And by "new" we don't mean the new version of the old game, we mean the proper new one. Telltale's "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal." It'll be out in North America later today (or if you slept in will be out already!), but for PAL customers, sorry, Telltale will "have release date information for you guys very soon".

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal coming to WiiWare July 27! [Telltale]

This is the first few minutes of the first installment of Tales of Monkey Island, due out next week on the PC and Nintendo Wii. As you can see, they've done a fine job of capturing the spirit of the series, particularly in the dialog of Mr. Guybrush Threepwood, whose calm in the face of incredible danger verges on stupidity. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Brings back memories, doesn't it? That's Dominic Armato voicing Guybrush there. He's the original voice actor for the character, and it shows. Who else could pull off a line like, "Here comes Guybrush Threepwood's glowing sword of hot monkey vengeance!"?

No one, that's who.

Yes yes, I realize there was no fifth Monkey Island game, but don't tell Tales of Monkey Island that. Telltale walked me through the beginning of the first episode, which kicks off with Guybrush Threepwood rushing to rescue his wife Elaine from the vile clutches of his arch-enemy LeChuck, who is torturing monkeys to get them to talk. It's the end of another epic adventure for Guy, who continually makes references to a long ordeal that we are not privvy to that he underwent in order to procure various elements needed to destroy LeChuck once and for all. Elements like a special root beer, which he heroically drops onto the floor, destroying it.

No worries! After a bit of back and forth with Elaine, their banter that of an old married couple now that they've been together for awhile, Guy convinces her to toss him a rope so he can board LeChuck's ship. Elaine kicks the rope...and LeChuck's mast falls over, spanning the two ships. Following the series' grand tradition of item substitutions, Guy uses a plant root and some bad grog to recreate the recipe, but when he uses it on his enemy, there are some rather unexpected results. LeChuck becomes human, Guybrush gets a cursed hand, and then the ship explodes, thanks to some unfortunately placed kegs of gunpowder.

Threepwood washes up on the shores of Flotsam Island, a mysterious place where the winds all blow inwards. Stranded pirates can't sail away, so they are forced to do their pirating amongst themselves...there's one intact ship on the island that the pirate community is continuously seizing and reseizing. It's from here that Guybrush begins his next epic quest in order to find Elaine, figure out what's happened to LeChuck, and deal with his hand, which is oddly glowing green.

From what I saw, the game really captures the spirit of the original series, and there really is no reason it shouldn't. There's barely a person working at Telltale who hasn't worked on at least one of the Monkey Island titles, and they've got series co-creator Dave Grossman onboard das well. They've even had Ron Gilbert stop by their office, giving the project his blessing.

You won't have long to wait to try the game for yourself, as the first episode launches in July on the PC, with the WiiWare version either launching at the same time or soon after. Unlike previous Telltale titles, Tales of Monkey Island will consist of five chapters in a much bigger story, rather than five more or less standalone games, so be prepared for some hot cliffhanger action.

Starting this July, Telltale will be releasing Tales of Monkey Island, a five-episode monthly adventure game series for the PC and WiiWare featuring the further adventures of Guybrush Threepwood and nemesis, LeChuck, as Guy accidentally releases a voodoo pox that threatens to turn the swashbuckling men of the Caribbean into pirate monsters, which is the only thing worse than just plain pirates.

Meanwhile, LucasArts is internally developing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which is a completely update version of the 1990 original, complete with new graphics, a remastered musical score, and full voice-overs. FULL VOICE-OVERS.

This could either be very good news, or very sad news, depending on how they handle it. The Secret of Monkey Island is due out this summer on Xbox Live Arcade and the PC.

Those looking for proof that a solution to Wii storage limits was sorely needed by both developers and customers need look no further than the Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People series from Telltale Games. The company today announces that sales of the WiiWare version of the adventure game series have more than doubled since Nintendo gave players the ability to run games from SD memory cards during the Game Developers Conference in March.

