Sam & Max Season Two (also Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space) is the second season of the Sam & Max (video game series) by Telltale Games based around the characters of the Sam & Max comic series created by Steve Purcell. It follows on from Sam & Max Season One. The game was announced on September 28, 2007; first of the five-episode series was released on November 8, 2007 and the last one – on April 10, 2008.
Season Two builds on Season One with more dynamic NPCs, an updated engine, a hint system, support for widescreen monitors, more realistic animations, and more mini-games within each episode. Season Two features a calibration assistant when first run, which allows the player to set their graphics and difficulty settings before playing.
Unlike Season One, where GameTap users were able to access each episode two weeks before it was available through Telltale's website, Season Two reduced this period down to one day. The first episode, "Ice Station Santa", was released on November 8 on GameTap, followed by a worldwide release on November 9. However, the second episode was delayed until January 11, 2008. New episodes were thereafter released on the second Thursday and Friday of each month.
As with Season One in 2007, Season Two was released on Steam, on May 16, 2008. It was released in October 2009 for the XBox Live Arcade under the name "Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space", and with this new title, released for the Wii in March 2010.
This season of Sam & Max has a remaster called Sam & Max: Beyond Time & Space Remastered, released on December 8th, 2021 on PC, Nintendo Switch and Xbox by Skunkape Games. It completely remasters the five episodes with new visuals, music, higher quality sounds, interface, and is able to be played with a keyboard and gamepad.
Overall plot[]
The connection between the episodes is more loose and complicated than in the first season. Ultimately everything ties into a ploy by the Soda Poppers (who turn out to be demon princes with a high position in Hell) whereby they trick Sam & Max into damaging Hell enough for them to be able to oust Satan and take control themselves. To this end they had T.H.E.M. abduct Bosco while Sam and Max were busy dealing with Jurgen in Stuttgart. The volcanic eruption central to Moai Better Blues was a signal for T.H.E.M. to pick up the Moai Heads they needed. As with Season One, the events of the first episode were not part of the plan: the Poppers had mistakenly sent the Shambling Corporate Presence to Santa instead of Satan.
Recurring characters[]
In addition to the characters already introduced through Sam & Max Season One, Season Two introduces some additional recurring characters.
- Flint Paper: Flint runs his own gumshoe detective business in the office next to Sam & Max; however, what exactly is business or cases remains a mystery. As in the comics, his days consist of beating up bad guys and wooing attractive female clients. In season two, he is on a case to spy on Bosco, given to him by Bosco's mother. In Sam & Max Hit the Road, Flint and the door to his office were featured in the second location of the game, where he threw someone out of a window and shot a smiley face into the wall with a tommy gun.
- Mister Spatula: Max's pet goldfish who lives in the office water cooler. In Season One he was made Vice President of the United States under Max's administration, but he soon developed a lust for power that turned him "pure evil" according to Sam.
- The Maimtron 9000: A giant robot that demolishes half on the neighborhood in episode 1, "Ice Station Santa", thought to have been sent by Mister Spatula to assassinate Max. He says his only function is to kill and destroy, but in conversation he will frequently respond to questions by singing pop songs of the 80's and 90's. After being deactivated by Sam, his collapsed body is converted into a casino for rats by Jimmy Two-Teeth. The Maimtron 9000 is reactivated in the season finale by Sam and Max using the portable A.I acquired in the previous title.
- Santa: Is the main character of episode 1, "Ice Station Santa". He is seen hiding in his room standing on top of a safe containing the spirits of Christmas. After the battle with the Shambling Corporate Presence Santa ate the jello that SPC turned into then got possessed. After Sam & Max fought Santa again, the Soda Poppers sent Santa to hell. In episode 5 he is imprisoned in his personal hell where he constantly recalls toys for various safety issues, while constantly being harassed by demon babies. He reveals that he hates kids, and took the one job in the world where he'd only ever have to be around children once a year.
- Jurgen: A German emo vampire, he is the main villain of episode 3, "Night of the Raving Dead", and had a brief appearance in episode 4. He reappears in Episode 5 as a receptionist in Hell.
- Pedro: A Mariachi singer who suddenly appears and sings a birthday song whenever a character mentions a personal birthday. He has made brief appearances in episodes 1 through 3, and was given a larger role in episode 4, "Chariots of the Dogs" as well as having a small role in the season finale. Pedro was first named in episode 4.
- Shambling Corporate Presence: A demon from Hell and the main villain of episode 1, "Ice Station Santa". Re-appears as an employee of Hell, LLC in episode 5. Was a minor character in "Reality 1.5", the game-within-a-game in the Season 1 episode, "Reality 2.0".
- Stinky: A young lady who owns "Stinky's Diner" across the street from Bosco's store. She inherited the diner, and her name, from old Stinky, whom she claims is her grandfather. The claims (and the real Stinky's fate) are questionable. Stinky is also a constant liar, claiming that she is a very famous actress, inventor of artifacts, and studied beliefs, like "voodoo queen". Sam and Max meet the original "Grandpa" Stinky in episode 4, "Chariots of the Dogs", after traveling through time to the early 1980s version of Stinky's Diner. The older Stinky has a strong dislike for the U.S. government, and has a tendency to exaggerate his exploits, much like the younger Stinky from 2008, though the old Stinky claims to never having had any children. In episode 5, Old Stinky revealed that he had really died in a mountain climbing accident, and girl Stinky is actually his protege. In actuality, girl Stinky is "The Cake of the Damned" created by old Stinky that combined an entree, side dish, and dessert into one unholy concoction, and that she was brought to life, and given human form, by adding a spare rib into the mix.
- Timmy Two-Teeth: Jimmy Two-Teeth's son was introduced in episode 1, along with Jimmy's ex-wife and Timmy's mother, Mary Two-Teeth. Timmy is a young rat diagnosed with terminal Tourette syndrome; as a consequence, a large part of his speech is censored. Despite this, he maintains a positive outlook on life. He dies in episode 5 and his soul goes to hell due to both Sam & Max's intervention (unlike his father, Timmy has lived a sin-free life, but his personal record was switched with Jimmy's at the moment of his death), but later his soul is released and Timmy comes back to life. He is also a great fan of the Soda Poppers (recurring characters from Season 1).
Episodes[]
# | Episode | Release date (GameTap) |
Release date (International) |
Overview | Reviews |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Ice Station Santa" | November 8 2007 | November 9 2007 | An ancient and bloated pagan god sends a bloodthirsty war robot to destroy Sam & Max. | 82%(Metacritic) |
2 | "Moai Better Blues" | January 10 2008 | January 11 2008 | Sam & Max travel to the tropics where they try to stop a volcanic eruption. | 81% (Metacritic) |
3 | "Night of the Raving Dead" | February 12 2008 | February 13 2008 | Sam & Max crash an emo European vampire's nightclub to stop a zombie apocalypse. | 79% (Metacritic) |
4 | "Chariots of the Dogs" | March 13 2008 | March 14 2008 | Sam & Max work with Flint Paper to discover what happened to a missing Bosco. | 85% (Metacritic) |
5 | "What's new, Beelzebub?" | April 10 2008 | April 11 2008 | Sam & Max travel to hell to confont Satan and retrieve Bosco's lost soul. | 85%(Metacritic) |