Telltale Games were obviously best known for their narrative, episodic adventures but one game came out of left field.

Now re-released by Skunkape Games, a fascinating Poker game appeared, initially as an experiment, but soon became one of their highest rated games.

It’s just you, and a selection of unlikely, gabby indivduals you’ll recognise from various games and shows. Those being Max of Sam & Max fame, Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, and Tycho from Penny Arcade.

And you’re just sat there playing Poker but with a whole lot of smack talk, unlockables and one on one tension. Classic Texas Hold ‘Em rules as you are dealt two cards and make a hand with the community cards on the table.

The player with the best hand wins with the players to your left posting the blinds and any two cards can win the game, though as usual high pairs, high cards of the same suit or cards in a sequence are usually most effective.

There’s nothing too much more to the game than that, you place your bets, fold, go all in and try to be the last one sitting at the table, gradually eliminated your opposition once they’ve lost all their chips. But the game has this volume and level of charm that puts it so far above other Poker games.

And when it comes down to two players, you can feel a noticeable change in tension as a stand-off ensues, deciding whether to stick or twist with each hand, with the game making sure to log every stat and standing for you to see just how well you’ve fared over the course of your entire playtime.

Just listening to Max pepper you with insults without any card or consideration for whether they hurt or not. Then there’s Tycho who’s a bit more laid back but a casual assassin at the right moments. Heavy feels like the happy drunk you see at the end of the bar that could crush your skull with one arm squeeze and Strong Bad who’s obnoxiously good at the game and will constantly stare you down without worry.

For a Telltale game, of course there’s dialogue. Lots of it. It’ll bring many a laugh out of you as four of the most unexpected characters butt heads, asking each other about their life stories, jabbing one another in their own way and even directing insults toward you. But it’s straight poker in its simplest, most easiest to pick up form.

You can customise your table and even your deck backs, unlocking more as you play. Sometimes characters will even surprise you with personal items if they don’t have enough capital to deal in, like Tycho’s pin badges and Heavy’s mini gun.

This game has had a heck of a journey, completely delisted from Steam seven years ago and now reissued by Skunkape Games who remastered the classic Sam & Max trilogy now licensing deals have been restored. And they’ve also done a fantasic job reupping the game, improving the visual quality of the character models, new unlockables. They even redid the entire poker game itself to improve its overall balance. For the better.

And if you’re on Switch as well as Steam Deck, it even fully supports touchscreen controls as well as a gamepad, and this game is absolutely perfect for handheld / Steam Deck play.

There’s even a motion blur and film grain effects added in now to give the game a classic, musty, retro feel. And for Steam users, perhaps most excitingly, they can now claim all the Team Fortress 2 unlockables without having to go through scalpers. Which must feel like the best news of all for those who’ve been dealing with this for years!

This game is easy, kick back and relax fun, it’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you pull your hair out, but you’ll keep coming back for more and more. Hours and hours. Poker Night at the Inventory is back and it is better than ever. It’s the easiest to learn poker game I’ve played, really easing the player in with great tutorialisation and a smart hand of information.

All for under $10! A must play!

Verdict

Poker Night At the Inventory is an absolute delight from the moment you boot it up through to hours later when you’ve unlocked one item after another. It’ll make you laugh at its silly jokes and compel you with its gripping poker. And it is better than ever with everything looking and sounding great. While it’s wonderful to have it on Switch and PS5 as well, Steam feels the best legacy platform with the Team Fortress unlockables and the Steam Deck, touch screen support to play it on the go. All at a bargain price. A must-play!

Pros

+ An even better game of Poker than ever before
+ Looks so good with great remastering and the jokes are still as funny as ever
+ Runs like a dream in handheld and so many more options for play.
+ Lots to unlock