"Whenever I think of asphalt, I think of Maureen.  That's the last sensation I had before I blacked out, the thick smell of asphalt."

Tim Schafer, who was already known for his work on Monkey Island, proved that he was up to the challenge of leading his own project with Full Throttle.  Please, I beg of you, play this game.



Full Throttle has one of the best beginning sequences of any game ever.  The writing, music, dialogue, and imagery come together beautifully.  The song that plays during the opening credits is great and I guarantee you have never heard it before unless you have played this game.  It's by a band called the Gone Jackals, and to this day, it has one of my favorite guitar riffs of all time.  Interesting story about the intro:  Tim has stated that they were in preliminary talks with Soundgarden to use one of their songs for the game's intro until they realized that Soundgarden wanted money.  They ended up going with the relatively unknown Gone Jackals and it proved to be a good move in the end, if only to expose this guitar riff to the world:


Full Throttle's story centers around Malcom Corley, who is the aging founder of Corley Motors, the last motorcycle maker in the country.  The second in command at Corley Motors, Adrian Ripburger (voiced brilliantly by Mark Hamill) is the obvious bad guy right from the start.  Ripburger suggests that Malcom Corley show up to the annual Corley shareholders meeting with a gang of bikers as a PR move.  That is where you come in.  You play as Ben, the leader of the biker gang known as the Pole Cats.  Malcom and Ben meet and hit it off right away.  However, Ben is not thrilled at the idea of "selling out" his gang for a PR move and declines the job.


It isn't long before Ripbuger takes matters into his own hands, or rather, has his henchman take matters into his hands....


After the dramatic intro, Full Throttle begins here (see pic below).  I don't want to spoil the beginning of this game because it really is a great moment that teaches you that you always need to look at each situation as a puzzle to solve.  I'll just let you figure out where you are and how to begin the game.  There is also a terrific mechanism where you can choose just what you want to do with an object in the world. When you select something, you can choose to use your eyes, mouth, hands or feet on it.  Using your mouth is multi-functional, you typically use it to talk to NPCs, but it's also used in solving puzzles.  Using your eyes examines things and using your feet is a great way to kick down doors if you are able.


You discover that your gang has taken off with Malcom and Ripburger and you have to figure out what has happened.  The game has a pretty unique story telling mechanism in which the player sees many scenes that are hidden from the protagonist.  It is interesting to play the game as a character that doesn't have the same knowledge of the story that the player does.

The majority of the gameplay of Full Throttle will feel familiar to fans of the genre.  You explore your environment, speak to everyone that you can, pick up hints, scavenge for items that can help you solve puzzles, and solve these puzzles.  It's a pretty simple formula, but it is the execution that separates Schafer and his team from the rest of the pack.  The writing is genuinely funny without "trying" to be funny.  It's simply funny and it (almost) never feels forced.


The trick to making a great puzzle is to make the solution seem like it is within grasp, and then tweak it just a little bit.  If the first rational solution that you think of is the complete solution, the puzzle would seem to easy.  If that first rational solution gets you closer to solving the puzzle and there are just a couple other tweaks to get you there, the puzzle seems more well-designed and effective.  It's hard to give any specific examples without spoiling any of the puzzles in the game so I won't.  Just believe me when I say that every solution is immensely satisfying in its own way.

There are segments of Full Throttle where you have to collect several key pieces of inventory before you are able to continue.  In most games, "fetch quests" feel tedious and tacked on to artificially extend the length of a game.  These types of quests are a staple in adventure games because they are a fantastic opportunity for including puzzles.  Another stand out feature of this game is how different puzzles will tie into one another.  When you are tasked with collecting the three key items to continue your mission, you can't just collect the first item, then the second, and the third.  Items and information gained when collecting one key item are required to get the others, so it's a little like a "Metroidvania" game in the backtracking aspect.


It's tough to talk about the specifics of Full Throttle without giving away story elements or puzzle solutions.  However, I promise you that the game will not disappoint.  This is a game that I genuinely love more than any other adventure game.  I realize that there is probably a good deal of nostalgia in that statement.  As I've said before, I understand that Mega Man 4 isn't regarded as a better game than 2 or 3, but it's my favorite because I played it to death as a kid.  The same probably applies to Full Throttle, but when all is said and done, its still an amazing game that I play through at least once a year.

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