Those classic PC characters, Sam & Max arrive on the Nintendo Wii in Sam & Max Season One that promises gamers a truly innovative gaming experience with those loveable characters and truly outrageous and hilarious story. For those unaware of the characters Sam & Max, they are both animal gumshoe detectives with Sam being the Rabbit and Max the dog.

Together they make a formidable team, provided they can get through their differences, however the banter and relationship between both character is what the game is truly about.

Although Sam & Max Season One has been available on the PC, the developers have thankfully included all six episodes on the Nintendo Wii version and of course revamped the gameplay to use the innovative controls of the Wii console.

Before starting the game, players are greeted to a menu where they need to select which episode they wish to attempt and best of all, if you do become stuck in an episode, you can simply try the next episode and come back at a later time to the episode that you are having difficulties with.

The premise behind Sam & Max is reminiscent of those old point and click adventure games where you must solve a variety of puzzles, speak to characters involved in the "crime" and hopefully solve the mystery that you have been hired to solve. 

With that said, the puzzles range from easy to difficult and sometimes the solutions are right in front of you. Needless to say, it does make you think and even though this game involves two "cute" cartoon-esq characters, the puzzles are definitely more suited for the slightly older gamers, however I'm sure the younger gamers will have just as much attempting to solve the puzzles.

The solution does involve the gaming environment, so you need to pay attention to what is around your characters in order to proceed through the episode that you are playing. The control system on the Wii uses the Wii remote perfectly as you interact with the gaming environment and move your characters around the Saturday morning cartoon environment. In actual fact, the use of the Wii remote is almost the same as the mouse.

Interestingly enough, games such as Sam & Max are quite rare these days, especially on the Nintendo Wii so don't expect those fast paced action games where you run around and the action is quite full on.

Rather, Sam & Max is a thinking game and is more slow paced than the games of today, not that there is anything wrong with that. What really makes this game so entertaining as mentioned again and again is the colourful banter between both characters, whether it's Max's impulsiveness and witty one-liners or Sam's orderly approach to everything. It's probably some of the best dialog to have graced a game in quite some time.

Graphically, the title is visually impressive for a Nintendo Wii game that almost looks like you're watching a Saturday morning cartoon series with vibrant colours and great character animation.

Although it has a "2D" feel to the graphics, it actually suits the game perfectly in that the gamer is playing an interactive cartoon. Of course the voice acting of the game is brilliant as per the dialog, sound effects and brilliant musical score that goes hand in hand with the graphics and gameplay.

In conclusion, this game will definitely appeal to a variety of gamers due to the content of the game and it's animated nature. It's definitely an original game that most seasoned gamers should be able to complete within one to two weeks, depending on how much time they spend on it.

Bring on Season Two!