Sam & Max Episode 205: What's New, Beelzebub?

A great ending to an amazing season, and it ties a lot of things from both seasons up nicely.

What's New, Beelzebub? is Telltale's development team at the top of its game and is a perfect way to end Season Two.

This episode is a carefully orchestrated symphony that ends story threads, revisiting each episode and all the characters in them with sharp wit, elegance, and great story-telling craft.

As a finale, it’s far superior to last year’s effort. As an adventure game, it’s quite simply one of the best you’ll find on the PC today.

I enjoyed this last episode more so than any of the others. The humor hit my funny bone dead on, and I enjoyed seeing all the stuff littered around the locations from the previous episodes.

Proves that they had planned out this season’s overarching story line with an unassumingly meticulous style. Even the smallest throwaway from previous episodes makes sense in the end.

A perfectly enjoyable and satisfying finale, that seems to eliminate the aggravatingly grating Soda Poppers once and for all, along with a grand wrap-up of all of the season's storylines, make "What's New, Beelzebub?" a must-play for all Sam & Max fans until the as-of-yet-unannounced-but-highly-likely-coming-soon Season Three makes its debut soon.

Though not quite as genre-pushing as "Chariots" is, Beelzebub masterfully ties up every single loose end left dangling in the first and second seasons. [July 2008, p.69]

After a great fourth episode I was expecting a little drop in the season finale, but for my surprise the Telltale team played with unholy magic and season finale is almost as good as Chariots of the Dogs. I know it's kind of weird just keep praising the game episode after episode, but what else can you do if the story, humor, gameplay, characters and music just charm you? Nothing. So, if you don't own it, go get your Season two right away. [June 2008]

The price tag for these games feels about right for the number of hours that come out of them, and I find myself going back and replaying earlier episodes, which helps me to feel that I got the bang I want for my buck.

While it is rather hard to call this episode out as being the best in the season without pointing directly at every other episode and explaining that they are firmly the reasons it is like that, this is simply the best of the bunch.

The second season has increased the difficulty with each episode, and Beelzebub has some really tricky puzzles.

Occasionally weak puzzles and infrequent dud jokes aside, if you mark a game on how joyfully sad you feel at the end, season 2 of "Sam & Max" is second only to "Portal." [July 2008, p.86]

It's funny, its puzzles are satisfying, and, as Anthony mentioned, is a fine example of episodic gaming's potential.

The overall corporate atmosphere of Hell and the characterization of Satan are hilarious and, better still, the actual content of the episode ties up the first two seasons very nicely.

What’s New, Beezlebub? is a fantastic ending to the series with few faults worth mentioning. Everything fans of the series love are here in ample supply, and there is really no excuse, barring not owning a computer, for not picking up the entire season if you haven’t done so already.

Ultimately, What's New Beelzebub? is an overwhelmingly ambitious game that never stops for a breath, and by the end of the strange journey it nearly collapses under its own comedic weight and the strain of throwing every bizarre scenario and creative re-use of supporting characters at the wall.

Sure, it doesn't do anything new with the gameplay (do any of the episodes?), but What's New, Beelzebub? is a fitting wrap-up to Season 2, and it's arguably the most enjoyable episode since season-starter "Ice Station Santa."