It’s no secret that I love point-and-click adventure games, but I need to explain just how influential “Sam & Max: Hit the Road” is for me. Sure, there are oddball puzzles and a whole lot of iconic pixel art on offer, but the humor helped shape me into who I am now.

I routinely hear industry people and #gamers claim that funny games are rare, and that’s probably true in terms of total percentages, but I grew up playing some legitimately hilarious adventure games. It’s a genre that prioritizes writing, so it’s no surprise that I gravitated to them from an early age. I like it when you click on things, and then words happen. Video games!

I was still very young when “Hit the Road” came out, so there was a lot that I didn’t quite understand early on. Even so, there was more than enough novelty to keep me launching that executable day after day. I learned a lot of my vocab by pressing forward through games, books, and movies that were targeting an older audience.

The fact that I didn’t understand what Max was monologuing about was intriguing — not off-putting. I broadened my horizon in the weirdest way.

The mid-’90s was a time in which surreal art was becoming mainstream for children. A talking dog and hyperkinetic rabbity thing were strange to me, for sure, but they fit into broader landscape of absurdity.

If I spent my summers playing Genesis hockey games or “Doom” clones, I certainly wouldn’t be into Lynch movies or Quebecois hip-hop. I’d be watching Marvel movies and listening to T-Swift right now. A very different path.

While “Hit the Road” is the most pure and uncut “S&M” to date, it did set the table for three incredible seasons of Telltale games. I love them dearly to this day, and it’s much easier to recommend them now that they’ve been given a fresh coat of paint by some ex-Telltale folks.

It hurts my brain (and heart) to realize it’s been 15 years since the last Telltale “Sam & Max” season released, but it’s even worse to know that it’s been over 30 since “Hit the Road” hit the shelf.

I feel like the CryptKeeper just thinking about those numbers, but those games have aged beautifully. If you haven’t had the chance, I implore you to stop what you’re doing, and meet Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl from Scranton.

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“Sam & Max: Hit the Road” is available on PC.

Image credit: “Sam & Max: Hit the Road,” LucasArts