Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered [Nintendo Switch] | REVIEW

Following the release of Sam & Max Save The World Remastered last year and their first virtual reality escapade earlier this year, the dynamic (and slightly bizarre) crime-fighting duo are back once again to get to the bottom of an outrageous mystery. This time it’s in Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered, a revamped version of the 2007 release that brings with it an intuitive control scheme for consoles as well as nice and shiny new visuals. It also just so happens to be a whole lot of fun to play and genuinely comical throughout, with the game aging really well over the last fourteen (!) years.

Check out a gallery of screenshots down below:

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When Sam and Max are on the case you KNOW you’re in for a strange adventure, and that’s exactly what you get here. In their quest to solve some grand conspiracy, the canine and rabbit-thing (it’s honestly the best way to describe him) pair get into all sorts of wacky situations, including a hostile showdown with Santa Claus, an investigation into vampires, and a race against time to stop an active volcano… that’s just a few examples too, with each case somewhat interconnected across the game’s five episodes.

They’re all absolutely anarchic, but also so brilliantly written that it’s hard not to find yourself chuckling at just about every situation you find yourself in. Sam and Max are a fantastic pairing whose polarising personalities bounce off each other perfectly, whilst the moment-to-moment madness of each case ensures there’s always something wacky going on to keep the player’s eyes glued to the screen. It’s genuinely funny and never in a way that tries too hard, with the balance of humour and insanity feeling JUST right.

It is worth noting that it’s a direct follow up to Sam & Max Save The World though, so if you want to follow the story perfectly and understand all of its little nods, it’s worth playing that first.

“Sam and Max are a fantastic pairing whose polarising personalities bounce off each other perfectly, whilst the moment-to-moment madness of each case ensures there’s always something wacky going on to keep the player’s eyes glued to the screen.”

When it comes to the gameplay, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered will feel familiar to anyone who played their previous adventures, with the point-and-click action seeing players speaking to NPCs to find out information, gathering all sorts of zany items from across each area, and then using them in often bizarre ways to solve each puzzle. It’s a tried-and-tested formula that the game doesn’t try to re-invent here. And, once again, there were puzzles throughout where I had no idea what to do and I just managed to solve it through dumb luck; sure, they kinda made sense when I saw the logic of the game’s thinking afterwards, but there are definitely some obscure moments.

That’s par for the course though and didn’t make Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered’s puzzles any less enjoyable to solve, with some wonderfully designed enigmas featured throughout that embrace the game’s wacky wibe. There’s a hint system in place too, which means you won’t have to rely on walkthroughs or simply using each item you have on every object in the environment hoping for success if you don’t want to. It’s a nice feature that makes the whole experience more accessible to players of all skill levels, though let’s be honest, nothing quite beats the feeling of solving a puzzle through clever-thinking alone.

There are also mini-games to dive into that add a fun and welcome change of pace to all of the puzzling – none of these are ever too complex, but they fit the peculiar vibe of the game perfectly. It all controls well on the Nintendo Switch too, whether that’s when moving around with the left-stick and interacting with items with a button press, or using the Nintendo Switch’s handheld mode and playing with touch controls. Each method is intuitive and comfortable, so it’ll come down to player preference to see what works best for you.

“Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered has a fresh lick of paint to help make the visuals feel more up to scratch as far as modern standards are concerned, with developer Skunkape Games doing a great job in prettying everything up.”

As with a lot of remastered releases, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered has a fresh lick of paint to help make the visuals feel more up to scratch as far as modern standards are concerned, with developer Skunkape Games doing a great job in prettying everything up. Everything looks smoother and cleaner when compared to the original, with souped up lighting effects, improved lip-syncing, and snazzier textures ensuring that it’s the prettiest the series has looked. You certainly won’t feel like you’re playing a game that originally released fourteen years ago, which is a testament to the great work done by the developer.

Developer: Skunkape Games
Publisher: Skunkape Games
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC
Website: https://skunkapegames.com/samandmax/season2/