7 years after it was pulled from Steam, Poker Night at the Inventory is coming back in March, and yes, so are the free Team Fortress 2 unlockables

Poker Night at the Inventory was, for a very brief time, kind of a phenom in the world of videogames. A relatively early Telltale release, it was a poker game starring four big-at-the-videogame characters: Max from Sam and Max, Strong Bad's Homestar Runner, the needs-no-introduction Heavy, and Tycho from the Penny Arcade webcomic.

It was all a bit of a flash in the pan, though: A sequel arrived in 2013, both of them fizzled out fairly quickly, they were delisted from Steam several years ago, and honestly I don't think anyone has even thought about them in ages. I certainly haven't.

That all changed today, though, because today Skunkape Games announced that Poker Night at the Inventory is coming back in a remastered edition that's set to launch in March. Why, you ask? Well, why not, is my reply, because honestly that's all I can come up with.

Poker Night at the Inventory was fine, really, but it was praised more for its humor and character interactions than the actual gameplay, which was a bit flat and buggy. Here, for instance, is a clip of the Heavy regaling his pals with a story about a funny thing that happened at work.

It's a good story, yes, but the trouble is that once you've heard it all two or three times, you're left with four videogame characters sitting around a table playing a not-great simulation of Texas Hold 'em.

But that wasn't the only thing people found attractive about Poker Night: Check the user reviews on the original Steam listing (it's hidden, but still there if you know where to look, or just click that link) and you'll see quite a few references to 'Team Fortress 2 items.'

The game included four TF2 unlockables, you see—one for each character—and some folks bought it not out of any particular interest in poker or snappy dialog, but just because they wanted the TF2 swag and were willing to invest $5 and a couple hours of their time to get it.

Some of those same people are also awfully excited to hear that, yes indeed, those items are coming back: Win them at the table and they'll become yours in TF2, too.

The remaster itself promises updated graphics and lighting, fixes to improve the underlying poker simulation (which apparently wasn't great in the original), plus "new unlockables and quality-of-life features." It's not the most bedazzling visual update ever, but if you look closely, yeah, it looks... slightly different, at least.

It also bears noting that Skunkape knows a thing or two about updating old Telltale games; The studio was founded by a small group of Telltale veterans, and their updates of Telltale's Sam and Max adventures have been very well received. So that's a plus.

The OG Poker Night sold for a fiver, and at that price a lot of people were happy to get a few hours of fun out of it and then move on. A Skunkape rep told me that the remaster will go for $10, which is not quite so cheap, but hey, it's been 16 years—I think that's fair.

Poker Night at the Inventory will make its big comeback on March 5, and you can wishlist it now on Steam.