#I have made a lot desgins I wasn't happy about

[agirlwhosjusthere]

HELL YEAH! LESBIANS KICKING ASS

Bro I was robbed of these two content in mk1 QAQ

[popculturebuffet]

Sam and Max Save the World Retrospective Finale: Bright Side of the Moon! (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy freelance police and after a short delay, we're finally back with the final chapter of telltale and skunkape's SAM AND MAX SAVE THE WORLD! Rest assured as the fact i've often called this the sam and max telltale retrospective shows, i'm nothing if not consistent, this isn't the end of the road as we'll be going onto it's sequel, Beyond Time and Space, next month and The Devil's Playhouse whenever the remaster comes out. If I need to stall for time we've got PLENTY of other sam and max content to shove down your ravenous max sized gullets.

But the future is the future and the past is a rainbow colored cult leader our heroes have to stop in order to Save the World. It's been a long strange trip.. and honestly some of the most fun i've had doing these reviews. As I said in the first chapter of this retrospective, and I feel bears repeating now we're at the end... I often don't quote jokes.. because there's so damn many. Trying to do reactoin images recently I had to rely on a best of montage because the game is around 7 hours long and just.. DENSE with quotable lines. And even with that I've had to pace myself and only done about half an hour simply because the writing is that sharp. The level design is also fantastic for the most part, and the puzzles aren't that obtuse and this again being the internet age, when they are it isn't a problem. That also brings me to a few odds and ends about the game as a whole I haven't really talked about. The first is the hint system. See I did try this in the first chapter, but felt max was just rambling and it was a joke.

Yeah the hint system is very helpful, it's just sometimes you have to ask twice because it's max we're dealing with. Kev told me it was and I just.. plain forgot for most of the game till this chapter. I was so used to the gameplay loop of trying it myself then using the guide I genuinely forgot I had an in game helper there. I still required it when I got stuck on one puzzle, but for the most part it makes the game so much easier. And of course being a professional I took the fact there was a really helpful tool I could've been using this whole time like a pro

The other thing is the dialouge changes to the remaster, waited on till now so I didn't run into any spoilers I hadn't already run into years before doing this retrospective. And look I know a lot of longtime fans of Sam and Max aren't fans of the changes... but they were necessary. The game was 14 years old at the time and none of these jokes had aged well. And in a LOT of cases the replacement joke is better. To use an example in Reality 2.0 originally the googles they have for max were desgined for "special needs children"

Yeah it wasn't funny THEN, should not have been made in the first place, and has only aged worse with time. By contrast the replacement is the COPS emphasising you can use it for various sporting activities. It's a more sam and max joke than "Hey let's laugh at children with disablities!". There were other just.. outright gross jokes like asking "Why the sex change" when bosco crossdresses in the final chapter (More on that later), and bosco implying he pretends to be an underaged girl online. which just

NONE of that was funny to start with, so taking it out of the game dosen't really hurt it. It only dosen't work when they don't sub in another joke, and that's more "If your going to all the trouble to edit out these lines, re-record the dialouge and fix stuff up why didn't you make a new joke when you have for OTHER lines you cut out?" And even then i'm sure there's a rational explination why Skunkape didn't. It's fine to touch up your work for a rerelease especially when said work is simply something your not proud of anymore. If it's okay for them to touch up the textures, add needed accesiblity options, and other neat stuff.. why isn't it okay to get rid of some offensive stuff that simply dosen't really fit sam and max?

Now those odds and ends are out of the way it's time to return to the moon to put an end to this hypnosis scheme, reconnect with some old friends, and save the world. Goody!

Chapter wise, Bright Side of The Moon is a strong contender for my faviorite. It is REALLY hard to pick betweent his one and The Mob, The Mole and the Meatball. Writing good as usual, but there's an epic scope, a genuine tension and unease, and it really feels like a grand finale to everything you've done up to this point, while still keeping the level design tight. The only real issue is the long walk from the blister of tranquility back to your car. And having to walk back a bit when you need to get back to sam and max's street is a common issue it's just emphasized here. But overal one hell of a finale gameplay wise. let's get into the story.

We open with Sam catching up ot the audience.. by complicated deduction, he figures out Hugh Bliss is behind things, and finds out from the Chief where he is: THE MOON ALICE... I mean the giant face was kinda a big clue. So our heroes head back to the moon! I covered their previously moon adventure recently if your interested. It's in large part because Bad Day on The Moon is one of the only two stories pre-telltale explictly refrenced in this trilogy, via the photos in the boys office, the other being Meet the Road, from which both bosco's this season and stinky's next season come form, simply fleshed out into fully explorable places here. There's nothing saying the other Freelance Police comics or tv show aren't canon, and it's likely light on call backs outside of hit the road to be accesible to new audiences. And possibly rights issues ala the tick, which REALLY needs a proper comics refresh that brings it all together. But that's a retrospective for another day (and if anyone's intrested let me know).