"Nintendo's new solution really opens the door for players to add to their collection of downloadable games, which is critical for a series with multiple installments," says Telltale CEO Dan Connors. "This is a major step forward for episodic gaming. We're looking forward to even greater success on WiiWare with Strong Bad, as well as other projects."

In the words of Mr. Bad himself, "Holy crap!"

The 20th anniversary edition of the duo's Surfin' The Highway is one of four nominees in the running for this year's Best Graphic Album - Reprint award, so Sam, Max, all the best! We'd say you were a shoe-in for this, but then, you're up against the Hellboy reprints in the category. So you're probably not going to win it.

But still! As the saying goes, it's an honour just to be nominated.

Oh, while we're on the subject of Sam & Max, for clicking through, here's a painting of Max as Sinistar.

Telltale follows up their Wallace & Gromit Xbox Live Arcade debut with seasons one and two of the Sam & Max series of point and click adventure games. Originally released as digital downloads for the PC, the episodic adventure series has since been collected into two seasons, with the first already released on the Nintendo Wii and the second coming soon for both Wii and PC. Now Xbox 360 players will get a chance to unravel mysterious mysteries with the twisted twosome, with Telltale releasing two full-season bundles onto Xbox Live in the coming months.

Both seasons have been given more descriptive names in honor of the upcoming releases, with season one now called Sam & Max Save the World and season two newly dubbed Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space.

The announcement didn't contain any word of pricing or release date, but I'm sure they'll get around to letting us know before the games are released...hopefully.

While at first the graphics for the PC adventure series might not seem all that impressive, when you get up close with some of the screenshots below you can really see the lengths that Telltale is going to in order to preserve the clay feel of the source material. Check out the squirrel pic for an excellent example of the molded clay textures, complete with a fingerprint on top of his little squirrel tail.

Nothing new to report story-wise, but the screens certainly indicate that the series is in good hands with Telltale. No, that wasn't a modeling clay pun. You're imagining things.

TROGDOR!

Nothing warms up a cold winter evening like being set on fire by a dragon with one giant arm and consummate V's. Grab episode four for a sneak peek at episode five, and prepare to be burninated, probably.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Builds to Big Finish With Episodes Featuring Dangeresque and Trogdor
New Episode to Release November 17 on PC and WiiWare, Followed by "Burninating" Season Finale

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Starring in a popular web cartoon wasn't enough. Strong Bad, who has been answering fan emails on Homestarrunner.com since 2001, is now dominating PC and WiiWare™ gaming in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, an episodic series created by Sam & Max developers Telltale, Inc. and Homestarrunner.com creators Mike and Matt Chapman. Starting this month, the series is barreling to an exciting climax with two episodes featuring the franchise's most iconic characters: Dangeresque, a crooked cop in pursuit of glory, justice (sort of), and big sacks of cash, and Trogdor, the one-armed dragon who burninates peasants across the land.

First up is Dangeresque 3, Strong Bad's oft-delayed cinematic oeuvre, set to release November 17. The final installment in a low-budget action trilogy starring, written by, and directed by Strong Bad, Dangeresque 3 has been teased on Homestarrunner.com for five years. Unlike the first two "movies," which took the form of online cartoons, Telltale's Dangeresque 3 game places you inside the film in the role of the title character, with Homestar Runner, The Cheat, Strong Mad, and the rest of the Homestarrunner.com crew rounding out the cast. Complete with shaky camera shots, flubbed lines, and awkward post-production editing, Dangeresque 3 provides the humorous, homemade movie experience Strong Bad fans have come to expect, plus an added layer of interactivity.

In Dangeresque 3, what starts as a simple job to recover a long-lost formula morphs into a race to save the world from Dangeresque's unhinged nemesis, Uzi Bazooka. The filmic fantasy is maintained throughout the game, down to the inclusion of interactive "deleted scenes" accessible only after the main storyline has been completed. The original Dangeresque cartoons and a preview of the upcoming game can be viewed at www.dangeresque3.com.

