Full Throttle.
A big fan of wearing leather and punching things Andy Kelly wonders if this makes him management material?
The classic LucasArt dystopian adventure gets a fresh lick of paint and audio fit for the dystopia of our 21st century.
More than one puzzle in Full ThrottleRemastered is solved by kicking something, which neatly illustrates what makes it different from most point-and-click adventures. Protagonist Ben is a tough, gruff biker. A slab of meat stuffed into a leather jacket with a chin you could polish stone on. And this plays into every aspect of the game, from the puzzles and storyline, to the rock soundtrack.
But the key to the game is that while Ben is indeed a hard-ass who can handle himself in a fight, he also has a heart. MonkeyIsland was an ode to the romantic idea of piracy, and FullThrottle does the same for bikers. It’s more about freedom, authenticity, and cool leather jackets than the sort of thing you read about in Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’sAngels or watch in SonsofAnarchy.
Ben’s world is small – he mentions several times that his bike is his home – but it’s still under threat. He’s on the run for a crime he didn’t commit and, worst of all, the last motorcycle manufacturer in the country, Corley Motors, is ceasing production of bikes and moving into making hovering minivans. Many games deal with the end of the world, but Full Throttle is about the end of Ben’s world. And this makes for a uniquely personal story.
Ben’s deep monotone voice, courtesy of the late Roy Conrad, is what makes the character really special. He underplays the role perfectly, and his deadpan delivery means the game is full of killer lines. And he sounds even better in the remaster. Double Fine found the DAT tapes from the original voice recording sessions, and it’s a strange sensation hearing all those famous lines without a layer of fuzz over the top.
This was the first LucasArts adventure released after Dayofthe Tentacle, and it couldn’t be more different. The puzzles are a lot simpler, the interface is more streamlined, and the presentation is significantly more lavish and cinematic. Instead of the old verb buffet at the bottom of the screen, clicking an object brings up a flaming skull with a selection of actions that reflect Ben’s character: the gloved fist and the leather boot being the most frequently utilised.
The downside of this simplified design is that the game is arguably too short, taking between five and six hours to finish depending on how many puzzles you get stuck on. Yet it does mean it’s more fast-paced, dynamic, and exciting than most adventure games. And, in hindsight, maybe that’s a better fit for a game about a guy like Ben. FullThrottle’s strengths are its story, characters, atmosphere and art, not its puzzles. And, hey, sometimes that’s fine. But we can understand some people, particularly if they have no nostalgia for it, feeling a little shortchanged by proceedings.
As for the remastered visuals, it’s clear Double Fine’s artists have put a lot of effort into repainting every location and cutscene. But, honestly, the original pixel art looks nicer to us, and we ended up playing with the old graphics and the remixed audio, which sounds fantastic.
The Mine Road sequence, in which you take part in RoadRash- style bike fights, has aged fairly terribly. But occasional bad mini-game aside, we enjoyed returning to FullThrottle. Its stylish, Mad Max-inspired world of bikers, truckers and battery-powered bunnies is full of charm, and the story, although short-lived, is entertaining until the bittersweet end.