Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is a graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games. It is the third and final season of the Sam & Max episodic series created by Telltale, following Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space. The first episode was released as one of the first apps for the iPad on April 2, 2010,[1] and was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and the PlayStation 3 (the first Telltale game to appear on that platform) on April 15. A remaster by Skunkape Games is planned for release in 2023.[2][3]
Sam Max The Devil’s Playhouse Game
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is a series of graphic adventure games, requiring the user to control Sam and Max to specific locations, interacting with the environment, collecting and using objects, and talking to other characters in the game in order to solve puzzles and complete the game. The previous two Sam & Max seasons used a traditional point-and-click interface, which is well-suited for Windows and MacOS users but did not translate well to traditional gamepad controls. The game engine for The Devil's Playhouse has been redesigned to handle both the point-and-click scheme and typical console-based controls for third-person perspective games. On a Windows or MacOS computer, the player has the option of plugging in a gamepad to use this second set of controls.[4] Other aspects, such as inventory management, have also been refined to better suit console players or players not familiar with the adventure game genre.[4] The iPad version of the game features direct touch interaction with the characters, scenery, and inventory.[5]
Whereas in previous episodes Max would follow to wherever the player directed Sam, The Devil's Playhouse gives the player direct control over both characters and the ability to swap between characters. This allows for better differentiation between the two characters and increases the variety of gameplay options. A constant theme through the series was a psychic power that Max gained in each episode, such as the ability to read minds, see glimpses of the future or teleport himself to any telephone for which he knows the number. This aspect played into the separate characters' controls in order to solve the puzzles in the game. The PlayStation 3 version of the game features an additional psychic power not present in the other versions.[4]
The game begins with a Twilight Zone-style narrator who tells to the audience that Sam & Max have come to learn of the "Toys of Power" - seemingly harmless toys that Max is able to use to perform various psychic abilities, such as teleportation and precognition. They first use the toys to stop the alien General Skun-ka'pe from destroying the city, who has come to Earth to seek out the Toys himself, and banish him back to the Penal Zone, an interdimensional prison that he escaped previously to the episode. During this mission, the Freelance Police encounter a cult of Mole Men who have been watching over a mysterious artifact called the Devil's Toybox that has been sitting in the basement of Sam and Max's office for quite some time. By watching some dusty film reels, they learn that their great-grandfathers, Sameth and Maximus, were chosen by the cryptic Mr. Papierwaite to retrieve the Toybox from the Tomb of Sammun-Mak, an ancient Pharaoh. However, when they successfully recovered it, Papierwaite attempted to use Maximus' psychic powers and the Toybox to summon the Elder God, Yog-Soggoth, and bring about the end of the world. Sameth and Maximus managed to stop Mr. Papierwaite by tricking him into saying the summoning words himself and then tasked the Mole Men of the time with watching the Toybox in the basement under their office building, accidentally perishing due to a protection spell on the box.
The Devil's Playhouse was the third Sam & Max game produced by Telltale Games since acquiring the license after the cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police in 2004. The game was initially expected to be released in 2009,[6] a year after Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space. Though the game failed to materialize, towards the end of 2009 Telltale alluded to the Sam & Max sequel in the final chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, directing players to the game's preliminary website. Industry media later noted that the title Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse as well as the title of the first episode, "The Penal Zone", had been registered with the OFLC, the Australian film and video game classification body.[7] Telltale officially announced The Devil's Playhouse at the Game Developers Conference in March 2010, for release for Windows, the PlayStation Network and Mac OS.[8]
While The Devil's Playhouse was originally announced for PC and the PlayStation 3 for release on April 15, an iPad version of the game became available on April 2, as one of the first applications for the release of the device. Telltale's CEO, Dan Connors, revealed that they chose to develop the series for the iPad as a new opportunity as it "really revolutionizes the way our stuff is played".[5] Connors also stated that once they started testing the iPad version, they felt the device helped to give more immersion to the game, as opposed to the other platforms where they play out more as an interaction movie.[5] Telltale was able to keep most of the features that they had already developed for the PC and console releases, including 3D graphics limited only by the shader technology on the iPad, while including features that took advantage of the iPad's technology, such as a touch-based interface.[5]
In April 2010, game developer Valve announced that anyone who purchased The Devil's Playhouse through Steam would receive three bonus items in Team Fortress 2: a hat based on Max's head, Max's pistol, and Sam's revolver. The promotion ended on April 26.[9] This was later expanded to include people who purchased the games through the Telltale store.
