Most of the characters from the first season make a return, including Abe Lincoln's gigantic stone head and a couple of new characters. Stinky, the snobby new owner of Stinky's Diner (a place seen, but inactive in Season One) plays a major role and has many interactive dialogues. However, the same can't be said for Flint Paper, a detective that works in the office next door. He gets introduced at the start of the game but doesn't serve any purpose except to spout a few witty lines when clicked. Likewise, the Soda Poppers show up again mainly to remind players that they're still around. Although they catch them up on the story so far, they don't play much of an active role in the episode. Characters appear livelier now, since they sport new animations, so they no longer stand statue-like in their fixed positions.

Gameplay hasn't changed from Season One. Players talk to characters, sometimes exploring hilarious dialogue options, keeping up the quirky humor the series is known for. Puzzles and one-liners are as witty as ever, and so are the two minigames. One involves a miniaturized parody of Punch-Out, while another gives players the satisfaction of running over parodies of old toy fads. However, this fails to work on rare occasions and opponents do nothing but block and dodge hits. There's no way to manually restart a match except through reloading. Finally, as an extra distraction, Sam & Max keep a Whack-Da-Ratz game installed in their office, taken from a previous episode.

We normally complain about how brief some of the past Sam & Max episodes are, but we're happy to say that Ice Station Santa is just the right length. The hint system helps out tremendously with the pacing, even though one or two are a little vague. There's still a whole season's worth of episodes to go, and we can't wait to see how the bigger story unfolds and where Sam & Max drive their Desoto to next.