Sam and Max 201: Ice Station Santa Review

So far the Sam and Max episodic episodes have been a mixed bag. The first six episodes had their ups and downs, but overall, it was worth the effort. There was the good (Abe Lincoln Must Die!), the bad (The Mole, the Mob and the Meatball) and the downright funny (Culture Shock). Season 2 starts with Sam and Max: Ice Station Santa, the best episode yet. It has all of the necessary components for success: the right price, length and entertainment value.

Ice Station Santa starts off reminding players what happened in the last season (in your closet no less). It seems that Sam likes to keep souvenirs from his past adventures. The president’s severed head, Brady Culture’s hair, and a mask from The Mole, the Mob and the Meatball. Ice Station Santa is littered with references to past episodes, including Max’s stint as Commander-in-Chief. If you missed out on his presidency, or any of the other episodes, you could always go back and play them, although it is not necessary to complete this game. The references play no role in solving puzzles.

Just to give you a quick synopsis of what is going on in Ice Station Santa, Sam and Max’s neighborhood comes under attack by a wind-up toy the size of their building. They find out that it came from the North Pole and make their way, only to find Santa’s house. The only problem is that Santa is possessed by a demon. He fired all of his elves to compete with the other holidays, moving the toy manufacturing offshore. He divorced his wife, got rid of the reindeer and locked himself in his office with a machine gun. To save Christmas, Sam and Max will have to exorcise the demon.

That’s not all. There are plenty of recurring characters from past episodes. The Soda Poppers are back again, as is Jimmy the rat and others. Aside from the office and the North Pole, your neighborhood block has a few locations for you to visit. Bosco’s Inconvenience Store is no longer a store. Bosco is worried that he is going to receive a bomb in the mail from his mom and has converted his store to a disposal facility for explosives. Stinky’s Diner is reopened and full of customers such as Abe Lincoln’s head, Sybil and cockroaches. Finally, there’s the Garage where you get to play a driving mini-game.

Just as with every other Sam and Max game, all you do is point and click. The mini-games take only slightly more effort. These include a boxing mini-game (sort of like Punch-Out), the aforementioned driving mini-game where you run over Torture-me-Elmer dolls, and a Wack-the-Rat mini-game. This is still a game all about solving puzzles and reading dialogue of the characters to find hints of what to do. This was actually the most straight-forward of the Sam and Max games. It requires some thinking, but I never resorted to GameFAQs.

Overall, Sam and Max: Ice Station Santa is a great holiday release. Telltale made great use of the holiday theme, as well as themes from past Sam and Max episodes. The great thing about Ice Station Santa is whether you have played before or not, you can jump right in. The learning curve is negligible and no past experience is required. If you know how to point a cursor, click and think outside the box, you should be able to play this game and enjoy it.