For now our heroes head to the moon, and we see our first of MANY character returns, as , fitting a season finale, at least one major character from every previous chapter shows up on the moon, now having joined Prismatology. The only exception is the soda poppers...

It's a mildly weird omission but I get why: they only needed four call back characters for the puzzles, their terrible and I hate them, and their the only group present on the moon that didn't intersect in some way with Hugh's plan, so there's no real reason for him to care about them.

And we do find out his plan.. and I like how it's revealed: you can just casually find out in the gift shop. That's it. Hugh just has his plan up there.

It also is a shockingly well thought out one, as each plan had a contegency.. and as we find out this episode Hugh had both a moon base and a final plan should all these fails. You gotta admire the guy for being through. And each one in the previous chapter was a seroius threat to the world, an amusing as hell one sure, but if our heroes hadn't stopped it Hugh woudl've likely conquered the us and eventually the world. And even if he couldn't do that last part , his controllign the us would at least stall for time long enough for him to carry out his masterstroke with no one to stop him.

You might also be noticing that Brady.. is absent. And that's because his plan, while kicking off our heroes knowing about hypnotisim.. wasn't planned. It's also nicely set up that way: unlike the others after ther'es never a reveal of a larger part of the conspiracy and his plan does nothing to help Hugh in the long run. It's just to make BRADY feel better and bigger, with his minons being chosen.. because their show was succesful and his wasn't. As for how Brady stole the protype goggles, also from the gift shop, hence Harry Mole now working as security. Thankfully he ONLY checks sam so we're able to smuggle a telekinesis talismen out in max... though we'll have to get it out later.

The TK Talismen is one of several we'll collect but first we have to get past sam and max's oldest and most dangeorus foe: DOORS!

Yes once again Agent Superball is guarding one. This time it's a bit easier though, as he gives us a unicorn which tests one's prismatology level. It also allows you to ask everyone "Want to touch my unicorn" which is just the best. Sam gives you the solution, pointing out how it likely works like a cheap mood ring, so you simply need to heat it up.. and I figured out HOW quickly... All it requires is a quick jaunt back to earth, as we start the adventure on the moon. Before we check in on Sybil and Bosco, I check the closet.. and also get the coat hanger for the tv again. Sadly... the last trophy room item is pretty weak, just the vr gag. There's a great and entirely close to home gag out of how they destroyed the internet

But it feels like a let down after the presidents head and leonard> Leonard is plot relevant this time as Max fed him the deed to america. Like the talisman we can't get it YET, but we shall. So it's time to check in with Bosco but before using his micro we see his deal for the episode: He's become his mother!.. no really he's pretending to be her and unlike most of his personas which are just a shoddy accent, he commits to the bit and it's hilarious. Gratned Sam and Max being.. shocked by this as much as they are has aged like wet cheese on the titanic, he's just wearing drag, but Max's frustration Bosco won't break character and eventually buying into the bit is comedy gold.

Anyways Bosco is selling an earthquake machine but as usual we can't buy it yet. We can however use his Microwave to cheat the system, and I do like that Bosco's various conviences are something that commonly come up to solve the puzzles. It's something you'd think of instantly given their always there, especially after the ketchups come in play twice and instead of calling you a dum dum for thinking that they just.. let you be right.

Before we go back to the moon though we check on Sybil and for her final random job.. and i'm goign to miss these as I didn't realize till Kev told me that next season your quest buddies change. Sybil and Bosco aren't written OUT, but I will be sad to see them not around as much.

WIth Sybil though I kinda get it as it's entirely hard to top her FINAL JOB... QUEEN. OF. CANADA. Yes really. It's both so entirely random and such an escalation from her previous more mundane jobs as dating service person, carbondater and beta tester. It's a cermonial thing but it's still just a heck of a reveal and a lot of fun with canadian sterotypes. I assume Red Green is her minister of ducktape and her minister of annoyance is of course.. Lorne

I assume he was one of Max's presidental pardons. I also assume one of the cofnidtions was he was shipped in a crate second class. It had at least one airhole though.. maybe... so that was nice of him.

At any rate this will naturally be useful to us later. It does give me a chance to talk about the gameplay loop though.. and how it works. You'd THINK after 6 chapters of "go to sybil or bosco to move the plot along" it'd get boring.. but honestly.. no. The writing is sharp, and each time things are radically different. I mean across these 6 chapters Sybil gets locked up by a patient, gives you a psyche eval, needs her death faked by you without her realizing it to save her from the toy mafia, has a dating service, gets her heart broken by you two via the lincoln memorial, beta tests and finally becomes queen of canada among some other shenanigans we'll get to. While with bosco he takes on various disguises, has some new doodad set up or someone hassling him, from jimmy twice, once as a skinbody once as himself, to whizzer.. you'll ALWAYS need to visit these two.. but they'll always have some funny stuff to say and something fresh. It's a way to recycle the enviornments sure but it dosen't feel stale. I can see why they swap them out next time: as sad as I was to find that out it DOES make sense to change your item buddies each game to keep things fresh.

