The Polecats are back! Full Throttle is, personally, one of my top ten favorite games of all time. I probably played through it at least three or four times in my youth and memorized many of the lines of dialog, locations, puzzles, and the story. When I first heard about a remaster in the works, I was excited — I had not played this game in probably twenty years. We received a review code for the PS4 version which I have enjoyed and will discuss here.
Like most Lucasarts classics, Full Throttle is top notch across the board. From the art to voice-acting, dialog to puzzles, it’s a gem. You play as Ben, the leader of the tough biker gang known as the Polecats. A shady businessman name Ripburger is out to hire your financially-broken crew to escort the elderly and dying owner of Corely Motors, the last motorcycle manufacturer in the US, to the annual shareholders meeting. Ben refuses, and it’s apparent that Ripburger has ill intentions anyway. Without spoiling anything, Ben and his crew (who he has become forcibly separated from) are under the gun, in a race against both time and the law. A very compelling adventure gets underway, with memorable NPCs, well-placed humor, and superb artwork.
I’m being intentionally vague here because so much of the joy of Full Throttle or any great adventure game is in the story and the puzzles therein. It’s what this genre is built upon, and its why these games are so memorable. Having gone twenty years without playing this, I was both surprised, and then again not, at how much of it I could remember. While remastered, the core game is unchanged. In most rooms, you can press Up on the d-pad to highlight all objects of interest, a smart modern-day convenience to pixel-hunting, and once you unlock commentary, you can press down to listen to it. Inventory is accessed with Triangle, and most everything else is done with the left stick and X. Shoulder buttons allow you to scroll through the inventory without having to press Triangle. You can pause and save your game at anytime. Controls and concept are instantly accessible, and unlike some games in the genre, most puzzles are logical and well thought out. There are some puzzles that are likely to irritate, including times when you have to keep in mind that sometimes what is on screen is not all that there is to see (you might have to walk to the edges to expand the playable area), but anyone who has played a lot of adventure games understands that that comes with the territory. We all have our own timetable for when we stop and look up a guide, and doing so in Full Throttle might be required from time to time, but again the majority of puzzles are pleasantly logical and fulfilling.
The remastered version expands the visual range to widescreen, and in doing so a lot of additional artwork had to be created. It’s so cool that you can press the Touchpad button to instantly switch between Original/Classic 4:3 ratio and art and back to the widescreen, new artwork. The difference is striking, and for gamers that remember playing it on PC many years ago, it’s both a nostalgia trip and a hint of how far computing and graphics power have come in twenty years. I spent most of this first playthrough in the new remastered mode and was mightily impressed. Additionally, audio has been remastered too, but all of those memorable tracks (including the bizarre apocalypse song heard at Mo’s neighbor’s trailer) are here, and you can play these in the Bonus area from the game’s menu, too. Concept Art from artist Peter Chan is included in this area as well. You can also toggle modern audio and graphics separately too, as well as control scheme, a level of customization that’s commendable, but probably not likely to be used.
Full Throttle is neither the longest nor the most difficult adventure game you’re likely to ever play, and the premise of it from the very start feels built on a sense of urgency. That is to say, it centers around a key event in the very near future and the race to beat the bad guys from pulling off their plan. It’s really a credit to Tim Schafer and the original team that they were able to cram so much character and charm into the game in a relatively short time. As you save your game, you will see the percentage counter of your progress tick up at pretty quick rates, culminating in game completion in or around the six to seven hour mark. Trophies are sprinkled generously throughout, too. I played through this game multiple times when I first got it about twenty years ago, and it’s one I could absolutely see revisiting on PS4 again thanks only in small part to its relative brevity, but primarily because it’s such a fun ride of a game.
If I do a top games of 2017 list at the end of the year, I can already tell you that Full Throttle Remastered will be on it. This is point and click adventure gaming done right during the best and brightest days of the genre. Double Fine has done a superb job remastering and re-releasing it; don’t miss it.
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