Sam & Max: Season One - Culture Shock

If you don't already know, Sam & Max are stars of stage and screen - well, comic books and cartoons, actually - but most importantly, one of the most beloved adventure games of all time: 1993's Sam & Max Hit the Road.

Like many epic stories, Sam & Max have gone through a dark middle arc in their tale: publisher LucasArts suddenly cancelled the sequel, Sam & Max Freelance Police, very late in its development. However, last September, a renegade group of ex-LucasArts employees announced that they'd obtained the license for the comic crime-fighting duo. The newly formed Telltale Games were coming to the rescue by reviving the project, simply called Sam & Max.

Although news that the first game is finished may seem like a happy ending, this one's actually a cliff-hanger: Sam & Max returns in episodic form, and this is only the beginning for our favorite wise-cracking detectives.

The first of the six episode series (to be called "Season One: Culture Shock") will be available on the subscription-based service GameTap on October 17, 2006. Later, Sam & Max will be available (for keeps) directly from the Telltale Games website on November 1, 2006.

September 27, 2006