Going Full Throttle, LucasArts Leaves Other Games in the Dust

Vrooom...vrooom...vrooom.... and here comes the bikers. The game starts out with an immense opening sequence. I sat back in my chair and wanted to grab some popcorn. It felt as if I was in a theater watching an animation feature while bopping my head to the accompanying hard rock music. The place is Corville. And the game is Full Throttle from LucasArts (available in Mac and PC CD formats).

Ben, the leader of the Polecats biker gang, is also the star in this adventure/action game. President Malcolm Corley and Vice President Adrian Ripburger of Corley Motors are looking for a motorcycle gang to accompany them to the shareholders' meeting; idea is courtesy of Ripburger, who is shrewd in business relations for the company, but a scumbag at heart. Ben and his Polecats cruise pass in their Corley motorcycles leaving dust clouding the limo's window. Corley is awed by their style and starts the chase for these mysterious bikers to accompany to the shareholders' meeting. Of course, the plot is never this simple. Ripburger has other plans for Corley and the bikers. When Ben and the Polecats refuse to accept Corleys proposal, Ripburger takes Ben out back "to talk" and ends up getting knocked out and disposed of in the garbage dump. Ripburger leads the other Polecats to believe that Ben has agreed and gone ahead. They all leave following the Corley limo. Eventually Ben catches up, only to find that Ripburger has murdered Corley and framed Ben and the Polecats for the murder. Ripburger wishes to cease the manufacturing of Corley motorcycles and make minivans instead. Now what you have to do is prove Ben is innocent, free the rest of the Polecats from jail, and finally expose Ripburger's dirty deeds to all. Nothing big, just all in a day's work, right?

You definitely would want to use a 486 66mhz with at least 8mb RAM computer, or faster, if you want to take full advantage of all that this game has to offer: amazing soundtrack, exciting animation sequences, and great voice acting. With a mouse, you'll also get easy interface and beyond starting Full Throttle, you wouldn't even need to use your keyboard for the rest of the game. All you will need to do is point-and-click, leaving you more brain power to figure out the game. A nice sound card is a must because you'll find yourself drawn into the Gone Jackals' rock-jamming biker band music. It complements every action in the game extremely well, drawing you deeper and deeper into the game. Roy Conrad and Mark Hamill are among the few voice actors in the game (Conrad doing Ben's and Hamill doing Ripburger and two other characters' voices), each creating the characterization of their roles outstandingly; Ben, the even-tempered biker and Ripburger, the evil greedy executive out to get what he wants.

There's not only puzzles to figure out, but a lot of punch-and-knock them outs on the highway and several other parts of the game letting you relieve some stress too. On top of that , there's a few jokes in the game, including allusions to past LucasArts games. And if you look carefully, you may even see a few surprise cameo appearances.

Difficulty-wise, for expert gamers, there may be a bit of disappointment due to the short amount of time it takes to finish the game (about 7-10 hours of intense game play). For the beginners and intermediates, unlike other games, Full Throttle has many clues to solve the various puzzles, which doesn't leave the gamer stuck for too long. As long as you take every item you can, click on everything possible, and talk to every character you meet during your journey, you shouldn't end up adding this game to your collection of unfinished games. Just take advantage of Ben's physical build and a bit of his brain power and that should take you where you wanna be. If you're still stuck, you can call their game hint hotline.