Then comes Trogdor! After months of speculation, Telltale is confirming the infamous dragon's involvement in the fifth and final Strong Bad episode. A glimpse of the menacing Burninator—plus another surprise for longtime fans—can be seen starting on November 17, in the preview video included with Dangeresque 3.

Like episodes of a television sitcom, the Strong Bad games are self-contained and new players can jump in with any episode. The first three episodes are available now, for PC from www.telltalegames.com/strongbad, or for the Wii™ console through the Wii Shop Channel. Fans anticipating Dangeresque 3 can preorder the PC version from Telltale, either individually or as part of a 5-episode season pass.

I'm just flabbergasted by the level of smoothness of the production process at Telltale, while keeping the quality up. This isn't sort of "knock it out" game design production here. This is everybody coming together and making sure things get polished. It's not passing bucks around. It's just about everybody working on a project to do about three or four things. When they see something wrong, it's their responsibility to fix it or immediately get in front of somebody who can fix it.

It's great. It's full, hands-on programming and designing. I've been exercising my feeble programming chops, my choreography chops, my design chops, my writing chops night and day to get these things together and so does everybody else. Testers come in and do patches and even code on occasion. It is something can do, so we don't have to bother always. It's great.

The episodic model is an interesting one, but you get a real sense of how busy the Telltale group is with three series shipping. Though, as the interviewer notes, "Must be refreshing to go from these cancelled projects to a company where you're constantly shipping games all the time."

In-Depth: LucasArts Alum On Strong Bad's Episodic Gaming Kick [GameSetWatch]

The Season Two Collector's DVD comes with all five PC games from the series, plus "hours" of region-free video with special features, developer commentary, a Christmas video short feature, promo trailers, concept art, desktop wallpapers and a MP3 soundtrack sampler.

Additionally, if you already bought the Sam & Max Season Two downloadable set, Telltalle will give you the Collector's DVD for shipping and handling costs only. It's $34.95 for the rest of ya, and should ship in August, the company says.

Full announcement follows the jump.

Telltale announces Sam & Max Season Two Collector's DVD

Special package featuring five complete games, hours of video bonuses, and original cover art by Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell available for order now at www.telltalegames.com

SAN RAFAEL, CA, July 23, 2008 – Interactive entertainment pioneer Telltale, Inc. is announcing that the Collector's DVD for the acclaimed game series Sam & Max Season Two is available for ordering today. Telltale has given the second season of "gaming's first sitcom" the premium boxed-set treatment that has become common for television favorites, with behind-the-scenes extras and loads of special features. Telltale is also introducing new merchandise today to celebrate the release, including a signed commemorative print, a 2-CD Season Two soundtrack, and several special bundle offers.

Sam & Max Season Two has garnered critical acclaim from numerous sources, including two Editor's Choice awards from PC Gamer and positive reviews from mainstream press ranging from the New York Times to Playboy. The series is based on comic book characters created by Eisner award-winning cartoonist Steve Purcell, who has been publishing stories starring the offbeat dog and "rabbity-thing" crime-fighting duo for over twenty years. Purcell contributed an original painting inspired by the games' events to serve as the cover for this unique DVD release.

In addition to all five games from the award-winning episodic series, which play on a PC with a DVD-ROM drive, the Season Two Collector's DVD contains hours of region-free video viewable on a PC or in any standard DVD player. Special features on the disc include game footage reels with audio commentary from the development team, the 20-minute holiday video feature "Sam & Max Nearly Save Christmas," outtakes and promotional trailers, concept art, desktop wallpapers, and an MP3 soundtrack sampler. Samples of the video content can be viewed at http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax.

