We already knew a remaster ofSam & Max: The Devil’s Playhousewas on its way from Skunkape Games, but now we have arelease window. It will arrive Spring 2024.
Technically, this is a delay, but the announcement of a 2023 timeframenever happened. It was just a shared hallucination.
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhousewas the last of Telltale’s revival of theSam & Maxlicense and also sort of the last traditional point-and-click adventure that they want you to remember before the formula changed withThe Walking Dead.Jurassic Park: The Gamenever happened. It was just a folie à deux.
Skunkape has been going to work saving the three seasons ofSam & Maxfrom being buried alongside Telltale. While those games were still technically available, they were from an uncomfortable period of PC gaming and didn’t support the beefy resolutions we have today. Skunkape has taken a brush to the first two seasons and touched them up beautifully with better lighting and lip-syncing. Now it’sSam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse’sturn.
Indulge me
I playedSam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouseback in 2010 when they were being released one episode at a time. I got about halfway through episode three when I lost interest and never went back. I’d say that’s part of why the episodic format is so rare these days, but I’m pretty sure Telltale asked for players to pay upfront for all the episodes at that point, so they didn’t lose sales to poor attention spans.
What I did play sticks with me to this day because the humor felt a lot darker than the first two seasons. While I don’t think series creator Steve Purcell contributed to the last season, they did bring in Mike Stemmle, who helped design 1993’sSam & Max Hit the Road.
AfterSam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, I’m hoping that Skunkape remasters another Telltale title,Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. Telltale recently lost the rights to it, which I hope means that they were picked up by Skunkape. The Brothers Chapman themselves are making games in theHomestar Runneruniverse, withDangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulatehaving released this past August (it’s fantastic). The time is right. Or maybe I should say, “Gimme.”
The remaster ofSam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouseis set to release Spring 2024 for PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox Series X|S.
