While this review may seem long overdue, I justify it with the fact that before it was even released for the Wii -- Sam & Max: Episode One was not a new game. Instead this is a Wii release of a PC game whose first episode debuted October of 2006, with each of its six episodes being parceled out over the next few months, concluding May 2007. Not only that, but a second season has been out on the PC since early this year. Other than the change from PC to the Wii, the games are identical.

Sam & Max are freelance police officers who first appeared as comic book characters in 1987, and have continued in both print and online comics for over 20 years. In 1993 Sam & Max debuted in their first video game: Sam & Max Hit the Road. After two subsequent games were canceled before ever being released (Sam & Max Plunge Through Space, and Sam & Max: Freelance Police), Episode One finally made it through production and was released as the second Sam & Max videogame to make it to the fans.

Sam & Max Season One is a game banking on fan following and humor; and I felt it fell flat. I'll admit up front that I was never a Sam & Max fan, in fact I wasn't really aware of their existence before I got this game. But it sounded like the kind of thing I could really like, but upon getting the game I was disappointed.

I found the gameplay to be somewhat buried in layers and layers of dialogue. In this kind of humor-adventure/puzzle game talking to the other characters is essential to figuring out what you're supposed to do. But much of the dialogue felt like it went way beyond what what needed to either instruct or entertain. The ever present (but seldom helpful) side-characters of Bosco and Sybil make appearances in every episode, and each time they take on a different persona. I have to assume that their constantly changing jobs (Sybil) and disguises (Bosco) are part of their classic characters, but I found them both to be somewhat dull and overdone. In every new episode Sam and Max go through the same tedious reintroductions to them. It quickly gets boring. Overall, there was too much plot set-up and useless dialogue, and not enough action.

You play as Sam: the 'strait man,' while Max makes inane observations and attempts to inject a level of absurdity into this otherwise mundane game. Truth is, I found Sam boring. And Max, while he was trying his little rabbity heart out to be funny--I mean, what's funnier than a psychotic 'hyperkinetic rabbity thing?'--he often missed the mark. For a time his absurdity and non sequitur helped put a smile on my face, but the fact that when he was left to his own devises for 30 seconds he provided 'entertainment' through armpit farts didn't help, sorry, but not everyone who plays videogames is a 14-year-old boy.

Season One is comprised of six independent episodes, each playable on its own, but better played as a series. The individual plots of each episode build on the previous ones for an overall story arch that is much more than the individual adventures on their own. The series as a whole deals with different diabolical forces attempting to enslave the populous through hypnosis, intriguing...

Sam & Max begin their adventure in Episode 1: Culture Shock with an encounter with the Soda Poppers, a washed up band of former child stars. For some reason these diminutive has-beens have been vandalizing the neighborhood with images of Brady Culture, a suspicious guru who has a new self-help/work-out video "Eye-Bo." It seems he's hypnotised the Soda Poppers into doing his evil bidding to hypnotize the masses. Of course Sam & Max find a way to turn the tables and defeat Brady Culture, but we're left wondering if this is the end of their troubles. It isn't.

Episode 2: Situation: Comedy reveals that Myra Stump, talk show host has been hypnotized as well and is holding her studio audience captive. Through a series of TV appearances (gameshow "Who Never Wants to be a Millionaire," cooking show "Cooking Without Looking," and talent contest "Embarrassing Idol" among others) Sam and Max must make their way through the television studio to gain entrance to Myra's talk show and somehow free her audience.

In Episode 3: The Mole, the Mod and the Mafia Sam and Max are enlisted by the commissioner to find out what happened to the mole who was infiltrating Ted E. Bear's mafia organization. The Toy Mafia's casino features bears strangely reminiscent of the Hypno-Bear on Myra's desk in the previous adventure. Only by becoming wise guys themselves can Sam and Max unravel the mafia's sinister plot. (This seemed like the most enjoyable and straight-forward adventure, I definitely found this to be my favorite episode.)

Episode 4: Abe Lincoln Must Die! opens with a phone call.   It's the commissioner with Sam & Max's next assignment: "to stop the President of the United States. The man's gone nuts, enacting all kinds of crazy new laws. Group hugs, curtailing civil liberties, threatening the environment. Oh, and he's introducing mandatory gun registration. Oh no he didn't!"  'Chuckles' from the Toy Mafia is back and has infiltrated the Secret Service to advance his agenda. While trying to thwart his evil plan you must try to cure the President's sudden strangeness (hypnosis perhaps?). When that fails, you have to get Max elected in an emergency election, and save the United States from a rampaging Lincoln Memorial! The first lagomorph President; 2008 really is the year of change.

Episode 5: Reality 2.0 embodies all our greatest fear--that the internet will hypnotize us and take over as an intelligent entity of its own! Bouncing between the real world, Reality 1.5 and Reality 2.0, Sam and Max finally are able to disable its control, after revealing that the internet had been tricked by a mysterious Roy G. Biv. The episode ends on the cliffhanger: Who is Roy G. Biv?

Episode 6: Bright Side of the Moon wraps up the story, by taking it to the most far-reaches of any plausibility. The DeSoto drives to the moon and back, and to the final end of this saga of hypnosis and mind-control. Hugh Bliss, an omnipresent yet under-the-radar magician, who spent the Sam & Max series as a weird-o side character rears his multi-colored head as the evil mastermind Roy G. Biv, who reveals himself to be a pile of sentient and highly organized alien bacteria which feed on human endorphins. This explains why he's trying to hypnotize everyone!

While the story itself is creative, there are major technical problems with the game. The biggest was the Wii controls. In a game where you have to use precision to pick up small objects and strategically place them, I found it frustratingly hard to lock on to the targets. The Wi-imote seemed overly jerky and imprecise in its movements, and this proved a big frustration throughout the game. Granted, there are a lot of early Wii games which suffer this same issue, but I've also played a lot of Wii games in which the controls worked well, so it's hard to overlook the jittery controls.

Another problem was a noticeable delay in loading times. This was particularly pronounced in Episode 4 where it felt like you spent half the game in the DeSoto, as every other task seems to involve a trip back and forth from the White House to Straight Street, I guess that's politics and bureaucracy for you. Besides this being tedious and annoying (I like to be able to accomplish a lot at a location, not pick up an item, drive somewhere, use it, drive back, repeat... I mean, we're in a gas crisis for God's sake!), it really emphasized the loading delays. Not a big deal when it's once in a while, but with a delay every time you enter or exit a building or vehicle, and this happens half a dozen times per act, it's really pronounced. In a game in which you spend a good deal of time going back and forth between locations gathering items to be used at a different location, quick load times are a must for keeping the pace up.

I'm sure if I had been a Sam & Max fan before playing the game, or if I'd played this game on the PC (which is not supposed to have the technical difficulties of such slow load times and poor overall control) I would give this game a higher rating. But as it is, I can't.

Infinite Bits score: 6.5