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Sam, a talking-dog detective, and Max, his spastic-bunny partner, are visiting their neighbour, a woman named Sybil who has just found a new job: "Queen of Canada." (She answered a classified ad, naturally.) "I always thought Rush was the Queen of Canada," Max responds, triggering a long stream of Canuck jokes in Sam & Max: Bright Side of the Moon, the sixth and final instalment in the episodic PC game's first season.

Bright Side was released yesterday on various casual game portals and through its creator's website, Telltalegames.com, capping what must have been eight months of hard work; the comedy series began in October of last year.

This slapstick potboiler, based on Steve Purcell's comic book duo, belongs to an interactive category known as adventure games. The player points and clicks on items and characters to begin conversations and solve puzzles, putting an emphasis on story and dialogue rather than split-second reflexes.

Despite some notable success stories - the scenery-spewing brain-scratcher Myst, for instance, sold millions of copies - the genre was in snooze mode until Sam & Max returned from a 13-year hiatus. (Their 1993 adventure Hit the Road was released by LucasArts, where Purcell worked as an animator.)

The format allows for a steady dose of jokes. Almost every item on the screen contains at least one zinger, usually four or five. Run your mouse over a rack of Canadian newspapers in Sybil's office, for example, and Sam deadpans, "I never realized how boring newspapers would be without guns." (Totally inaccurate, but funny.)

And if you follow the conversation tree with Sybil through three rounds of quips, you can eventually hear her new slogan for our home and native land: "Canada: It's Surprisingly Pleasant." (Can't argue with that - may have something to do with having fewer guns.)

In short, my four-plus hours playing Bright Side of the Moon generated more laughs than all the other games of 2007 put together.

The visuals are crisp and colourful, and the whole thing comes together without a bug in sight - amazing, considering its compressed release schedule; many game developers don't finish one texture-mapped level in eight months.

Now that the first season is complete, you can download it in bulk for around $55 (U.S.) or go episode-by-episode for $9 each.

The instalments will take most players two to five hours to complete, but you have to start at the beginning.

The plot, with the anthropomorphic investigators taking on the cult of "Prismatology," is like something out of Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently novels: Raymond Chandler noir meets Timothy Leary trippy.

The first few episodes are slow starters - the series gets stronger as the going gets stranger - but the first season of this hilarious romp should serve as a model for delivering interactive content in regular doses.

Finishing an adventure in around four hours was a treat, especially after days of questing and testing in The Lord of the Rings Online last week, and it gave me time to look for other games that do not require vast tracts of free time.

One of the better casual diversions I found is a series called Virtual Villagers, which was created by the Last Day of Work studio and is available in Windows and Mac versions from BigFishGames.com.

Its second chapter, The Lost Children, was released earlier this spring, and it is perfect for people who have five minutes here or 10 minutes there to devote to game playing.

The basic story sees the player taking care of a group of tiny castaways on a tropical island. You assign them tasks, teach them skills and even help them procreate, a process that involves building a hut and then dragging and dropping squirming villagers until love takes root.

You can pick up the basics of The Lost Children in about half an hour, but after that you need to let nature take its course.

The simulation runs in real time, so when you check back in, the village will have grown and its inhabitants will be slightly smarter. There will be puzzles to be sorted out in short bursts, things like discovering fire and exploring the island, and then you can leave them again, like a benevolent but busy deity.

One tip, however, and I learned it the hard way: Don't leave your village unattended for more than a week. There might not be anybody left when you return - and your fellow deities will never let you live that down.

This week in games

Battle of the bands

Things are heating up in the newly competitive field of rock 'n' roll video games.

Electronic Arts and MTV Networks announced this week that their new project, Rock Band, will feature controllers modelled on the legendary Fender Stratocaster line of guitars. The game is being developed by Harmonix, the studio that created the Guitar Hero series, and will allow players to form groups in their garages and online. Popular rock tunes, as yet unannounced, will be split into parts for singers, drummers, and bass and lead guitarists.

Rock Band is being targeted for this holiday season for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, meaning it will likely go up against Guitar Hero 3, which is now in the Activision stable. But in a welcome sign of gamer-friendly co-operation, Harmonix executives confirmed that the plastic peripherals they designed for Guitar Hero, modelled on Gibsons, will work with Rock Band.

Live everywhere

Microsoft rolled out its spring software update for the Xbox 360 this week and it opened up the lines of communication between computer, console and mobile users. Windows Live Messenger will allow 360 owners to chat cross-platform style in conversations with up to 20 people using Windows machines and cellphones.

Other changes to the 360's interface include a new section devoted to Xbox Live Marketplace downloads and more detailed achievement messages that will allow players to chart their progress without exiting games.

S.C.

Quick clicks

Good company

Speaking of open invitations, Meetup.com is a worldwide emporium of get-togethers, sorted by time, date and subject. You'll have to sign up for a free membership, but it will put you in touch with community goings-on you might never have known about. Tonight in Toronto: Chinese singles dating and a rally for 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Today in Chilliwack, B.C.: Mother's Day dinner, the "Surrey Sufism Meetup," and the fitness club, which is presenting "Who Knew You Could Breakdance?"

Bad guesses

20q.com, a 20-questions guessing game in which the computer guesses what you're thinking by asking a series of yes/no answers has racked up more than 50 million games played. It claims to be learning from each one, and even has a Canadian option. It correctly guessed "Brian Mulroney" in 20 questions, but never got "Ben Mulroney," despite having the prescience to ask, "Are you ridiculed?" ("Yes.")

scolbourne@globeandmail.com