Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat From Your Head To Your Feet is a PC Adventure Game and the third main installment in the Pajama Sam franchise. It was made by Humongous Entertainment and released in 2000.
Sam, trying to get twenty boxtops to obtain a new Pajama Man figure, has just finished eating nineteen boxes of cookies and is about to work on the final one. However, the cookies in the last box flee to the pantry just as Sam's mom informs the boy that dinner will be soon, so Sam chases after the cookies and finds himself falling into the fantastical Mop Top Island. He quickly learns that the Anthropomorphic Food that live on the island will to go to war unless all the delegates for a peace conference are found so they can sort out their differences. Obviously not wanting this to happen, Sam goes out to find the missing delegates and avoid a potential conflict.
Like Pajama Sam 2: Thunder And Lightning Aren't So Frightening before it, Pajama Sam 3 is one of the only Humongous games that provides the option to choose which of the puzzle paths can be taken instead of leaving them randomized. Furthermore, instead of the six preset combinations the game provides (on account of certain routes using the same environmental elements and potentially conflicting with each other), each path for each puzzle can be selected individually. This allows you to see all 8 main puzzles and potentially do all 16 path combinations.
Tropes:
- Anthropomorphic Food: Since the entire game takes place in a land themed after food, nearly all of the non-playable characters are living food items.
- Balloon Belly: The opening shows Sam with a massive stomach just to emphasize that he did, in fact, eat 19 boxes of cookies.
- Brick Joke: At the beginning, Sam is trying to get ready for dinner but it has been spoiled by all the cookies he ate. This is almost completely disregarded once he makes it out of jail, up until the very end, when Florette reminds him.
- Competition Coupon Madness: The game begins with Sam trying to collect twenty Choc Amok box tops so he can cash them in for a Pajama Man action figure. The box tops serve as the game's Collection Sidequest; if all twenty are collected, the player gets a slightly different ending where Sam gets his action figure.
- Cultural Translation: The British dub of the game refers to "bon-bons" as "chocolates," as well as changing some foods to more British terms, such as "cookies" becoming "biscuits," "French fries" into "chips," "relish" into "chutney," "hot sauce" into "chili sauce," and some of the cheese types that are mentioned by the moon and Scissors the Plumber.
- Cutting Off the Branches: Carrot's appearances in previous games were tied to specific Plot Coupon paths, so it was possible to get sessions where he didn't show up. He's always at the Food Pyramid for the Peace Conference and Sam always recognizes him here.
- Dark Is Not Evil: A majority of the sweets and junk foods in the game are depicted as nasty pieces of work causing trouble for the island, though not all of them are like that. Florette states that S.S.A.M. is just that party that is causing trouble and if more folks huddle up to it, then it'll more problems. The only sweets Sam meet that are very friendly are Sprinkles (a doughnut), Syllabus (a fortune cookie that likes to know about cheese) and the jelly beans where Bean 47 is located (though this apples to the bean sorting path, as they'll be on strike against the kidney beans).
- Developer's Foresight: In one of Chuck Cheddar's paths where you need to blow Syllabus' horn to cause an avalanche, first time players would likely go ask Syllabus what the questions are before they can blow it. But if returning players (or if first time players had a lucky guess on figuring out) find out what the answers are before talking to Sage for the first time, you would get some dialogue from Selma. If the player ask Syllabus first before having the etiquette classes, Selma would ask Sam if he has any questions, and she would respond where the cheese fork is. But if Sam has the class before talking to Syllabus, Selma would just tell where the cheese fork is herself.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The penalty for having an overdue library book is 400 dollars a day. When Sam lampshades this, the librarian warns him to just have the book back in time.
- Empty Room Psych:
- The library at the Food Pyramid is only needed if you have to find the manual for the Bean Foreman. You can still access the library if the jelly and kidney beans are on strike, but it doesn't serve anything to the plot.
- Selma and Selina Celery appear in all storylines, but they're only required if Granny Smythe is being bounced by the soda cans and/or Chuck Cheddar is stuck in the mountain ledge.
