Psychotic and Psychotic Comedy

After blowing off some steam in my last post I decided to post about somethign equally psychotic that could be in Adventure games :)

Two of most distinguish gems to be mention here are Sam & Max and Sanitarium.

Sam & Max was first a comic book with unique style of clean cut dark comedy. Here is one of the example.
In the game version, the makers fully utilize the author's sense of humour and style making it one of a kind in the genre. I was lucky enough to have found both the diskette versions (8 MB) and the CD version (100s MB) The Cd version was worth looking for if you can :) The voice talents was perfect (I think it might be the same people from the animation version of the comic).

On A sidenote. LucasArts had annouce and was producing Sam & Max 2 and later cancelled it citing their marketing department that the game "will not sell well" Despite the fact that almost every game magazine were eagerly awaiting this game as well as the fans world wide. The news of the cancel cause wide uproars among adventure games community and resentment toward LucasArts. Personally I think LA should have fired their marketing department instead of cancelling the game. It was the job of the marketers to make the game sellable not saying we can't marketted this game. God knows they had it easy selling the crabby Star Wars games for several years and when a good challenge coming by they just chicken out!!!

Sanitarium: One of the scariest Advanture games I had ever played. And it was not because of the gore nor the scary image but the overall looks were rather disturbing... The synosis at Underdogs said it all:

"Doubtless one of the very best "serious"advanture games ever made. In this psychological rollercoaster ride, you find yourself a patient in a strange sanitarium, with no memory of who you are. Slowly but surely, as the game progresses, you gather clues and insights into the past that give you the whole picture. I don't want to ruin your enjoyment of the game, but in general, each new chapter represents another step in Max's search for his sanity. A true classic, and must-have for every adventure gamer, especially fans of psychological thrillers.?"

This game is also one of it's kind. I had first played the CD-rip version from Underdogs (the original game were in 3 CDs and the maker of this CD-rip version had cleverly use clip from the video cutscene to make the cutscene in this one thus drastically reduce the size) and I love it. When I heard from Justadventures that the game has been reproduce in jewelcase version I ask my friend in NY to buy it for me and it was worth the Money!! Each CDs were beautifully printed and the cinematic cutscenes were all there including the ending radio broadcast which will tell you how thing were concluded in the end.