Customers who already bought the downloadable Sam & Max Season Two set from Telltale can get the Collector's DVD for just the cost of shipping and handling. For new customers, the Season Two Collector's DVD sells for $34.95 and comes with free downloadable copies of the games. The DVD is expected to start shipping in August. More details are available here: http://www.telltalegames.com/store/samandmax-season2-disc

To celebrate the arrival of the Season Two DVD, Telltale's store has been stocked with new Sam & Max merchandise and great value bundles. The following new items are now available for preorder:

* The complete Sam & Max Season Two soundtrack, a 2-CD set featuring nearly three hours of jazz music from the games and another Steve Purcell original on the cover, retailing for $19.99
* A limited edition case file stuffed with "evidence" from each Season Two episode, priced at $5.99
* A poster print based on the Season Two DVD cover art, available unsigned for $14.99 or signed for $19.99

Additional Sam & Max merchandise currently in Telltale's store includes the 20th Anniversary Edition of Purcell's complete comic collection, Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway, available in paperback and limited edition hardcover versions, and the Sam & Max Freelance Police animated series 3-DVD box set. All of these items and more can be found in Telltale's online store (http://www.telltalegames.com/store).

Now some 12 years after the characters' initial video game debut, Strong Bad and friends are set to make their triumpant return to a Nintendo console with Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, collaborating with Sam and Max developers Telltale Games on the episodic adventure title. I recently met with The Brothers Chap at a gourment Atlanta restaurant to discuss the upcoming game, the perils of voice-acting every character on your website, and of course, the finest cuisine available in the United States.

Scattered, Smothered, Covered, And Gobbled

Okay, so we met at a Waffle House, but for three guys who grew up in Dunwoody Georgia, the memories afforded by the greasy diner-style restaurant far outweigh the gastro-intestinal distress we were sure to encounter later that evening. As it turns out, Mike, Matt and I all lived in the same area growing up, and while I never ran in the same circles as they did, my younger sister Nadine was in several of Matt's classes in Peachtree Middle School while Mike and I were attending Dunwoody High School. Apparently there's even a picture of Matt in my mother's house somewhere, though trying to find one specific picture in my mother's house is akin to trying to find a specific grain of sand in the desert.

This particular Waffle House was down the street from Peachtree Middle, and in an affluent Atlanta suburb where parents made damn sure that there wasn't much for their kids to do after midnight, it had long been a haven for area teens.

We order nothing healthy, and Mike inquires as to having his hashbrowns gobbled - topped with turkey - which leads to the waitress attempting to have the cook add this new type of hashbrown decoration to the menu. The cook is confused, the waitress bemused, and the whole thing comes to a head when we're told they've no turkey anyway, but we nearly made Waffle House history right there.

The Videlectrix Connection

It is important to note that while Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People (SBCG4AP) is the first console game based on The Brothers' creations, cutting-edge gaming company Videlectrix has been making games for the series for what seems like decades, with blockbuster titles such as Secret Collect, Pigs on Head, and of course, Trogdor.

The brothers explain that Videlectrix is very much involved in SBCG4AP, to the point where Mike even created a high-res logo for them (they didn't have one of their own) in case Telltale wanted to use it at the beginning of the game. The original press release for the title even lists Videlectrix as Telltale's partner for the game, a fact that confused some of Telltale's investors.

Matt explains, "Some shareholder called concerned, asking, "Who is this partner? Who is Videlectrix?" and (Telltale CEO) Dan Connors responded, "They use computers to make video games." That was all he said."

We use computers...to make video games is Videlectrix's slogan, and the fact that Telltale's CEO understood Homestar Runner that well was very encouraging to the Chapmans, who had been approached about creating a Homestar Runner video game in the past by folks a bit less understanding.

"Very rough things," explains Matt Chapman. "There was a dude from Sega of America awhile ago that we were kinda just talking to. I was like, "Is there any way that this wouldn't just be put into the factory and stuck out on the other end with something that looks kinda like our characters?" And the guy was like, "Ehhhn, probably not." He was very up front, and we were like, "Well thanks for being honest, we'll pass."

