STAFF REVIEW of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (Xbox One)


Friday, August 16, 2024.
by Adam Dileva

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Box art Having been an avid fan of Sam & Max since their first game in 1993, Sam & Max: Hit the Road, I’ve loved their quirky humor. Starting out as a comic, Sam & Max made their way into a handful of games, and even had their own cartoon show at one point. Telltale made three episodic games back in the mid-to-late 2000’s, and I remember spending hours getting through each. Sadly, Telltale shutdown in 2018, so my hopes of getting a new Sam & Max game seemed to be curbed.

Sometimes things happen for a reason though, and a handful of the original team acquired the rights to Sam & Max, and with the help of other Telltale staff as well, they aimed to remaster these three episodic games, for original fans and new. Having reviewed the first two remasters, Sam & Max Save the World (Season One) and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (Season Two), I’m pretty sure I was legally obligated to review the final Season, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. Originally released as monthly episodes, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse combines all of its episodes in one package. Developed by Skunkape Games, their actually named after General Skun-ka’pe, a character from The Devil’s Playhouse you’ll meet in the first episode. The first two remasters were done well and clearly had a lot of people that cared about the series behind it, so I expected no less in this final Season.

You play as the titular characters Sam & Max once again. Sam is a six-foot dog detective in a suit and fedora, while Max is a hyperactive rabbit-thing with a thirst for violence. The are polar opposites but make a unique and iconic duo that solves crime and sometimes even saves the world, with plenty of banter and humor at every chance. Like the previous remasters, The Devil’s Playhouse is broken into its original chapters and can be played in any order you wish, but the story directly flows from one to the next chronologically, so I’d suggest playing it in order.


This remastered final season begins with a narrator telling you that Sam & Max have found the “Toys of Power”. These childish appearing toys somehow give Max a range of various psychic abilities, and if you’re familiar with how unhinged Max can be at times, you can imagine where this might lead the duo. The first chapter revolves around the alien General Skun-ka’pe coming to Earth in search of these mysterious Toys, so the Freelance Police are tasked with sending him to banishment, known as the Penal Zone. There are plenty of returning characters and jokes from previous Seasons as well (like when Max was the President), so fans that have played previous Seasons will have plenty of inside jokes to catch.

Just like previous seasons, much time, effort and care have gone into this remaster. Character models have been updated, lighting improved, new cinematography, new environment design and music. Technology has changed a lot since the original released, so now of course the game also supports 16:9 aspect ratio and 4K resolution as well. It may seem initially subtle, comparing screenshots of the original release to remastered side by side, but it’s simply a better overall experience and up to modern standards.

If you’ve played any of the previous Sam & Max games, you’ll know exactly what to expect; a wacky over the top point and click adventure filled odd characters, odder puzzles, and witty humor. With Max having special toys that give him powers, it opens up a whole new dimension of puzzle solving, as you’ll have to rely on shrinking the duo into a can of nuts, teleporting to anyone’s phone number, or maybe using a ventriloquist doll to get people to do your bidding.


The core gameplay is unchanged, being a point and click at its heart, but modernized for controllers. Majority of the time you’ll be controlling Sam, but can swap to Max when you need to use his toys/powers. Every scene has a number of different objects you can interact with, sometimes useful and able to be put in your inventory for later, many times simply giving you a quippy one-liner about it. If an item goes into your inventory, safe bet you’ll need it to solve some obtuse and quirky puzzle, though you really need to think ‘out there’ to have Sam & Max’s logic. The dialogue tree is the same as before, and even Sam’s face icon will change based on the response you hover over, a small touch that was animated quite well.

This causes some of the puzzles to be a bit obtuse at times. Sure it makes sense to a maniacal rabbit, but to us 'normal people', it can sometimes be a bit far fetched for some solutions. While there’s not a direct hint system, there are subtle ways that the game will help guide you as to what needs to be done next. Sometimes this is Sam possibly saying something that might clue you in to the next step, or you could check his little notebook that also will give you a subtle hint as to what to do. Some Episodes were much more challenging than others, as I struggled with Episode 2’s swapping between reels, having to eventually check a guide when I became stuck a number of times.

The five Episodes are all done quite well and even though I wasn’t a fan of the second Chapter, the others were great as I expected. Episode 1, "The Penal Zone", has Sam & Max trying to stop General Skun-ka’pe once they uncover his true intentions of coming to Earth. Episode 2, "The Tomb of Sammun-Mak", has the duo watching videos of their great grandfathers as they try and find the Devil’s Toybox. Episode 3, "They Stole Max's Brain!", just as the title suggests, has Sam trying to figure out who stole Max’s brain and helping his buddy get back to his normal self. Episode 4, "Beyond the Alley of the Dolls", has the duo trying to stop an army of Sam clones. Episode 5, "The City That Dares Not Sleep", was my favorite and quite a send off for the duo and ending for the Trilogy.


The signature Sam & Max humor never lets up and there’s plenty of quiet smirks to full on snort laughs. Even though some of the jokes are topical and references of the time, they still hold up after all these years. Older fans like myself will surely catch many of these, but younger audiences might not understand some of the pop culture references.

It’s clear a lot of effort and care went into this remaster, making it simply a better version without changing what made it so great in the first place. They might seem like minor improvements, but collectively they make for the best version to experience when compared to the original. Everything simply looks sharper and smoother, and aside from a few minor bugs, it was great replaying these classic episodes once again with my favorite Freelance Police. Voice acting across the board is done amazingly, and the comedic timing and writing couldn’t be any more perfect.

Now that Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse caps off the trilogy remakes, I’m hoping for renewed interest in the series, as there’s nothing quite like its humor, even still. It’s bittersweet to see a game you enjoyed (again) come to its conclusion, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia trip with one of my favorite duos.

**Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**




Overall: 9.0 / 10
Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
Visuals: 9.0 / 10
Sound: 9.5 / 10

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