SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 20th, 2024. In today’s article, I’ve got a couple more reviews for you. I’ve got my take on the lovely remaster of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, plus my thoughts on the rather messy Elrentaros Wanderings. Then there’s one new release to check out, plus the usual lists of new and expiring sales. Not a very busy day today, but that works out well for my schedule. Let’s go!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered ($19.99)

Ten years ago, you would never have expected things to end up the way they did for Telltale Games. Having just wrapped up The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead: Season Two, the adventure game publisher seemed like it was nigh unstoppable. Just a few years later, everything fell apart. And here we are in 2024, happy to see any of those pieces picked up and made available again. For all of Telltale’s problems, there was really something to the games it released. Adventure games were finally part of the popular conversation again, and it was in no small part thanks to Telltale’s work.

That’s why I’m happy to see what I feel is the heart and soul of Telltale Games fully available on Switch via this release. To a great extent, Sam & Max Save the World brought Telltale into the eyes of many players. The follow-up, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space kept the ball rolling. The last of the trilogy, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse feels in some ways like the end of a particular era. Scant months later, Back to the Future: The Game would launch its first episode, and it laid down the track that Telltale would drive on for the next several years. Big licenses, a focus on character relationships, and less of a focus on traditional puzzle-solving. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I just happen to like what Telltale was up to before that.

So, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. The first two Sam & Max seasons from Telltale came off like the developer was trying to find its feet. Good, to be sure. But sometimes lacking in confidence, and the games seemed to be put together on a shoestring budget. The Devil’s Playhouse was different. The writers were clearly comfortable with these characters enough to take them places. Telltale had sharpened its skills significantly and had more money to put into projects. It shows. The story here is excellent. Irreverent, funny, and smart the way you would hope a Sam & Max game would be, but with a slightly darker tone that adds a bit of spice. The puzzle design is refined without being toothless. The locations you visit are well-realized. The last episode (remember episodic games?) doesn’t quite stick the landing, but it’s hard to be too upset about it given the quality of the rest.

This Remastered version follows in the footsteps of the last two. In cooperation with members of the original team, the visuals have been enhanced in a number of ways. The lighting is more interesting, the lip-flap is better, and there have even been some adjustments to the cinematography. It’s not too strong by any means, maintaining the feel of the original release. It’s Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse as you perhaps remember it, not how it actually was. I’ve been quite pleased with how these remasters have been handled thus far, and I didn’t expect the team to drop the ball here. A fine job all-around, one the whole team can be proud of.

Out of all the things that could be salvaged from the defunct original form of Telltale Games, the Sam & Max trilogy was just about the highest on my list. Now, with this excellent remaster of The Devil’s Playhouse, that job is complete. If you’ve never played a Sam & Max game before, feel free to slide on in with Sam & Max Save the World and see it through to the end of The Devil’s Playhouse. It’s quite the wild ride. If you have played these games before, the enhanced presentation might just convince you to go for a replay. They quite literally don’t make them like this anymore.

SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5

Elrentaros Wanderings ($39.99)

Sometimes it feels like a game is just a few smart tweaks away from greatness. And then there are games like Elrentaros Wanderings. The basic premise is solid enough, and one that gets the engine running when you find out this game is from Rune Factory’s creator. You’re an amnesiac wanderer who comes across the town of Elrentaros. The people there are friendly, if a little one-note, and they have all kinds of work for an adventurer like yourself. Dungeon work, mainly. As time progresses you can get closer with the townspeople and deepen your bonds with them. So far, not so unusual. But then you beat a boss, and suddenly you’re in a school setting in modern Japan. All the townspeople of Elrentaros are there, but they’re acting differently and don’t seem to know you. What is going on?

That’s a good hook. Good enough to keep me happily playing despite how tired I was getting of running the uninteresting dungeons again and again, trying to complete objectives and get my gear in shape. Bored of seeing the same enemies, just in a new color palette. If I beat that next boss, I can move towards resolving this mystery. If I keep talking to these uninteresting townspeople, maybe I can see where this all goes. I wish I could say it was worth it in the end, but it wasn’t. A decent story, but not one worth the slog of playing through this game.

