Poker Night at the Inventory has received a remake after 16 years.

Telltale Games are probably best known to people as the masters of Episodic and narrative story games, with hits such as The Walking Dead’s game adaptation, The Wolf Among us, and the Sam & Max series of puzzle games. But a lesser known creation of theirs, Poker Night at the Inventory, is making a return to digital storefronts at long last- at the hands of Skunkape Games, a studio of ex-Telltale employees who’d previously worked on a remaster of the Sam & Max telltale series, who promise "a high-stakes battle of cards, bets, and trash talk."

Poker Night at the Inventory is (for the most part) what it says on the cover. It’s a Poker Game, following the rules of Texas Hold-em, one of the most commonly played formats of Poker. You play against 4 AI with different playstyles, and aim to ensure you have the best possible hand against the other participants. All fictional money, of course; and one of the key selling points- fictional opponents! 

Your opponents at the table are a varied range of Video Game & Pop Culture characters from the late 2000’s: The Heavy, from ValvE’s Team Fortress 2, Max, of the Sam & Max series, Strong Bad, from flash-web series Homestar Runner, and Tycho, from web comic Penny Arcade. The four each have their own unique playstyles- from conservative and careful plays to wait you out, to erratic and unpredictable plays to leave you second-guessing every play you make, the game offers both a fun challenge and an easy way to settle into the rules and niche of poker. 

The four characters don’t just offer different AI and brand imagery to the table though, all come with voice acting and humorous conversation between participants, all written to be true to their characters; but offering fun insight to what they’re like away from their usual settings. All dialogue written in collaboration with their usual writers, it’s easily a strong point of the game. Not to mention, a smooth and silky jazzy reinterpretation of themes from the character’s origin games let you bet big to some funky tunes. 

Skunkape Games promise overhauled and improved AI, new in-game unlockables, and refreshed graphics & animations. But that’s not all:

One of the main attractive features of Poker Night, back when it had released; was a slew of unlockable weapons and cosmetics for Team Fortress 2, ValvE’s free to play hero-shooter. The capacity to unlock these items had been lost after the game was delisted in 2018 when Telltale initially went bankrupt (due to being unable to renew the licensing agreement). 

• The Dangeresque, too - Strong Bad’s shades, available as snazzy sunglasses for the Demoman.
• The License to Maim and the Lugermorph - Max’s literal Badge and Gun, an all-class Badge and a pistol for the Scout and Engineer respectively.
• The Enthusiast’s Timepiece - Tycho’s watch serving as an alternate Invis-watch for the Spy.
• The Iron Curtain - Heavy’s beloved Minigun, available as a reskin of the Heavy’s minigun. 

With the game’s return, all such items return to an unlockable state for beating certain opponents in unique matches. Additionally, purchasing between March 5th and 19th, allots you a unique Cosmetic, the (Reissued) Dealers Visor. 

With their recent remaster of the Sam & Max series, and now the first installment of the Poker Night series, hopefully we may be fortunate to see future remasters (or original content) from the team at Skunkape games. A remaster of Poker Night 2, a sequel featuring a whole new cast of multi-media characters (such as the likes of Borderland’s Claptrap & Evil Dead’s Ash Williams - yeah, like the films Evil Dead), would definitely be an understandable course of progression for the studio; but until then we may only wait and see.

Poker Night at the Inventory will be on sale from the 5th March on Steam, Nintendo eShop and Playstation Marketplace.