The Secret Origin Of Strong Bad

Nintendo fans from back in the days of the NES might recognize Strong Bad from one of the first console wrestling games, Data East's Tag Team Wrestling, which featured a duo called The Strong Bads.

"Oh yeah, absolutely. The Strong Bads. We were just doing some dumb thing at Kinko's for friends. We weren't planning on all of this happening," says Matt Chapman.

Not to worry though, before they started merchandising they had a lawyer check things out to make sure everything was cool, though they still expect that 50 years from now they'll be sitting around and some Data East guy will show up waving a lawsuit around.

Telltale Fits Like A Glove
The Sega pitch wasn't exactly exciting to the brothers, who never owned a Sega console but claim to have "had friends who owned Sega." The offer from Telltale Games was much more enticing. They were already fans of the Sam and Max episodic adventure series, and knowing their pedigree was a bunch of "old LucasArts dudes" it was much more a case of hearing from exactly the people you wanted to hear from.

The episodic style was also a big pull.

"The episodic thing matches our style better than one big $40 game," says brother Mike.

Brother Matt continues, "We're treating each episode of the game as an episode of the website...trying to fill some game that has 20 hours of gameplay and some stupid plot would have just been lame."

Telltale's understanding of their series has also afforded them the chance to fit all of the fan-favorite characters into the game. Matt explains that the company has been more than accommodating.

"I've actually been surprised at how many of the characters their willing to put into the episodes...the amount of them, and the breadth of them."

I asked if my particular favorite characters would be making an appearance, the old-timey versions of Strong Bad and company, but so far nothing is planned. It would require an entirely new set of 3D models, but the Brothers did hint that if enough fans asked for them a future appearance wasn't out of the question.

Voice And Butt Problems

Since younger brother Matt does every voice for the website aside from the one female character, Homestar's girlfriend Marzipan, the rigors of recording all of the sounds for five installments of a video game have taken their toll.

"In the first two episodes I've recorded maybe double of what we normally record in a year. It's definitely taken it's toll...I've had to be much more conscious of my throat."

Along with cutting out things like caffeine and sugar in his drinks (never mind the sweet tea he drank with his lunch), Matt has turned to various herbal remedies for his vocal woes, including a rather unconventional voice cure that might have done more harm than good.

"I had the hot toots for three days after this one lady gave me a jar of honey and she was like, "Put an inch and a half of it in a glass, and squeeze in as much of a lemon as you can and just shoot it until the jar is gone." If my throat got better it really didn't outweigh what it did to my butt."

Sometimes you just ask a question and get much more than you bargained for.

Just A Couple Of Nintendo Fanboys

Both Mike and Matt admit that they are Nintendo fanboys (they'd been playing Mario Kart earlier that morning), though as you'll often find the most fervent fans are the biggest critics as well. Matt echoes the sentiments of many a Nintendo fan when he calls out the Wii's lack of online community features.

"All Nintendo has to do is start an online service and we'll pay $50 a month just so we can play Mario Kart and chat with our friends."

It's for just that very reason that they both own an Xbox 360 as well as a Wii, but the only Sony system you'll find in their office is a PlayStation 2, and it's only there because of Guitar Hero.

"Harmonix's Alex Rigopoulos called us up and said "Hey, we're thinking of including one of your songs in Guitar Hero 2, so we're going to send you two copies of Guitar Hero!" So we were like, "Wow, we've gotta go buy a used PS2!"

The Final Bite

We talked for a good couple of hours, often about subjects that had nothing at all to do with Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, from Speed Racer to Star Wars to The Matrix, but all of the little side conversations that you'll never know about serve to pinpoint the very reason so many people find Strong Bad and friends so iressistible in the first place. It's the type of humor that comes from a couple of guys sitting around a Waffle House eating bad food and just talking about whatever comes to mind. If the game manages to capture even a small portion of that feeling, it'll be something special indeed.