Anywho, now we can get through the door via our bright red unicorn horn

So we're on to the next part of this episode and it's fairly straight forward: Hugh Bliss is in the deepest part of his blister of tranquilty, which is a very close second with Ted. E Bears to my faviorite setting of the game. It's weird rainbow amusment park complete with a roller coaster, a shark floating in acid, and as said earlier a gaggle of familiar faces from each chapter, each having a new prismatology talismen that grants a psychic power we need to get to the final section of the chapter. Starting with the most familiar of faces, we have Abe Lincoln, whose not really happy to see the guys who blew him up real good a few chapters ago. Hilariously though it's not any of the obvious reasons: he's fine being just a head, and as for loosing the presidency only a "grade a psyschopath" would want the roll. Max is naturally touched> I mean grade a. His real beef is that they ruined his chances with Sybil... deciding he wanted to get back out there. Max has.. several questions about that.. questions we thankfully don't here as otherwise the rest of this review would just be me rambling incoherently from madness. Not the BIGGEST difference mind but I like to at least have the illusion of quality control here.

Our heroes are happy to help and thus we get one of the funniest sequences in the entire game as the two have to feed abe lincoln pickup lines. It's easily the best of these long strings of "answer it right or go back to start" puzzles, as there are just enough options to get a LOT of great comedy out of Lincoln's horrible pickup lines and Sybil's annoyance, but not so long it becomes frustrating like the midtown cowboys stuff in episode 2. You successfully get the head of abe lincoln laid

And get us the talismen. The next one is an eye that can see through stuff and it's with our old friends the C.O.P.S. who are a TAD mad about our heroes taking away their goodhood, but allow them to beta test their game. Which once again and not with hyperbole, is one of the best jokes in all 6 chapters. Seriously the writing for this chapter is the peak of Save the World: In a post apocalyptic hellscae only the strong survive. Can you face the challenge of TIC, TAC, TOE?! Well you shouldn't as you need to loose. luckily the game just sorta. .had me loose. I was genuinly trying to win but either the game was rigged for me to, or the switch futzed it up. Either way , another talismen got. Now before we get our last one we need to open our present from the gift shop. Getting it out of max was easy, just use the gastronomy talismen, which I already had when I had him eat it. The hard part.. is getting the thing open. It took me ages and was the one puzzle that REALLY got me for this chapter. I looked it pu and it turns out it's simple. There's a lunar landar outside you can get into, using your coathanger, netting the key. You simply place the talismen under it, activate the lander which can only go up an ddown and boom, telekensis kyle. Well specifically bending anything similar to a spoon, which is clever. Is the puzzle frustrating? yes. Is the prize worth it? yes. So with that our final talismen, which allows you to pull jimmy out of a hat. Just him. To get it we talk to Philo Pennyworth, the most welcome return of all. I mean I fucking love the COPS but i've got minor spoilers they'll be in the next two games. I don't think Philo shows up nearly as much so his long awaited return was appricated. He can pull jimm y out of his hat but since jimmy's clinging to a parking meter to avoid more shenanigans from our heroes, we have to bend him off. With that philo pulls him out and is disgusted enough to let us have his talismen.

With that we can enter hugh's sanctum, which is neat, using the spoon bender to open the door, the eye to see so we can bend the door and jimmy to hit the switch.

Normally this would be where our heroes confront our villian, violence and some puzzles and jokes ensue... but in a clever twist on telltale's part... Hugh KNEW they were coming, would likely do some shenanigans to get into his sanctum and presumibly what htey had for lunch. For the record it was a hamsteak with extra gravy and extra ham and an all dress flavor stygian being of questionable origin. It also turns out our heroes are too late as while Hugh didn't do it 25 minutes ago.. his plan is already set up: to use a crystal thing with him in the center to make EVERYONE on earth Hugh bliss.

