The Penal Zone
From Sam & Max Wiki
| “The Penal Zone” | |||||||
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| Telltale episode | |||||||
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| Episode # | 301 | ||||||
| Designed by | Chuck Jordan | ||||||
| Written by | Chuck Jordan | ||||||
| Directed by | Chuck Jordan Nick Herman | ||||||
| Villain | General Skun-ka'pe | ||||||
| Release date | April 15, 2010 (PC, Mac, PS3) April 3, 2010 (iPad) | ||||||
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The Penal Zone is the first episode of The Devil's Playhouse created by Telltale Games. In this episode, Max discovers that he has "The Gift" which lets him use the Toys of Power. After seeing a future version showing General Skun-ka'pe attacking Earth (only for him to appear claiming peace later), Sam and Max must investigate him.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
While Sam is taking a call from The Commissioner about a recent wave of lawfulness, Max wanders off and finds what looks like an old View-Master toy. The toy grants him the power to see the future and they promptly have a vision. In the vision, they are trapped on board General Skun-ka'pe's spaceship, but use the powers granted by two more toys lying around and an invention of Ms Bosco to get out and trap Skun-ka'pe in the alternate dimension known as the Penal Zone. (The game starts out of order, with the vision played through first.)
When the vision stops, General Skun-ka'pe's spaceship lands on Sybil's building, destroying it, and is met by Agent Superball. The General claims to come in peace and explains that he is looking for an artifact that grants the ability to see the future. He will allow anyone access to his spaceship, so Sam & Max take a look. There they find that Gordon, the brain-in-a-jar that was helping them in the vision, is dead. When they eventually bring him back to life, he gives Max another power-granting toy locked in the spaceship: a telephone that grants the power of teleportation. He also informs them that the other toys they saw in the vision must be somewhere on Earth, since they're not in the spaceship yet.
At that point they meet Agent Superball again. He explains that he is leading the Department of Homeworld Security and that Skun-ka'pe is a notorious criminal. He also explains how to trap Skun-ka'pe in the Penal Zone, for which they will need his homing beacon and an invention of Ms Bosco (which they both had in the vision). It turns out that Skun-ka'pe gave the homing beacon to Grandpa Stinky, and Sam & Max manage to trick him out of it. They find Momma Bosco's lab taken over by Skun-ka'pe's minions. Once they get them out of the way, she gives them the invention they need.
Afterwards, they use Max's powers and the C.O.P.S.'s new Crime-Tron technology to track down Skun-ka'pe's recent movements. They eventually find a toy store where Skun-ka'pe must have bought the other toys. Unfortunately the General then shows up and captures them. Locked in the spaceship, they try to recreate the vision they saw earlier, but find the new toys to be missing. Skun-ka'pe then reveals he's holding on to them personally: he used the View-Master toy to get a vision himself, letting him counter their plans. He then activates the Penal Zone beacon using his ship's technology. Since Sam is still carrying it, he and Max get sucked into the Penal Zone themselves.
In the Penal Zone they find out that Max has an antimatter bomb strapped to his back. They remove the bomb and use Max's teleportation power to get out. Ms Bosco diverts the teleportation to take them to her lab, where she and Superball explain a backup plan: they can use another invention of hers to create a new alternate dimension and suck Skun-ka'pe into that instead. The only problem is that it needs an enormous amount of power to work.
The destruction caused by the spaceship allows Sam and Max to visit a new area, a Mole Man temple of sorts. The local Mole Men explain that Sam & Max's coming has been prophesied and that the mystical toybox they are guarding holds enormous power. Sam plugs a cable into it and uses it to power the device. It works, and they manage to trap Skun-ka'pe into the new dimension. After that they make a shocking discovery: lying around nearby are what looks like Sam & Max's skeletons!
[edit] Characters
[edit] Protagonists
- The Narrator - Narrator of the episode beginning and ending it.
- Sam - Main protagonist of the episode trying to protect the world from General Skun'kape.
- Max - Also a Main protagonist of the episode, Sam's partner who uses his psychic powers to aid Sam.
[edit] Neutral Characters
- Girl Stinky - One of the two owner's of Stinky's diner, also an ironic ally of the General.
- Gordon the Brain - Brain that assists Sam and Max after being revived via Demon Broth and a "Futiristic Power Core".
- Harry Moleman - Man who works as Momma Bosco's personal assistant.
- The C.O.P.S. - Associates of Sam and Max working out of their car to help them.
- The Commissioner - Briefly is spoken to off-screen by Sam in the introduction.
- Agent Superball - Max's assistant who often provides advice to them.
- Grandpa Stinky - The other owner of Stinky's Diner. Later becomes member of General Skun'kape's ranks.
- Ms Bosco - Owner of BoscoTech labs which makes bizzare creations.
- Flint Paper - Another detective who helps Sam and Max/
[edit] Antagonists
- General Skun-ka'pe- Main antagonist of the episode trying to steal the Toys of Power and take over the galaxy. Own's his own ship.
[edit] Notes
- The Penal Zone is Telltale's first release onto a portable operating system, the Apple iPad.
- This is also Telltale's first game on the PlayStation Network/PlayStation 3
- The skeletons are revealed to be the ones Sam and Max's great-grandfathers in the next episode, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak.
- Max's line "I can't wait to get my stinkin' paws on that damn dirty ape" is a reference to the line in Planet of the Apes.
- Sam's line "Say hello to my little buddy" is a reference to the line in Scarface.
- Anyone who preordered or bought the game on Steam within its first week of release also received three promotional items which could be used in Valve's Team Fortress 2. These included Sam and Max's guns (The Big Kill and Lugermorph respectively) and Max's Severed Head which is worn as a hat.
- The episode icon features General Skun-ka'pe which turned out to be the main villain of the episode.
[edit] External links
- First look by IGN