With that, I leave you with the last room temperature bite. Enjoy!

"The game is actually now getting pushed back to July, but the game is going to just be much better for it. It's just development time."

So it'll be just a little bit longer before Strong Bad, Homestar and crew make their console debut, but judging by the enthusiasm the Brothers Chap elicited during our gourmet meal I certainly wouldn't be worried about it. When the creators of the property are this enthused without someone poking them with a cattle prod you can generally expect something awesome. Speaking of which, look for the full interview sometime during next week's power-packed episode of Kotaku!

This is a prime example of why drinking and GDC don't mix. I was actually given this information by a slightly drunk PR girl at the Sam and Max party, only to completely forget it due to blue alcoholic beverages. All part of their sinister plot, I'm sure.

I believe that this is the future of adventures games, released like television episodes over the internet, and then collected in boxed sets after the fact. As the proud owner of over fifty seasons of various television shows, it's a business model that really speaks to me. Michael Fahey

JoWooD Productions And Telltale Announce Partnership To Bring Sam & Max: Season 1 To Retail

JoWooD will distribute funniest PC game of the year

Vienna, Austria. March 15, 2007. Sam & Max, the legendary dog and rabbit crime-fighting stars that have been reintroduced to the gaming public with Telltale's downloadable episodic series Sam & Max: Season 1, are finally returning to retail stores worldwide beginning in August 2007.

Sam & Max aren't your average crime-fighting duo. Sam is a six-foot tall canine shamus with a love of justice. Max is hyperkinetic rabbity-thing with a taste for violence. Together, Sam & Max are the Freelance Police, ridding the streets of bottom-feeding sludge one dastardly miscreant at a time.

Over the last two de cades, Sam & Max have appeared in a number of formats, including independent comics created by Steve Purcell, an interactive PC adventure game, a Saturday morning cartoon, a webcomic strip, and now innovative episodic games developed by Telltale. The Adventure Company's Sam & Max: Season 1 release marks this series' first foray into retail stores, giving customers worldwide an opportunity to see why the game's bizarre humor, crazy characters, vivid 3D graphics, and good, old-fashioned point & click gameplay make Sam & Max: Season 1 the funniest PC game in years.

"We are excited about working with Telltale. Sam & Max is a strong franchise and fans across Europe, and the world over, are highly anticipating Sam & Max: Season 1," said Albert Seidl, CEO of JoWooD Productions Software AG. "The worldwide retail release will allow us to bring Sam & Max to a wider audience since the game will be available in the five main languages."

Sam & Max: Season 1 will be released for Windows with a targeted global release date of August 2007.

About the JoWooD Group

Shares of the JoWooD Group are traded at the Vienna stock exchange. They are one of the leading publishers of computer and videogames with a worldwide network of distribution partners. JoWooD develops and publishes state-of-the-art entertainment software for all major existing and new generation systems. For more information please visit www.jowood.com or http://corporate.jowood.com.

About Sam & Max

Steve Purcell published "Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple" as his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Sam & Max solved assorted crimes and mysteries as Freelance Police in their sturdy 1960 Black and White De Soto Adventurer from their home base in New York City. After a series of follow-up comic books, Purcell worked with a team at LucasArts to create the critically acclaimed Sam & Max Hit the Road adventure ga me in 1993. The dog and rabbity-thing duo moved to television in an award-winning animated series in 1997, and are now appearing in an all-new webcomic series at www.telltalegames.com.

About Telltale Inc.

