Culture Shock (Sam & Max)
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| Sam & Max: Culture Shock | |
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| Developer(s) | Telltale Games |
| Publisher(s) | Telltale Games GameTap |
| Designer(s) | Brendan Q. Ferguson David Grossman Steve Purcell |
| Release date(s) |  October 17, 2006 (GameTap) November 1, 2006 (Online) |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Media | Download |
| System requirements | 800 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 3D card with 32MB of RAM. |
| Input | Keyboard, mouse |
Culture Shock is the first episode of Season One of the Sam & Max game series created by Telltale Games and published by GameTap.
In a November edition of UK based video game magazine, Gamesmaster, it is said that Nintendo are considering porting the game to the Nintendo Wii.
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[edit] Synopsis & Plot
Sam & Max find that a group of former child stars — Whizzer, Peepers & Specs, known as the Soda Poppers — are found committing various crimes in their neighborhood to promote ocular fitness guru Brady Culture.
A trip to Sybil Pandemik's Tattoo Parlour Psychotherapy Clinic reveals to Sam & Max that the Soda Poppers have been hypnotized into doing someone's nefarious bidding. The reason why they are committing these crimes are later revealed as Brady Culture's deliciously ironic scheme to gain popularity by using the Soda Poppers, who's popular prime-time TV show had overshadowed his own in the 70's, to commit the crimes.
On Sybil's advice, and through many of their trademark applications of violence, Sam & Max knock the hypnotised deliquents unconscious to halt their rampage of terror, vandalism and assumed-psychotherapy. As each goes down, a sinister voice (later revealed to be Brady Culture) is heard to be observing them, blasting Sam & Max for threatening his plan whilst enjoying the harm that they are bringing to his former TV rivals.
After returning the former child stars to their hyperactive vertically-challenged selves, Sam & Max track Brady Culture to the 'Asylum For Former Child Stars'. After a heated exchange of words and organ music, Brady attempts to hypnotize the duo. Max's unique mental physiology protects him, but Sam quickly falls under Brady's spell. Under the villains control, he returns to Bosco's Inconvinience store to resume Whizzer's job - Reverse shop-lifting (or shop-dropping) 'Eye-bo' Occular Fitness videos against Bosco's will.
By fighting the hypnotism and indulging in a spot of kleptomania, Sam is eventually knocked out by Bosco's Anti-Theft system and has to fight Brady Culture in his mind. When Sam rids himself of the demons that have invaded his sub-conscious, he awakens to find that Culture has rabbit-napped Max. Desperate to rescue his buddy, but unable to face his nemesis without some form of anti-hypnosis device, he consults Sybil Pandemik. She provides Sam with plans for an anti-hypnosis helmet, which Sam convinces Bosco to build(with a little help from a bent coat-hanger) for the good of the world.
Sam returns to the asylum and manages to resist Brady's attack. Joined by the Soda Poppers, Sam prepares to make a move on Brady, only to find that the pint-sized celebrities are still under Culture's control. Sam finally tricks Brady Culture by playing on his arrogance, self-worth and need for attention.
With the villain dispatched, Sam rescues Max and destroys the hypno-glasses. Recognising a job well done, the Freelance Police depart. As they leave, the camera pans to a nearby TV, where the presented on a chatshow is revealed to by hypnotised. Is this Brady's doing, or the work of a higher power?
The credits roll as the episode ends. Bathed in a soothing red/black ambience, Sam & Max cruise along to the tune of the Soda Poppers' theme song 'More Than Jerks'.
[edit] Reviews
As of October 28, 2006, the game has been picking up some very positive reviews, generally commending the faithfulness of the game to its predecessor:
- 9/10 from Eurogamer [1] ("... playing the new Sam & Max fills you with that same warm 1993 glow.")
- 9.0 from Computers N Stuff [2] ("Episode 1 is a great start for the return of Sam & Max and hopefully the others will be as good as this.")
- 9/10 from HonestGamers [3] ("Culture Shock is more than just a stepping stone into the second episode of the new Sam & Max franchise; it's an experience that came a lot closer to recapturing the old game than I had dared to hope.")
- 89/100 from SaveSamAndMax.com [4]
- 8.7 from IGN [5] ("Here's a title that's done the seemingly impossible: faithfully updating a beloved franchise while creating something that feels entirely fresh and original.")
Game Rankings currently averages reviews together as 82.7%. [6]
[edit] References to previous works & pop culture
- The box on top of Sam & Max's filing cabinet bears the label "03-03-04", the date that the Lucasarts Sam & Max sequel was officially canceled, which explains Sam's comment when the box is examined. The date also appears as a post-it note on the desk and the back wall. (Only visible when the camera zooms in, such as when talking to Jimmy.)
- There are several references to 1993's Sam & Max Hit the Road, including the "Human Enigma" and "Harry Moleman" posters, Jesse James's hand on the office wall, and many of the objects which Sam can request from Bosco (which were inventory items in Hit The Road).
- The two framed pictures hanging on the left side of the office are scenes from the Sam & Max comic book stories "Bad Day On The Moon" and "On The Road".
- On the bulletin board in their office, a Max paper bag hand puppet can be seen. A short segment in the animated series, the comics and the Hit The Road game manual originally explained how to construct one.
- Hubert the dehydrated plant is a possible reference to Chuck the Plant.
- An earlier screenshot [7] revealed that the Hotbunny magazine in Bosco's store was originally named Playbunny. This was probably changed because of copyright reasons.
- If Sam asks Bosco about his security system, he will tell you about the various times he got robbed. This is another reference to Hit the Road, where if you get Sam to walk into Bosco's store, Sam will comment that he sees that "Bosco is generously giving away his profits to the underprivileged ski-mask wearing youth of the neighbourhood again".
