Poker Night at the Inventory
| “Poker Night at the Inventory” | |||||||
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| Video game | |||||||
 Promotional image for the game, showing all four of the main cast | |||||||
| Developer | Telltale Games | ||||||
| Publisher(s) | Telltale Games | ||||||
| Release date | November 22, 2010 | ||||||
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Poker Night at the Inventory is Telltale Games' second poker game, and the second game of the Telltale Pilot Program to be released. The game features, among other characters, Max as he totally plays poker in a legitimate way to win the pot.
The game also features Strong Bad, from the Homestar Runner series of web cartoons and adventure games, The Heavy from Valve's game Team Fortress 2, and Tycho from the online web comic Penny Arcade and the (indefinitely suspended) action/adventure game Penny Arcade Adventures. Interactions between all these characters are an important selling point; the total amount of dialogue will be greater than the average Telltale Sam & Max episode.
Contents |
[edit] Backstory
The Inventory is a speakeasy of sorts, in business since the start of the prohibition era. It was started to guarantee continued access to not only alcohol, but games, since an early draft of the 18th Amendment would have banned games as well. This hasn't happened and alcohol was eventually relegalized, but The Inventory continues to serve as a place for video game characters to hang out during their off hours.
The relation between Poker Night and other continuities is curious. Max refers to the episodic games by name, but also believes that the events of those games really happened and has no idea what Telltale Games is (baring a single line of dialogue in which he and Strong Bad shamelessly promote the Telltale Games store). Strong Bad on the other hand insists Telltale hired him for SBCG4AP and now for Poker Night, similar to Behind the Bad. Meanwhile, the Heavy doesn't break the fourth wall at all, believing that every time he dies, he simply dreams it. Tycho is well aware he appears in a webcomic but also believes himself to be a real person, considering he is a charicature of one of the authors of said webcomic.
[edit] Gameplay
Except where noted, the game is No-limit Texas hold 'em. The game is single-player only, and has the player playing against the four main characters while they all talk to each other. Each person starts with $10.000, and the blinds start at $100 and $200.
[edit] Item rounds
A new mechanic is that a character will sometimes buy in with a special item instead of with money. If the player then knocks that character out of the tournament, he wins the item and can later use it in Valve's Team Fortress 2.Once won by the player, the item will no longer be bet again, but if not gained by the player after it appears, it will be brought up again. The items in question are:
- Max's gun and Freelance Police badge
- Homestar Runner's Dangeresque Too shutter-glasses (bet by Strong Bad)
- 'The Iron Curtain', a big gun bet by the Heavy (though he refers to it as "Sasha" in-game)
- A blood-stained Pacman fan watch bet by Tycho
[edit] Characters
- Max
- Strong Bad
- The Heavy
- Tycho
- Reginald van Winslow (host)
[edit] Cameo appearances
- Sam
- Trixie Trotter (from Back to the Future: The Game)
- Monty Muzzle (from Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures)
- Pom Pom
- Stinky
- Momma Bosco
- Flint Paper
- Bluster Blaster
[edit] Trivia
- On Max's promotional poster for the game, he quotes Flint Paper as saying "Bad cards are no reason to get beaten up by a bunch'a humps."
- The game includes the profanity Tycho Brahe is known for. It is bleeped out by default, with an option to disable bleeping in the settings. A bleeped out "Fuck yeah!" can be heard at the end of the trailer.
- According to Telltale Max gets along with Tycho and is liked by the Heavy (Max promises to take care of ghosts for Heavy). His relationship with Strong-Bad is currently unknown, though he refers to Max either by name, "Stitch" or "Bunny". Strong Bad also confuses him for a Pokemon in one conversation.
- Max will plug the Telltale Store when prompted by Strong Bad from time to time. [1]
- If Max isn't the last one standing with the player at the end, when eliminated, he will wander around the club, much like he does in the Telltale Episodes.
- Mack Salmon appears on the Jack on the Sam & Max deck, making Poker Night his first appearance since the animated series.
- Selecting either the Max and Crossbones table or the Telltale Shield table turns Max into his skeletal form, first seen in The Penal Zone.
- In one dialog tree, Tycho asks Max if "anything untoward" happened between him and Momma Bosco when he went back in time. Max appears shocked by the suggestion.
- The number 1 on the Freelance Police badge Max bets implies that it is actually Sam's badge. This makes Max one of two characters to use someone else's possession in a bet (the other being Strong Bad, who bids Homestar's shutter shades.)
- Max may mention Stuckey's when he pays the blind with the rest of the chips he has.
