxe
    edited August 2009
    I didn't find Max as president that scary either. Maybe that's because I'm a big fan of LEXX. If you like stories about completely messing up the world, you should watch LEXX. In season 4,
    the arc is especially about screwing the US government
    . Max is rather mild in comparison.

    Thinking of this, since Telltale's specialty is making actually good games of licensed properties, how about a LEXX adventure?
  • The CommissionerThe Commissioner
    edited August 2009
    LogicDeLuxe wrote: »
    I didn't find Max as president that scary either. Maybe that's because I'm a big fan of LEXX. If you like stories about completely messing up the world, you should watch LEXX. In season 4,
    the arc is especially about screwing the US government
    . Max is rather mild in comparison.

    Thinking of this, since Telltale's specialty is making actually good games of licensed properties, how about a LEXX adventure?

    Who would you get to play Xev? :D
  • GinnyNGinnyN
    edited August 2009
    Pantagruel's Friend wrote: »
    I see - that may be because you didn't do anything that caught Max's attention, and he didn't dispatch a team of giant battle robots to resolve the issue :D

    Nah, I live in a 3rd World Country: We produce the materials for build the giant robots. At the end, it was better for us :P
  • Rather DashingRather Dashing
    edited August 2009
    *blink*

    It must just be me, but I don't see anything all that controversial or mature about the seasons or Hit the Road. The latter especially because I played it when I was ten at most.

    I think that Hit the Road is nestled between Seasons One and Two in terms of quality, and I see nothing about either that would require a "mature" audience. Reading some of these comments reminds me about the immature kind of content LucasArts fans are used to, to the point that simply SEEING a skull is considered gruesome. I mean, looking at Hit the Road, there is really nothing there TO water down, from my perspective.
  • hansschmuckerhansschmucker
    edited August 2009
    There isn't really. Not in the usual way at least. The thing is that the jokes in Hit the Road don't come off nearly as scripted as in the Telltale games, which are placed far more carefully, like in a movie script.

    Hit the Road's jokes on the other hand seem more like outbursts from truly crazy characters. The whole world seems stranger and not as predictable.
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