Sam may also engage in conversation with non-player characters; when this occurs, the game presents a dialog tree with several subjects to pick from.

[5] The player may select any of the items in the inventory and can then attempt to use them on objects in the game world or give them to other characters simply by clicking on the desired target.

[8] The characters can travel between a variety of locations in the game using their black and white 1960 DeSoto Adventurer,[11][12] which, when selected, will present the player with a list of available destinations.

[14] In keeping with the developer's heritage from the LucasArts adventure games, Sam & Max Save the World is designed so that the player characters cannot die or reach a complete dead-end.

[19][21] In a hole in Sam and Max's own office resides Jimmy Two-Teeth, a rat who works as a petty criminal, confidence trickster and fence.

[24] Minor characters include Agent Superball, a US Secret Service agent with a penchant for guarding doors;[25] Chuckles, the pit manager in a mafia-run casino;[22] Harry Moleman, a police mole who switches sides;[22] and the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society (COPS), a group of outdated computers attempting to find purpose in the technologically advanced world.

[19] The next case the Freelance Police get involves liberating a studio audience held hostage by a deranged TV talk show host, Myra Stump.

The President's bodyguard, none other than the now-fallen Toy Mafia's pit boss, activates a giant robot disguised as the statue at the Lincoln Memorial to run in an emergency election against Max.

[30] The short was followed on December 7 by "Trainspotting", in which Sam ponders the meaning of life while Max questions the sensibility of being outside, away from the comforts of their office.

[31] On December 12, Telltale released "A Painstaking Search": having misplaced the keys to their office, Sam and Max return to Brady Culture's hideout in an attempt to retrace their steps.

[56] Telltale released the game's trailer for the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2006,[57][58] showing the new voice actors for Sam and Max: David Nowlin and William Kasten respectively.

[62] Development on the first episode was completed on September 25,[63] and from October 10, GameTap began hosting the Sam & Max animated series as promotional material for release.

[52] Grossman explained that the Sam & Max franchise was therefore most ideally suited to the graphic adventure genre; while action was thought to be possible with the source material, it "would be kind of wrong".

[52] Still, designers decided to introduce action moments such as car chase scenes, wanting players to "feel like [they] are these crazy Freelance Police officers" and "just be involved in all this sort of mayhem" presented in the original comic strips.

For instance, on Purcell's suggestion, the sky was changed from blue to yellow in the street outside Sam and Max's office, instantly making the environment feel "filthy and disgusting".

[80] The Save the World soundtrack was composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson, Bajakian's former protégé, whose previous work included composition and sound editing for LucasArts.

Previous unsuccessful implementations of the distribution model included attempts by Valve with the Half-Life series, Ritual Entertainment with SiN Episodes and Telltale themselves with Bone.

[112][113] Criticisms of "Culture Shock" focused on the story; while the humor in the writing was praised,[112] the plot was seen as a "thin excuse for the jokes"[114] and the episode's primary antagonist was described by IGN's Steve Butts as "a bit of a letdown".

[129][131] The season finale "Bright Side of the Moon" received a more reserved response than the two previous episodes, with criticisms directed at the length of the game[132] and the depth of character interaction.

[138] Reviewing for Adventure Gamers, Evan Dickens felt that the puzzles took "a bit of thought and consideration, but never to a point of consternation", believing that the low difficulty was intended by Telltale to allow players to "proceed through the story with minimum frustration".

[145] Critics commended Sam & Max Save the World's graphics and art direction; Dickens commented that "the cartoonish, absurdist nature of Steve Purcell's characters is captured perfectly" within an "enthusiastically colorful world that is at its best the stranger it gets",[139] while GameZone reviewer Anise Hollingshead praised Telltale for successfully upgrading the characters' graphics "without losing any of their cartoon appeal".

[142] Kristen Reed, writing for Eurogamer, felt that the graphics reflected a "great degree of care and attention to everything from the locations to the standard of character modelling and animation".

In a review for The Entertainment Depot, Tim McGowan complimented Emerson-Johnson's soundtrack as "being quite excellent and listenable on its own",[15] and IGN's Alex Van Zelfdendate described it as a "breath of fresh air".

[146][147][148] While Sam & Max was thought to be a "perfect, naturally cartoony fit for the Wii",[148] the critics noted a number of technical issues with the release.

Several critics cited minor issues with using the imprecise Wii Remote for puzzles requiring accuracy,[146][149] while observations were made that lines of dialogue could be cut short and that the frame rate could slow significantly, especially in action sequences.

Skunkape retrieved the games' original assets and source code from Telltale's archives, intending to update them with a software patch to improve compatibility with newer PCs.

The Remastered release runs on the most recent version of the Telltale Tool and features updated character models and lighting, controller support, and new music by original composer Jared Emerson-Johnson.

Other changes made include updated cutscene cinematography and re-recorded dialogue for Bosco, with Ogie Banks replacing previous actor Joey Camen.

Sam & Max Save the World Remastered was released on Nintendo Switch and Windows on December 2, 2020; on Xbox One on August 10, 2021; and on PlayStation 4 on September 29, 2022.

[151] Following Save the World, Skunkape began work on remasters for the other Telltale Sam & Max games, with Beyond Time and Space and The Devil's Playhouse released in December 2021 and August 2024 respectively.