As for WHY he'd do that, it turns out he's a sentient colony of plankton and eats emotions, a neat and utterly batshit twist, and his translucent look he takes on for a second is genuinely unsettling. Really Hugh's entire demeanor post turn is unsettling as he's still got that squeaky sing song voice, think Regular Shows Pops if he snorted hellium.. but instead of being just.. blindly happy and a tad hammy, you can also sense his malice and pride at what he's done. Sure guys gotta eat but he's just so gleeful. Now granted you could poke holes in this , say there were easier ways than mass hypnosis to get a free emotoinal meal, etc etc... but you have to remmeber what game we've been playing for the past 6 months

So it REALLY dosen't matter and the fact Hugh went to all this lengths is likely part of the joke. But the one thing that can stop endless bliss? Max. His chaos is the one thing that can possibly upset this plan... so Hugh lured him here to steal his bliss... so he takes out his sloth, hunger and violence, leaving Max a shell, Sam disturbed and our heroes needing to round up three other maxes to restore him to proper zaniness and resotre the world. First up is Red Max, all of max's anger and violence.. and he's SHOCKINGLY disturbing. Usually max' s violent tendencies are played for laughs, the violence done off screen. This max.. has a gun, laughs manically and is geninely creepy. Dispatching him is nicely tricky but not too bad once you think it out: being a max, red max jumps around, jumpsa round, get up get up get down.. and his stalking grounds just so happen to be right next to the roller coaster. This.. really just gives him a fun ride, but luckily there's a big ole chekov's spork on the track, and since it's spon adjacent, you can bend it, send Red Max for a ride.. and disarm him. Or dishand him. Max gets his rage back and we're on to our next one.

Our next max to collect is the Green max, who being the embodiment of max's endless hunger for sentient planets and artifical cheese, is currently terroizing boscos. Suprisingly you DON'T use the gastrolgy talismen which is good as i'm pretty sure the contents of Green Max's stomach at this point would get Telltale brought up on obscenity charges. The solution is no less horrific though: you FEED HIM JIMMY. Yes you have him eat a rat.. which to be fair i'm sure Max's has done at some point but is still pretty .. eeeuuugh. We use the magician's hat from fethearly to pull him and max's stomach out which is way less graphic than it sound but still will haunt my nightmares for many moons to come, and thus max has his hunger back.

All that's left is sloth which, while max is OCASIONALLY lazy is the only one tha tdosen't quite fit. This max just... lays on the moon. To get him we finally give Sybil her due in one of the funniest callbacks of the game. So you remember how max was feeding the deed to the united states to leonard?

Turns out you need to get him to cough it up, give the deed to Cybil and canada now owns the untied states!

Seriously I.. don't see a downside. With that she gives us the money for bosco who charged a zillion dollars this time. I also love his justification "All I know is I keep making up the biggest price I can think of and you guys keep paying it, now tell me, whose crazy?". With that we have the earthquake machine.. aka the last of his satlite network. I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out the finally "do you have any" gag. See the rest are all just a great stream of Sam asking Bosco for random stuff. This one though.. turns out EVERY ONE is a solution to a previous puzzle. It's fucking glorious especially with Max's mounting bafflement that in all the things sam asked for he never asked for these when heneeded them. Bosco DOSEN'T have hugh bliss tied up back there, but can't blame Sam for trying. It's a brillaint payoff to what's already one of the best running gags in the series.

So with that we head, whoah oh, back to the moon again, and use the satlite to flip lazy max over, take his tale and max is' restored. With that we're FINALLY to the finale, with Hugh, mad they were able to beat him, deciding to put on a show.. specifically putting Sam thorugh a ton of magic stuff while max watches from the crystal chamber thing. It's easily the best climax of the whole game: tense, fun, and using every talismen you've gotten so far to turn the tables on hugh before using the lunar lander to finish him off. Hugh Bliss is no more. Problem is.. the machine goes off so now everyone is maxified. Our heroes naturally have a solution for that though... PUNCH EVERY PERSON IN THE WORLD. I'm.. not exagerating or underplaying it. That's how season 1 ends. Our heroes are happy, the world is saved and Max is going to punch every last person to de-max them. And that would honestly be a perfect ending to a perfect season of gammery.. but this being sam nad max they took it one last step further for the credits.... which is max punching EVERY single character we've seen, or most of them at least to the games best song. I didn't think you could top War.. but .. here we are

It both beautifully sums up max, and is a relaxing and hilaroius way to close out a relaxing and hilaroius game. I can't stop listening to it, not that i've tired very hard. It's so damn good. It utterly baffled me when I saw it, but I still loved it. I can't belivie THIS I show they ended it.. but I can't imagine a more perfect ending to this game. As an added touch the menu music for the remaster is an insturmental of this so it makes a nice bookened for your adventure.

So with that we've closed out Save the World.. and this may be one of the funnest experinces i've had reviewing. It not only opened me up to finally reviewing games, with more to come, but I got to play a game i'd long craved to , got paid for it and enjoyed every second of it. All thanks to kev. While this only ends the first third of this project.. it dosen't make it any less special or hard to say good bye to this game. This was true fun and I thank so many of you for reading... and see you next month for round 2.