It doesn’t seem more than a few weeks since Sam and Max returned to our computer screens for their first adventure since 1993’s Hit The Road, but alas here we all are screeching to a halt at the end-of-season-one service station. Has the episodic nature of the series worked? That’s a question only Telltale Games will truly know in terms of finances and the like, but in terms of gameplay it’s been a slightly mixed bag. On one hand we’ve been able to play approaching 15-hours of game for about £20 and chuckle at some witty jibes and comments, whilst on the other we’ve all been ever-so-slightly disappointed by the inconsistent puzzle difficulty and the limitations the segmented nature of the whole thing has put on the tasks you undertake.

Still, what can’t be denied is that last episode – Reality 2.0 – was the best the series has offered to date. With just the right balance of puzzling and some hilarious jokes and nods towards other areas of the gaming industry it pointed towards a more promising, fun-filled future for Sam and Max than anything previously had lead us to believe. With that in mind, it’s with a slight twinge of disappointment that I have to report that Bright Side Of The Moon slips back from the heady heights of its predecessor and ends up being an amusing yet strangely unfulfilling end to the first series.

Having worked through a number of bizarre hypnotic enemies throughout the first five episodes, Sam and Max finally get their noodles around who’s the big boss behind all the trouble and set off for the moon in pursuit (getting their by car, of course). What follows is an adventure that sees the two switching between both planets, selling the United States to Canada and ripping the tails off rabbits along the way in order to settle the score with their arch nemesis. In terms of amusement and humour it’s still a great way to spend a couple of hours, and even if you spend most of your time in familiar company with Sybil and Bosco you’ll find more than enough jokes and observations buried within the comment branches to give you a good few belly chuckles.

No, it’s the puzzles that cause Episode 6 to falter at the final hurdle. With Reality 2.0 you felt as if the episode had progressed through a series of pretty consistent mind-benders, with each problem requiring a bit of thought and attention to conversations and surroundings. The latest episode sadly goes back to the problem that episodes prior to the previous instalment had, with a couple of remarkably easy puzzles chucked in and then a few utterly obscure problems that’ll have you scratching your head/clicking on everything in sight/smashing your mouse in frustration/running screaming and crying to the nearest FAQ page (delete as appropriate, or in my case do a little of each). The issue isn’t helped by the fact that one of the puzzles is solved by picking up an item which for the previous five episodes has been completely incidental and only served to provoke a random comment from Sam, Max or both.

As mentioned before though, it’s hard to see how Telltale could have nailed it every time given their decision to treat every episode as a standalone adventure. A possible remedy for series two would be to develop the series in the way of a continuing narrative, with crucial items in the inventory being carried over from one chunk to the other. I myself had a rather nifty idea about the series detailing a number of hours in one certain day rather like that natty television show which goes in real-time for 24-hours of just one day. Can’t think for the life of me what the thing is called, mind. Still, you feel that Telltale will have certainly learnt some lessons from what will undoubtedly be viewed as a test series in the future, and you definitely can’t say that they’ve failed to rekindle the slightly twisted humour of our number one freelance police duo.

With that, we reach the end. I for one feel that the series has been great value for cash, and the most pleasing thing of all is that Sam and Max are with a team that not only cares about the characters but also is also willing to listen to and take onboard views and opinions from fans. If you’ve staggered across this paragraph having not purchased any of the episodes yet then I can heartily recommend that you ready your credit card immediately, and despite the flaws and niggles we’ve had along the way the series when viewed as a whole has to be regarded as a success. Roll on season two my furry little friend, roll on season two.