Skunkape Games have announced Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse Remastered, an updated version of the third installment of Telltale Games series of Sam and Max games. It has been twelve years since the original release.
Sam and Max started life as characters created by Steve Purcell in his youth, and later debuted to the public in a 1987 comic book series. The pair of anthropomorphic vigilante private investigators would go on to star in the 1993 release of LucasArts' Sam and Max Hit the Road, a classic LucasArts point and click adventure, and could be considered one of the best Sam and Max games. The fame from Hit the Road earned them the animated series, The Adventures of Sam and Max: Freelance Police between 1997 and 1998. Nearly ten years later, Telltale Games released Sam and Max Save the World in an episodic format. Early in the history of Telltale Games, Save the World received positive reviews.
Connor Lawless has several years experience as a freelance translator and article writer in Osaka, Japan.A creative writing graduate, Connor has been infatuated with games ever since the ripe old age of 2, watching his brothers on the Atari Jaguar, and later realized of the potential of games upon playing Metal Gear Solid and the Silent Hill demo disc that came with it.
Skunkape, of course, acquired the rights to Telltale's Sam & Max adventures in 2018 after the studio shut its doors, with many of the team having worked on the original games back in the day. The developer is yet to confirm platforms for The Devil's Playhouse Remastered, but expect it to follow previous entries which released on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC.
This graphic adventure game by Telltale Games first arrived in 2010. This remaster will follow the Switch release of Sam & Max: Save the World (2020) and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (2021). At the moment, no platforms have been announced, so be on the lookout for an update.
If you would like to catch up on the previous Sam & Max games before the next remaster arrives, the existing titles are currently on sale on the Switch eShop - allowing you to get up to 25% the regular price off in select regions.
Be on the lookout for platform and release date updates in the near future. Would you be interested in playing this episodic series on Switch? Have you tried out the previous games yet? Comment below.
Love these games. Need to get the 2nd one on Switch still. Keep meaning to. I had it on the WII, but it was such a poor port. The stuttering glacier slowdown when just moving and audio clipping made me give up early on. A shame as the first one on Wii was well done. Never experienced any of the 3rd.
@N00BiSH Doesn't matter what they cut. They cut dialogue. And its worse than that as they decided instead of uncensoring the game (because they are objectively wrong), they just said "Play the old version".
When I purchased the first Sam & Max for Nintendo Switch (via Limited Run), was sold an empty cardboard box, with space for three games, and on the side of that box were written the names of the 3 games: Save the World, Beyond Time, and this The Devil's Playhouse.
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is the third and final season of Telltale Games' Sam & Max adventure game series, starting on April 2, 2010, and concluding on August 30, 2010. In here, the Freelance Police are embroiled in a plot to collect "Toys of Power" that grant those with the ability to wield them (including Max, conveniently enough) awesome psychic powers. Said plot involves evil gorillas from space, eldritch horrors and mole-men. The game was also produced as the Grand Finale to the franchise, severing as the conclusion of 23 years with the duo.
Following up the remasters of the first two seasons, a group of former Telltale Games developers, who banded together as Skunkape Games and acquired the rights to Telltale's Sam & Max games following the studio's closure, are set to release a remastered version of The Devil's Playhouse sometime in 2023, with further details still to come. 2ff7e9595c
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