Don't Shoot Me! - But I wasn't exactly MAD about COTD and WNB...
A poor execution of trying to do a quick episode by recylcing locations, with a few poor new locations and with some honestly pathetic soundtrack compared to what Jared has done before in the Sam and Max series (although the underground train station score was quite good). Covered by overuse of cutscenes, with highly stupid puzzles that instead of displaying difficulty, just contain loads of badly constructed logic, that make you think it's hard.
Night of the Raving Dead was the last good episode with some feeling, it even used past locations, but didn't overuse them to the point of mad scientist obsession.
Chariots of the Dogs is bland, illogical and smothered in cut scenes, and the amount of "modified"/re-use of old locations just seems like a cut and paste nightmare. Then come the marachis - worst plot twist ever! They're freaking annoying (yes worse than the soda poppers), the idea that a spaceship is piloted by them, just pisses me off. And yes I get that it was meant to point out that they might be "illegal aliens" in terms of being immigrants, but I don't care. The mystical score in that episode, what the hell was that!? The only thing I would recommend this episode for is the humor, but if you want a logical, plot-driven, fun episode with feeling look elsewhere.
What's New Beezlebub? was a similar episode, with better ideas, better believability (I didn't really mind the Poppers were the masters of all the bad guys after that terrible marachi twist) and better execution. The score was also better, the plot was so scrambled though it made Chariots of the Dogs look like a masterpiece, but this episode got away with that, because it dealt with the Sam and Max Universe, not some idiotic time-travel thing. Humour was there in a way, but the illogical-ness was at a high, I mean paper clips to get a stupid game cartridge - why? Swopping a shopping list for a swear list was incredibly stupid, why wouldn't Bliss notice they had changed, why does whatever is in that spot, allow it to be the official swear list - that just pissed me off big time.
Overall, I do enjoy all the Sam and Max games, and have many that I love, and I'm not saying I hate these ones, for there are far worse episodes. But they had so much things wrong with them and they felt so bland and like a hack-job, that I forgot to love the good parts of the episodeS.
So, does anyone else feel like that these two just don't go well with the series, or is it just me???
Night of the Raving Dead was the last good episode with some feeling, it even used past locations, but didn't overuse them to the point of mad scientist obsession.
Chariots of the Dogs is bland, illogical and smothered in cut scenes, and the amount of "modified"/re-use of old locations just seems like a cut and paste nightmare. Then come the marachis - worst plot twist ever! They're freaking annoying (yes worse than the soda poppers), the idea that a spaceship is piloted by them, just pisses me off. And yes I get that it was meant to point out that they might be "illegal aliens" in terms of being immigrants, but I don't care. The mystical score in that episode, what the hell was that!? The only thing I would recommend this episode for is the humor, but if you want a logical, plot-driven, fun episode with feeling look elsewhere.
What's New Beezlebub? was a similar episode, with better ideas, better believability (I didn't really mind the Poppers were the masters of all the bad guys after that terrible marachi twist) and better execution. The score was also better, the plot was so scrambled though it made Chariots of the Dogs look like a masterpiece, but this episode got away with that, because it dealt with the Sam and Max Universe, not some idiotic time-travel thing. Humour was there in a way, but the illogical-ness was at a high, I mean paper clips to get a stupid game cartridge - why? Swopping a shopping list for a swear list was incredibly stupid, why wouldn't Bliss notice they had changed, why does whatever is in that spot, allow it to be the official swear list - that just pissed me off big time.
Overall, I do enjoy all the Sam and Max games, and have many that I love, and I'm not saying I hate these ones, for there are far worse episodes. But they had so much things wrong with them and they felt so bland and like a hack-job, that I forgot to love the good parts of the episodeS.
So, does anyone else feel like that these two just don't go well with the series, or is it just me???
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
First off, I did like the Season 1 soundtrack more than the Season 2 one. Not to say that it still wasn't amazing, because it was! I just felt a lot of tracks from the first season stand alone a lot better than the Season 2 tracks.
As for the locations, I really had no problem with them. Sure, I wish there were more new locations, but TTG is still a pretty small company and they have their limits as to what they can do in such a short time period. I really liked the fact they kinda rearranged the street layout. I felt it freshened up the old locations nicely.
