Monday, June 18, 2012

Sam & Max’s Mystery Vortex plays off the surrealism of roadside attractions

Games: The Gameological Society: Sam & Max’s Mystery Vortex plays off the surrealism of roadside attractions

On The Level: Sam & Max Hit The Road - Mystery Vortex

In the “Pleasantly Understated Credits Sequence” that begins the 1993 point-and-click adventure game Sam & Max Hit The Road, a collage of strange black-and-white images are presented: Sam and Max getting hit by a train, Sam and Max aiming a gigantic floppy pistol, Sam and Max beating up a clown. In the center of this madness is an empty highway rolling ever forward toward the horizon. This one simple animation grounds the whole scene; it is a madcap adventure of cartoon violence, yet it has a firm (albeit outlandish) basis in the real world.
This remains true, or true enough, even as the world opens up and it becomes clear that Sam and Max occupy a strange plane of existence. This is, after all, a game where anthropomorphic animal detectives are on a mission to track down missing Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) and the giraffe-necked girls that love them. Sam & Max Hit The ...

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