- Rock, Paper and Scissors are only needed in any of these paths; Pierre is stuck in the prize booth, Granny Smythe is stuck in the caramel pit and Chuck Chedder is on the mountain ledge. You don't need to see them if none of these paths appear.
- Fun with Acronyms: The sweets' political party is known as S.S.A.M. (Snacks and Sweets Aggressive Majority), which Sam initially mistakes for a misspelling of his name.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- It's possible for Sam to mention to Florette and Luke that he's helping fetch the remaining delegates, even if he hasn't visited Carrot and General Beetfoot to learn about the Peace Conference.
- If you have to rescue Chuck Cheddar by using Syllabus' horn, you can actually find out about the answers without talking to Syllabus first.
- Growling Gut: In the Cold Open, after eating nineteen boxes of cookies by himself, Sam's mother calls him for dinner, causing his Balloon Belly to lurch and make cartoon noises at the though.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Finding the Caramel Pit (where Granny Smyth has a chance of appearing) can be a pain, since the entrance is in the background of the constantly wavy background of the soda dance floor.
- While resolving the bean strike to rescue Bean 47 is fairly easy to do compared to other missions, the solution (switching the picket signs around), while simple, can be ironically hard to figure out due to some vague clues (“Just look at their sign!”).
- Hooking the Keys: When Sam is locked in a candy-themed jail cell in the beginning of the game, the key is hung on a hook on the opposite wall. Sam's method of escape combines two versions of this trope: first he knocks the key off the hook by throwing a Bon Bon at it, and then he hooks the key with a giant candy cane once it's on the floor.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- The general locations of each of the stranded delegates are more consistent regardless of which path is selected compared to the more varied locations the other items were in previous games; Chuck Cheddar is stranded at the mountain, Pierre is trapped at the carnival, Granny Smythe is located somewhere in the giant heart, and the means of getting Bean 47 are inconvenienced by something happening at his own workplace.
- Sam must use the giant telescope to get information to help Chuck Cheddar and the means of rescuing Pierre involves ringing the prize bell at the carnival and getting the cupcakes to stop tanning which makes the muffins restore functionality to the ferris wheel.
- Losing Your Head: If you help Mickey fix his comedy routine, his final joke causes the audience to literally laugh their heads off.
- No Fair Cheating: Attempting to go to the ending via a Debug Room results in the message "who’se dreamin’ now?"
- Non-Indicative Name:
- Chuck Cheddar appears to be a piece of gouda cheese, not cheddar.
- Mickey Hollandaise is not an egg or anything else related to the sauce. Instead, he's a banana.
- Permanently Missable Content: The first two box tops will always be on the first two screens in the S.S.A.M. party, and the jail cell, neither of which you can go back to once you've left them. The Collection Sidequest becomes unwinnable if you don't grab them before you leave.
- Produce Pelting: After a failed failed attempt at comedy, Mickey Hollandaise gets a pumpkin tossed his way.
- Pumpkin Person: Sam can take the pumpkin that gets thrown at Mickey Hollandaise, and wear it on his head as a disguise. The disguise is required to get past the gourds that guard the observatory, who only let other gourds past.
- Story Branch Favoritism: Like with the first game, the credits show pictures of pathways you might or might not have gone. These include:
- Sam and Selma having tea, implying that it's path where Chuck Cheddar is stuck on the ledge.
- While Mickey Hollandaise appears in all paths because of Chuck Cheddar, he seems to be happy with Sam. He's only happy if you have the path where Granny Smythe is being bounced by the soda cans.
- Sam is watching a movie with the librarian from the Food Pyramid. Sam has more interaction with her if you need to get the manual for Bean 47.
- The Balloon Vendor appears in both game cover and credits, as he only appears if Pierre is stuck on the Ferris Wheel.
- "Test Your Strength" Game: There's a high striker at the carnival at Muscle Beach. Because Sam isn't strong enough to ring the bell from the bottom, he has to come up with his own unique solution. He has to untie the shoes of a balloon vendor, who will give him his balloons while he re-ties his shoes. Sam can then use the balloons to float up to the bell and ring it from there.
- Womb Level: Since Mop Top Island is based on Sam's body, several locations are based on organs. Sam ends up entering a giant heart and intestines while looking for the delegates.
