GameSpot | GameFAQs | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
 |
|
|||||
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
How Metascores Are Calculated
xx
18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games. |
He's the most powerful opponent they've ever faced, an ancient being of myth – Santa Claus! With Christmas presents on the attack and carols of gunshots, Sam & Max must storm the North Pole to bring down a less-than-jolly foe. Can our heroes save the world's children from a holiday tainted by tears, turmoil, and Torture-Me-Elmer? Find out in the Season Two premiere, Ice Station Santa! [GameTap]
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more... 100
Just Adventure
The puzzles are harder without hints causing game players to say Duh for much longer. I loved the plot and I love Sam & Max.
 90
Gamers' Temple
Sam and Max begin Season Two with a bang (and a giant robot).
90
GotNext
While there have been some changes and remodeling in the time off, this is more of the same good stuff as the first season. If the craving for more has hit you by now, this will make the perfect stocking stuffer.
90
Adventure Gamers
If you haven’t jumped onto the bandwagon yet, you are doing yourself a disservice by missing the best comic adventure games in the modern era.
90
Quandary
An excellent addition, difficulty levels is something that would benefit every adventure game.
90
AceGamez
Hilarious, well structured, brilliantly acted and lovingly constructed. It's also easily the longest episode in the series so far.
90
Cheat Code Central
Ice Station Santa is definitely one of the longer episodes of the batch, and it may easily become a fast favorite. Still, even with the hints turned completely off it will only take you a handful of hours to plow through this gem.
90
Armchair Empire
There are plenty of hijinks and hilarity to be found during Ice Station Santa in the unraveling of the Santa legend, Sam and Max style.
88
Game Chronicles
You would be crazy not to at least give this a try.
88
Pelit (Finland)
The second season starts out nicely. Everything that made the first season so terrific is still in the game: nutty humour, witty dialogue, entertaining plot and interface that works. The puzzles are good, although still not hard on adventure game terms. The sub-games do need something new, though. Driving the car is nice, but starts to get a little bit dull. [Dec 2007]
85
GamerNode
Excellent writing and fun gameplay make the game very enoyable, but the short hours may prove to the icebreaker for some.
84
netjak
Ice Station Santa is a huge step in the right direction for the Sam and Max franchise.
83
PC Gamer
Aside from a somewhat anticlimactic ending, Santa ranks as one of the series' best and sharpest-written episodes. [Feb 2008, p.86]
83
Jolt Online Gaming UK
Playing through Ice Station Santa not only reminded us, as most of the Sam & Max instalments tend to, that there really aren’t enough good point and clickers around, but also that there aren’t enough games with a Christmas theme to them.
81
PC Zone UK
It holds it all together with coherency, and more of a sense of storytelling than was ever apparent in Season One. [Jan 2008, p.75]
80
games(TM)
Despite Telltale’s reluctance to evolve Sam & Max further, this opening to Season 2 is still one of the best point-and-click games of the year and remains the benchmark by which all other episodic adventures will be judged. [Chrismas 2007, p.133]
80
Play Magazine
If you enjoyed the silly, cynical and delightful whimsy of past Sam & Max adventures, this episode will bring that smile back for another couple of hours...if you can scrounge up a measly $8.95. [Dec 2007, p.97]
80
GameTap
A hilarious little adventure game buoyed by riotous humor, intuitive puzzles, and original charm.
80
1UP
Sam & Max's design crew runs a well-oiled humor machine, and Ice Station Santa flaunts everything from suicidal alley rats to demented gift exchanges to a trio of time-displaced Christmas spirits who turn the expected feel-good story cliché on its head.
80
Gaming Nexus
If you're looking for a few hours of non-stop comedy then you would be a fool to pass over Ice Station Santa. This Sam & Max adventure hasn't evolved much from the first season, but it tells an interesting story full of memorable characters and plot twists. After this game you'll never look at Santa Claus in quite the same way.
80
The New York Times
You can get through 201, like the other Sam & Max episodes, in under five hours, and for fans of the sardonic humor of the series, there are few better ways to spend an afternoon.
80
GameDaily
New character animations and game improvements make the world more entertaining and lively, kicking off a very strong start to the new season of games.
80
IGN
What you're really going to enjoy here are the great new settings and gags. The new stuff makes the whole experience seem fresh. Let's just hope they don't get overused in the coming months.
80
GameSpy
The puzzles themselves are very well-done. They aren't outrageously difficult by adventure game standards but they're very organic to the game's unique worldview and can be a bit challenging to those not used to the complete disregard for linear thinking, logic and classical physics that characterize Sam and Max's world.
80
Games Radar
A little longer, a lot tougher and a lot more elaborate than any of the previous episodes (except for maybe the awesome Reality 2.0), Ice Station Santa is a lot of fun while it lasts, and totally worth the nine bucks it costs to play.
75
GameZone
This game is a hoot! However, it seemed shorter than previous episodes from Season One and was not overly challenging. I didn’t like the profanity, either. But I did enjoy playing the game, and the whole Santa theme was highly amusing.
75
Destructoid
Ultimately, Sam & Max is a finely crafted, hilarious adventure game with classic gameplay whose moments of frustation are overshadowed by the moments of unadulterated joy that they eventually lead to.
74
PC Format
Essentially more Sam and Max. [Jan 2008, p.73]
60
PC Gamer UK
Wacky before funny, showing no signs of progress. [Jan 2008, p.81]
60
EuroGamer
As a game in isolation, it's hard to get away from the fact that finding the right object to give to the right person or thing isn't the most fun you'll ever have with a game.
Tyson A. gave it a9: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