Telltale delivers Tales for Your Imagination - high caliber interactive entertainment which features engaging stories, strong characters, and rich environments. A new era of interactive entertainment is emerging, with customers expecting more from their investment in play time. Telltale is developing and deploying cinematic quality animation and storytelling technologies, to create entertaining and exciting interactive adventures which meet these new expectations. Staffed with long time industry veterans, Telltale creates tales based on Jeff Smith's Bone series, Steve Purcell's Sam & Max characters and television's popular CSI program in partnership with Ubisoft. Telltale offers content development and custom publishing services for license-h olders interested in adapting their properties for interactive delivery. Telltale has created innovative tools, designed specifically for rapid development of high quality, space-efficient titles for digital distribution. Telltale titles can be downloaded from its website, as well as online partners such as Yahoo! Games, Direct-to-Drive, Trymedia Systems, Boonty, and CNET. To learn more about Telltale, please visit www.telltalegames.com.

Go Nintendo points out that Telltale games is looking to hire a Wii systems programmer ASAP.

The creators of Sam and Max posted a job opening for the position late last week saying that it will be for at least one shipped game and that anyone applying should have a "love of adventure games."

Could Sam and Max be making the jump from GameTap to Wii? Hit the jump for the full job listing. Brian Crecente

Telltale Working on Wii Game [Go Nintendo]

Wii Systems Programmer Posted 1/25/07
We have an immediate opening for a Wii Systems Programmer. This position will be responsible for implementing our core 3D graphics and audio systems on the Wii. This is a full time position at our San Rafael location.

* Responsibilities
o Migrate core components of D3D based PC game engine to the Wii
o Implement additional platform specific features
o Modify and support existing art and production path to accommodate Wii production
o Contribute to the design and direction of Telltale Technology and products.
* Requirements
o Fluent C/C++ (templates, design patterns, STL, etc). Minimum 2 years professional experience.
o Experience designing and building game systems on consoles.
o Minimum of 1 shipped game title.
o Teamwork, communication, interpersonal and organizational skills are essential.
o Attentive to detail
* Additional Preferred
o Prior experience with Wii or GameCube.
o Working knowledge of Lua implementation.
o C# experience.
o Maya experience (as a user and API).
o Experience in natural language processing.
o Love of adventure games.

Siliconera got to the recently-released Sam & Max via Gametap and are in the process of writing a comprehensive review, but a few key details made it out today:

I can happily tell you that the series' trademark brand of zany, dark humor is healthy and thriving in its new home. What's more is that all the hallmarks of the Adventure genre that are sorely missed these days are in tact along with it: amusing puzzles, excellent attention to detail in the level design, great voice acting etc. It's a Sam & Max game, no doubt, it's what you've been thirsting for all these years (or, if you've never played the original, what you didn't know you were thirsting for all these years), and it's...over way too fast.

Siliconera and I disagree on the quality of voice acting, if the trailer I posted a few weeks ago holds true to the game itself. But this glowing review bodes well. I don't mind a short game. I'll be picking this one up via non-Gametap channels, most likely. Eliza Gauger

It Lives! Sam & Max are back, and their blatant abuse of authority is as glorious as ever. [Siliconera]

Well, it's finally done and the newest trailer makes me even less excited than I have been. This nutless voice acting and subdued animation is just not up to the Sam and Max par, and frankly I'm just not looking forward to it anymore.

Here's hoping the actual gameplay will somewhat salvage what is really looking like a sequelitis-ridden mistake. Eliza Gauger

Sam and Max goes gold [Telltale Games, via Destructoid]

As iffy as I am on the graphics and voice acting in Telltale's new Sam and Max adventure, playing adventure games on the Wii is a fun prospect. Says Computer and Video Games:

According to a report on Worthplaying, the dev's CEO Dan Connors spoke about how Sam & Max would be well-suited to Wii at last month's Penny Arcade Expo 2006. Telltale designer/author Heather Logas also chipped in, saying more or less that the Wii controller would be great for adventure games.

However, apparently Sam & Max's possible appearance on Wii all hangs on Nintendo giving it the thumbs up. We can only wait and see if the Japanese giant does just that.

Would the Wiimote really be good for adventure games? To move a cursor around the screen, maybe? Not sure how to envision that. Eliza Gauger

Sam and Max May Be Coming to Wii [Computer and Video Games]