Figuring out puzzles is, naturally, the aim of the game - if only so you can advance the story and get to more jokes. It may just be years of twisted logic drilled into me by adventure games talking here, but the puzzles made a lot of sense. Even the ones involving peanut butter and secret toaster-tunnels felt worryingly rational. Anybody used to the sort of 'outside the box that the other box is kept inside' thinking demanded by titles of this style shouldn't have too much trouble advancing at a reasonable pace. I did run into a couple of sticky patches, but these were mostly because I wasn't yet fully familiar with Max's new psychic powers and forgot about one of the fancy abilities he has (such as the ability to travel the freelance police down telephones and turn into replicas of drawings.) One dial-twiddling puzzle also seemed to be largely a case of trial and error rather than brain power, but it's possible I just missed the point and blundered through it by sheer luck.

Without giving away too much of the (ludicrous, but nicely paced) plot, in this episode you'll recreate the 'classic' Russ Meyer cheesecake flick Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and ... wait, sorry, that's not right at all. You'll actually find out who is behind the army of Sam clones ("samulacrum" according to the canine member of the team, "dogglegangers" in Max's eyes) and fill out the full selection of Max's devilish, toy-based abilities. Before the episode is through, spooky ventriloquism and anti-Lovecraftian destructive powers will be yours to wield with uncaring abandon.

Max's powers actually present a minor dilemma for the game. They're interesting in that they mix up the traditional adventure formula, forcing the player to think about new tools and new perspectives - but they're perhaps a touch over used. I found that in this episode they seemed to overshadow Sam's humble inventory almost entirely, restricting him to mostly shooting at things (not that he doesn't enjoy shooting at things, it's just a shame to see inventory-puzzling superceded.)

There were a couple of bugs (and sloppy graphical glitches) in places - plus one major bug if you count the cockroach chap, but he's supposed to be there. Occasionally, I found that one or both of the team had mysteriously teleported to a different part of the room after performing an action (presumably because the animation for it is coded to take place in certain parts of the scene,) but aside from being a bit baffling these moments didn't exactly hinder my play.

Beyond The Alley Of The Dolls provided a good five hours of sharp, funny dialogue, a host of dysfunctional misfits and a dramatic climax at the Statue of Liberty. There's really no better way to conclude this review than with some sage advice, paraphrased from Sam & Max Hit The Road: "Check it out when you've got nothing better to do ... like any time!"

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