Sam and Max Episode 6 of Season One, Dark Side of the Moon is a great continuation of the series.  And it's got a really need puzzle solving boss battle that harkens back to the former days of glory for the Adventure game market.

However, this game doesn't really stand on it's own.  It depends heavily on previous chunks of the game being well known to the players, and it's a bit of a letdown on the writing side of things.  It's still great... but it's not the best of the series.

What's the old adage about moving a series into Space?  OK, it doesn't exactly apply;  Sam and Max haven't jumped the shark or anything.  And, besides, Sam and Max have a long history of ending up in space, especially on the Moon.  So in actuality, it's the perfect location for the final game of the series.

I bring this up mainly because, while the locations are lush (as compared to the previous installment, the actual writing (again, compared to the previous installment) is a bit lacking.  Usually I expect final episodes to have a bit more bang for the buck.  But, hey, they're on the freaking MOON.

As much as I gripe about the writing in this installment, however, I will admit that around one single item of the game (a unicorn that you must rub to prove that you're a prismatologist) the writers found tons of ways to almost nearly make adult jokes that I'm sure most people will enjoy.

They also make referential humor to the previous episodes of the series, so I would highly recommend that you complete the other games before you play this one.  I know, that seems almost counter intuitive (What, play the series from Game One to Game Six, in order?!) but my usual recommendation is to start with Episode Four: Abe Lincoln Must Die, then go play them in order... as it took the actors a bit to get into the feel of the characters, and if you're a Sam and Max fan and you start with Episode One you might end up with an artificially low opinion of the series.

Complaints aside, this game is still a ton better than many others on the market, and you can find it for sale on Steam and Telltale's own website for a really great price.  It's available for PC, XBOX Live, and Wii on the Marketplace, so it's not hard to find.  In fact, the developers poke a bit of fun at themselves when you talk to the game-developing COPS from Episode Five:

Once you've played through Episodes 1-5, Episode Six will be a nice cap off for the series, making you ready for more.  And if, like me, you bought the game late in the series, Season 2 is already out, ready for you to buy and download.  That's where I'm off to!

Sam and Max is an incredibly fun series of relatively short games.  Even busy people like me can find enough time to play though an episode in one (or maybe two) sittings.  They're incredibly fun, full of plenty of off color dialog for tons of items in the game.  This game has a few more fetch quest puzzles, requiring you go to back and forth between Straight and Narrow street and the Moon, which seems to artificially extend gameplay a bit more than necessary.  But, that aside, the game series is incredibly fun, and if you don't go out and buy it by NOW after all my reviews, I just might have to punch you out of your Major Game Company Hypnosis!