Today I received an e-mail announcing that the first episode of Season 2 of the new Sam & Max games was now available to regular, non-GameTap subscribers. So, of course, I had to immediately buy and download it…

It’s largely the same engine as the Season 1 games, with the big new feature being proper widescreen support, the lack of which annoyed me a bit in those first episodes. It also adds a few new settings for the North Pole and reopened diner nearby, though this time Sybil’s place is inaccessible. It also reintroduces Flint Paper, from the comics and original game, but he doesn’t really have a full role in this first episode.

It’s still your standard collect-and-solve adventure game, of course, though this time they added a boxing action sequence in addition to the usual driving challenge. It seemed a bit out-of-place in an adventure game, and was difficult to control since it didn’t seem to respond properly in some cases (when the mouse is on the edge of the screen, perhaps), but it didn’t take too long to beat, either.

The game as a whole did seem a bit longer and less linear than the previous episodes, though. Some of them could be solved in as little as 1.5-2 hours, but this one took me four. It’s a pretty good start to the season, in any case.