The International House of Mojo

The Tingler has type-scripted his views and judgements of the latest instalment of "Sam and Max."

Look within to see advice for customers, high moral criticism, and many passages that are pleasant to be read or sung, according to the reader's taste and custom.

Telltale showed off demos of Strong Bad to various sites upon its announcement, and there are a couple of write-ups as a result that you may want to check out. This behind-the-scenes video held by 1up is not a write-up, but it is awesome. And in case you haven't stumbled upon these already, here's what Kotaku and IGN have to say. Telltale stresses that the demo showcased is an early build of the game, but nonetheless it should give you an idea of what Strong Bad is going to look like - very much like the Flash toons, and great.

In other Telltale news, here's some possible box art for the upcoming Wii release of Sam & Max Season 1 which Amazon even has up for pre-order, along with the claim that it'll be out August 1st. And finally, remember that Sam & Max sculpture that was being made by Symbiote Studios, of which we only got to see tantalizing concept art? Well, here's what the sucker looks like for realz! (Minus the coloring job and pending approval by Purcell.)

According to Active Anime, the May 2008 issue of PIQ magazine - the issue that comes out in the month that I was born in and hence is more awesome than Italy winning the World Cup - has noneother than Sam, Max, and Praise the Lord, Lord Satan on its cover. They all happen to be smiling, too. This all includes exclusive cover artwork by Telltale as well as an exclusive interview by Steve Purcell himself. Man, I wonder how they crammed all that on the cover?

But the question is: Who's crazier? Sam, Max, or the Half-Horse-Half-RedBull-Gives-You-Hoofs Prince of Darkness and Our Saviour Beelzebub Himself? The answer: might not be here.

Source: Active Anime

Switching on a Time Machine much like Fred Edison's, Nintendic briefly cover the history of Sam and Max from 1987 until their arrival to the Nintendo Wii, in an article made twenty times more awesome for mentioning the words "Sam and Max". In case you're some kind of loser who still hasn't gotten around to mentioning the awesomness of those words, I'd get to work before you are drowned in a sea of their awesome.

Source: Nintendic

The hyperactive Telltale is becoming a difficult company to keep up with, but we cannot forget that today is the worldwide release of What's New, Beelzebub? from Telltale's site, drawing to a close the best season yet.

While waiting for the epic conclusion of Season 2 to download, you can check out some very positive (though spoilerish, screenshots included) reviews from Gamespy, Strategy Informer, IGN, Gamervision, Frictionless Insight, and undoubtedly others.

205 - What's New, Beelzebub? is now also available over at Telltale's site.

Let the long wait for season 3 begin...

As promised, Telltale has put up their mini-site for Strong Bad featuring an overview, videos, the first screenshots, and an extensive FAQ. A few key points:

• Gameplay-wise, it will be a point 'n click adventure much like Sam & Max, only with the Homestar characters, who will all make appearances at some point.
  
• Team includes Telltale designers Mark Darin, Chuck Jordan, Brendan Q. Ferguson, Mike Stemmle, and Dave Grossman.
  
• The WiiWare version of the game will take advantage of Wii Connect24 with some special features that will tie the episodes together and let you communicate with friends.
  
• Although schedule/price specifics haven't been announced, it will run very similar to Sam & Max - five episodes, monthly releases, optional season bundle. The first episode arrives in June for WiiWare, unknown for PC.
  
• The Chapman brothers are heavily involved with the writing, visuals, etc. and will be lending the voices for the characters just like in the flash toons.
  
• Sam & Max Season 3 will release in early 2009, and Telltale has one more unannounced series in the works. Three of their series will run more or less back to back, meaning we'll be getting monthly episodes from Telltale for a long stretch of time.

Check it all out on Telltale's newly made over web site.

Update: Maybe JP updated my previous news post with some of this, but that doesn't make your face any less ugly.

Today Telltale has revealed its first of two previously unannounced licenses. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, based on the popular characters and flash toons that make up the universe of Homestar Runner, will be released on WiiWare this June in addition to the PC. This five episode series will be released on a monthly schedule similar to Sam & Max. So far no details (such as the actual schedule or price point) or media have been released, but at least a few of these things should be rectified on Telltale's site later today at their Strongbad page.

So, how awesome is that? Check out the press release. And if you haven't heard of Homestar Runner (and that's seriously a crying shame), you could do worse than heading over there right now and checking out Peasant's Quest, and everything else.

Edit: There's an hilarious trailer up here.

Hard to believe, but today's the day the fifth and final episode of the season, What's New, Beelzebub? is now up on the Gametap client. That of course means that tomorrow you'll be able to find the episode for download on Telltale's site, and so ends what few will argue was a superb season of Sam & Max games.

See you all in hell!

