What is Full Throttle?

You are Ben. A bad-to-the-hone biker and leader of the Polecats gang; in LucasArts’ new game, Full Throttle. One day you meet Malcolm Corley, aging founder of the legendary Corley Motors, the last domestic motorcycle manufacturer. Before long, you're konked on the head, your bike’s been trashed, your gang is in jail, and you’ve been framed for Corley's murder. You know the real culprit is Adrian Ripburger, a scheming, backstabbing Corley executive who wants to take over Corley Motors and make . . . minivans (ugh!). To clear your name and save Corley Motors, you have to solve the game's many puzzles.

Full Throttle is presented like a movie, complete with long tracking shots, appropriate sound effects, and terrific animated sequences. The music is good, a hard-driving rock soundtrack (by “a real biker band!" says the packaging). The script (and Ben's voice-over narration) is written in a style best described as tongue-in-cheek tough guy — it’s very funny. Thanks to excellent voice acting, the other characters in the game are well realized, from the slimy Ripburger to Corley's scrappy daughter, Maureen, to Horace the souvenir seller.

There's a refreshing lack of visible interface; when you need to operate on an object, you point at it and hold the mouse button down, and the interface appears. You can then examine, touch, or kick an object, or talk to another character. Inventory is handled in a similarly unobtrusive way.

Especially enjoyable is not dying and being presented with "Game Over" when you do something wrong. If you get knocked off your bike, you see a brief scene of Ben lying on the ground, then you’re back on the road. Toward the end of the game, when you need to save yourself and your friends from plunging to a fiery death, if you hear Ben mutter, "Ouch! Let's try that again," you're brought back to the beginning of the scene. And here's a tip: when you finish the game, make sure you watch all the credits.

Full Throttle requires System 7.1 or later, a 68040 or PowerPC processor, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM, and at least 8MB of RAM. On my Power Mac with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, the pace of game play was more than adequate. Hardcore gamers may find Full Throttle too easily solved, as the puzzles aren’t terribly difficult. I completed the game over a few days. The graphics (especially backgrounds) are quite good, but the rendering quality could be better, and images often look jagged.

The Last Word I greatly enjoyed this game. It hits just the right balance of action, intelligence, and humor. If you're bored with mindless shoot-'em-ups, and your sense of humor and irony are intact, definitely check out Full Throttle.

Negrino, Tom. (January 1996). Full Throttle. Macworld. (pg. 73).

Download Full Throttle for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.1

Compatibility notes

Minimum Requirements

• MC68040 processor
• 8 MB RAM
• 2X CD-ROM drive
• System 7.1

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II