YMMV / Sam & Max Hit the Road

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Younger fans might be surprised to know that something Evelyn Morrison mentions, props being used during the showing of her movies such as rubber snakes falling down on the audience during the climax, were actually fairly common during the B-Movie Golden Age of the 1950's and 60's, particularly the films of William Castle.
  • Many of the bizarre roadside attractions that Sam and Max visit are based on real tourist attractions. Perhaps the most surprising of these being the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, California, and The Oregon Vortex two likely inspirations for the Mystery Vortex.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The puzzle with the Bigfoot hair and Frog Rock leads to the sky suddenly going dark. Then a mole man driving a flying saucer appears, spouts alien gibberish about the characters Doug and Shuv-ool, takes the bigfoot hair and moleman powder aboard, then disappears, with the stars forming the words "Go To Bumpusville" in his wake, pointing you towards the next location.
  • The mounted animals who sing a limerick about naturalist John Muir and trick Sam into not knowing they can talk are never seen again past their only scene, and are otherwise only referenced in an optional throwaway line near the end of the game.
  • Conroy Bumpus’ live performance of "King of the Creatures" in the room immediately following is similarly forgotten about as soon as Conroy leaves the room, and only serves to establish through song why Conroy captures extinct, mythical animals. Not even Bruno or Trixie, who he took control of, have anything to say about it.
• Evil Is Cool: Conroy Bumpus. Sure, he's a remorseless killer who hunts animals just for kicks, but you can't deny he's got one hell of a singing voice.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The carnival has a "Test Your Strength" Game. Sam says he doesn't think he has the "psychotic strength" to win it, but you can get Max to do it. Max simply hops on top of the base, and the weight hits the bell. You don't gain anything from it but an adorable response from Sam:
    Sam: You're my hero, little buddy.
  • Coincidentally, another moment with Max hopping at the carnival. Max's initial reaction to getting inside Trixie's trailer is to say "Oh boy!" and start bouncing on her pink bed.
• Ho Yay: There's an entire page of this wiki dedicated to it.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Often hailed as one of the greatest and funniest adventure games of all time, with generally the only major sticking points being a few obnoxious puzzles and the lackluster minigames.
• That One Puzzle: The miniature golf minigame. Think you're supposed to hit the obvious bullseye with a golf ball? Nope, all that does is drop Max into the dunk tank. You see, the golf balls come in a bucket, and you acquired a bucket of fish earlier. So, you're obviously supposed to swap the bucket of golf balls with the bucket of fish and start hitting fish with your club, in order to bait the gators to move around and form a path leading to the other side. That's not too much of a stretch, but you also have to get the gators in just the right position for Sam to cross, which can take a while.
  • The Mystery Vortex, while not too difficult once you figure out what to do, will still require some trial and error regardless as the correct door is randomized and the rapidly changing movement speed causes the process to drag on. And if you don't know what to do, said constant shifts to Sam's size and movement speed get significantly worse as the player tries to determine what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to adjust the switches. Even worse since it's impossible to figure out if you set the switches correctly until you are directly in front of the door in question. It's also possible for some players to miss the yellow magnet on their first trip into the magnet room, since it's not immediately obvious that the screen can scroll over.

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