I loved Chariots of the Dogs. Maybe it's because I love the idea of time travel in general but yeah. T.H.E.M were actually my favorite thing about the episode, next to Momma Bosco. It was so crazy and ridiculous, but at the same time it made sense in light of all the foreshadowing in the previous episodes. I also felt it was something Steve Purcell would do in one of his comics.
But yeah, the whole paperclip thing did tick me off a bit in Beelzebub. But I'm really impatient so I just didn't invest enough time and thought to make the connection with the minesweeper cartridge. The swear list thing was tricky too, but it's not like puzzles like that haven't been in the series before. I remember the rainbow paint set puzzle in Reality 2.0 screwed a lot of people up, including me.
I love long cutscenes in games, especially in Sam & Max, so I welcomed the increased cinematics. Plus, it was the last episode in the season, so of course they were going to go all out.
The swear list I didn't find too hard, although I didn't realise right away why I needed the swears to change. (Also, timmy still says "melon" when it should be blipped)
I did find the second to last episode... confusing, let's say. I really enjoyed it, but how did Sam&Max relive the same thing again? They didn't have the recording contract, plus if they remember living it the first time, it means they weren't replaced... so, doesn't work that well on that, but it's Sam and Max, I guess it's not supposed to make much sense anyways.
Nah... This episode is confusing, and that why is funny. And they recicle previous stages with a "past" or "future" twist because that the point of time traveling: See previous how previous stages were or going to be in the past or future.
Or maybe is just me. Who knows ^^!
How do I shot web?
But because it's now been since the game came out that I've played it, I honestly don't care enough and can't recall well enough to counter-argue. So I'll just say your opinion in wrong. =p
Well, then shot him and put him hanging in a tall building for a week ^^!
The crack - why only clickable in this episode?
Instead of have things as used before, we'll just add this one so it can make a puzzle. They won't know how to solve the puzzle, because they'll know the crack was never clickable before.
The second to last episode was confusing, weird, out-of-place, doesn't make much sense, and you might have found it enjoyable. But it was drowned out by the poor storytelling and sense of an actual mystery - just use abstract shape on illogal device, is basically how this episode works.
Eurogamer agrees with me.
There are quite a few that disagree with you, also.
I know the puzzle was weird, but all the puzzles in this game are weird, period. I have a friend who said all Sam and Max Chapters are difficult, because the weird logic. It's Sam and Max logic, so that why I can get a catridge of Mimesweeper using a Paper Clip Chain from a crack and give Bosco a million dollars because he has wennies from the Jurasic Period.
But, heck, is your opinion and I have mine. You doesn't have to do a drama just because not all the people here shares your opinion. If you don't like my favorite Sam and Max chapter ever, that's cool. I just don't share the opinion.
I'm not saying I don't like it.
I did enjoy it very much. But not as much as some of the others (see my ranking below).
I just think it's overrated that's all.
It depends on your method to puzzle solving. Once it's obvious
Problem with the arguments in the first sentence is, that you can use them safely on any crazy comedy, and they are very difficult to counter-argue. On the second one, the storytelling was definitely not poor, to me, the episode's flow was fluent, and I had no problem following the clues from one location to the other. Maybe they did go overboard with the sitcom scene where past Sam and past Max
I must say that I'm surprised to see these two episodes, along with Ice Station Santa and Abe Lincoln Must Die (possibly my two favorite episodes) near the bottom of your list. Perhaps the more zany aspects of the series don't appeal to you?
Actually Ice used to be my fifth favourite and I used to adore it, but after Beezlebub revisited the locations, the episode didn't feel that special and unique anymore, and it's gone down my ranking.
Abe is fun and funny in places, structured kind of weird and being in a country that isn't the US, half the jokes/satire I don't get.
COTD and WNB are very hilarous and joke focused, they let slide logical puzzles and structured storytelling.
Whilst season one has very logical puzzles and structural storytelling, and rarely do they sacrifice that for a joke. Therefore season one has not as much as jokes as season two, because they can't fit it all in between the storytelling part.