Dan Connors has had a good talk with Gamespot on the nature of episodic games and how tricky they can be. The interview has this beautiful piece of info:

"However, Telltale has seen its share of struggles, most notably in the aborted precursor to the Sam & Max series, Bone. After releasing two episodes of Bone in seven months, Telltale suspended development on the series because it simply wasn't getting traction."

Interesting.

Source: Gamespot

Wanna play Season Two but ain't got enough cash for it? Even if that makes you a cheap scumbag? Well then rejoice, scum: all you need to do is to answer the three questions Adventure Gamers has correctly and you could be eligible for winning Sam and Max: Season Two for free. That's right. And even that's too expensive for you, I think. You scum.

Update: And as Maratanos helpfully pointed-out: You can do the same over at Joystiq. Chud is doing the same thing. So are those chaps over at Adventure Treff, and, of course, the ever-lovable 4 Color Rebellion.

Source: Adventure Gamers

The soundtracks for Telltale's Sam & Max episodes are uniformly excellent, so I'm always grateful whenever they decide to offer some free MP3s from them. (Some, and not all, because they'll surely be releasing a full-fledged CD release at some point as they did with Season 1.) Today we're treated to a new track from Night of the Raving Dead, three from Chariots of the Dogs and one from the upcoming What's New, Beelzebub? Music!

The no doubt excellent season finale to the decidedly excellent Sam & Max: Season 2 will premiere on Gametap this Thursday and will be available to download from Telltale on Friday. I'm ripe with anticipation.

Highlights from the official press release:

Sam & Max's journey to the Wii system has been fueled by fan excitement.

Sam & Max Season One for Wii will be published by Dreamcatcher/The Adventure Company in North America, and by JoWooD in Europe. In addition to English language, the game will be fully localized in French and German, and subtitled in Italian and Spanish. All versions are expected to ship during the fall 2008 season.

Isn't it strange that there's a company out there with great adventure game IP who are enthusiastic about it?

Source: Telltale Games

In case you missed it, here's the totally awesome, cool and not at all fake trailer for Sam & Max: Freelance Police - The Movie.



Caution: may contain footage of a cancelled game that still brings Mojo to tears.

You've been waiting for this since the first time you heard that Telltale's reviving the Sam & Max franchise as an episodic game series, and here it is!

Gamespot reports that Telltale's confirmed that the first season of Sam & Max is heading for Nintendo's Wii this fall in both North-America and Europe.

Update: Gamespot posted a video interview with Dan Connors as part of the news story, but their link to it on the main page appears broken so if anyone didn't notice the video see it here. Dan reveals some significant news such as that their Wiiware series will be announced next week and will indeed be a launch product for the service. (May 12th.)

Telltale has updated their What's New, Beelzebub? page with a gameplay video and some new screenshots. Well, what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

We all remember when Jim Ward left his position as President of LucasArts. Some people asked: what's the next step? What is Ward going to do next?

Today we recieved our answer: our source at Telltale games, who I shall refer to simply as "Jake," gave us the news that the company has a new president.

Already big changes have occured, such as the cancellation of Sam & Max (no last episode, then) and the purchase of the Star Trek lisence.

Still no word on who will replace Jim Ward at LucasArts, but I have a feeling we may hear about that later on today...

Telltale has put up their official page for the fifth and final episode of Sam & Max: Season 2, which is indeed titled What's New, Beezlebub? Check out the plot outline, which confirms what the ending of Chariots of the Dogs hinted, that Sam & Max will be visiting the bowels of Hell:

Judgment day is at hand, and it's time for a showdown with the guy downstairs to bargain for Bosco's soul. But in the corporate wasteland known as Hell, not even the Freelance Police are safe from eternal damnation. Can Sam & Max fight free from Satan's grasp, or have they reached the end of the line?

The page includes all the usual good stuff, including a great trailer, and some screenshots and concept art. See it all!

A little cat whispered in me ear that the title for the season finale is What's New, Beelzebub?

Sounds like it'll take place in a tropical paradise to me!

Chariots of the Dogs has been released today on Gametap's client, with its Telltale release of course being tomorrow. There have apparently been some download issues that I'm not sure have been corrected yet, but while waiting you could always check out Adventure Gamers' glowing five star review, and Gamespy's love for the game as well.

Update: I had no problems downloading the game off the client, so it would seem everything's been hammered out.

Update No. 2 by The Tingler: In case you want more proof that reviews always boil down to someone's opinion, and that opinion usually differs from other people's, Eurogamer's review is now up, and it's not quite so glowing.

Update 3 by Kroms: Yesterday's tomorrow is today's today and anyone who bought the game from Telltale should be able to play it.

Update 4: Mojo's own review is now up, again proving update 2 true!