Anyway, the basic loop here follows a fairly standard looter dungeon crawler template. Dive into the dungeon, battle enemies, get some new gear, dive in again, and so on. There are multiple dungeons to tackle here that each culminate in a boss battle. What’s different here is that powering up your character is more a matter of completing particular tasks in each dungeon and reaping the rewards. You won’t know what those tasks are on your first run, and you really do need to check off those lists to keep your character strong enough to push forward. At a bare minimum, you’ll be doing each dungeon twice. Beyond gear and more direct power-ups, you’ll also get your hands on gifts that you can offer up to the townspeople to win their favor. That pursuit has its own rewards, so you don’t want to neglect it either.

The problem is that just about none of this is very interesting. The townspeople aren’t very deep or well-written. The dungeon layouts are bland and certainly aren’t better on subsequent runs. The enemies are cool the first time you see them, but you’ll be seeing them again and again in slightly different colors. The battle system offers little to sink your teeth into, and the loot fails to hit the spot the way it ought to in a game like this. The story is spread far too thin across the gameplay, a meager oasis in a vast, exhausting desert of repetition. I was enjoying this game early on, patient to see how things unfolded as it went on, but the reward never came.

I think if you are okay with a pure grind, Elrentaros Wanderings might not turn you off the way it did me. But if you have even the slightest allergy to excessive banality, then this game is likely to have you heading for the hills. Its few good ideas are squandered by watering down the broth too much, stretching far too little content far too far. Not without any merit, but thoroughly disappointing.

SwitchArcade Score: 2.5/5

Select New Releases

Stumble Guys (Free)

Here’s a Switch version of Stumble Guys, the game that seems to have wrested the ball away from Fall Guys and ran with it. Up to thirty-two players compete online in a variety of events and modes. The game is free to start, just like on other platforms. But there are a wide range of ways to spend your real cash, so don’t you worry about that. Anyway, it’s free, it’s here, try it if you want or walk on past if you don’t.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Not a whole lot to get excited about today, beyond Dadish and company being on sale. All good games, from Dadish on down. Buy and enjoy. Over in the outbox, the main thing of note is Kairosoft’s latest sale wrapping up. It won’t take but a minute to check those lists, so you might as well do just that.

Select New Sales

Rack and Slay ($5.09 from $5.99 until 8/25)
Sagres ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/26)
Gravity Oddity ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/26)
Warhammer 40k Dakka Squadron ($1.99 from $19.99 until 8/26)
Guilt Battle Arena ($1.99 from $9.99 until 8/26)
Chippy & Noppo ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/27)
Soundfall ($4.49 from $29.99 until 8/27)
Last Encounter ($1.99 from $14.99 until 9/2)
Ultra Foodmess ($1.99 from $3.99 until 9/2)
Dadish ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10)
Dadish 2 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10)
Dadish 3 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10)
Dadish 3D ($2.99 from $14.99 until 9/10)
Daily Dadish ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10)
Super Fowlst ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/10)
Super Fowlst 2 ($2.00 from $10.00 until 9/10)
Molecano ($1.99 from $8.00 until 9/10)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, August 21st

50 Pinch Barrage ($4.29 from $4.99 until 8/21)
8-Colors Star Guardians + ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/21)
Attack of the Karens ($2.49 from $4.99 until 8/21)
Cafe Master Story ($6.00 from $12.00 until 8/21)
Children of Morta Complete ($7.99 from $26.99 until 8/21)
Claire: Extended Cut ($2.99 from $14.99 until 8/21)
Goliath Depot ($3.49 from $6.99 until 8/21)
High Seas Saga DX ($6.00 from $12.00 until 8/21)
Oh!Edo Towns ($4.62 from $14.00 until 8/21)
Pocket Stables ($3.96 from $12.00 until 8/21)
Whitestone ($3.99 from $19.99 until 8/21)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new games, more sales, perhaps some news, and maybe even a review? I wouldn’t bet too much money on that last one, but who knows? I have a family thing tonight, and so I’m cutting out a little early today. Don’t tell the boss! I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!