Full Throttle Remastered

I'm not putting my lips on that.

While the 90s were full of adventure games like Grim Fandango and the likes for many, I never really played any of them back then. I was playing Epic MegaGames’ Jazz Jackrabbit, OMF 2097, and more. I only got to check out the LucasArts classics when Grim Fandango Remastered released 8 years ago. I had never played Full Throttle either when it released more than two decades ago and seeing the trailer at PSX last year got me excited to check it out. Full Throttle Remastered is a short but fantastic point and click adventure that totally holds its own today.
I pretty much only remembered the music from the trailer and booted it up mostly going in blind. The opening absolutely blew me away. You play as Ben, the leader of a biker gang who is narrating what happened before he woke up. The opening credits are presented really well with some of the main characters introduced by just a bit of talking. It even has its Doom moment (like that shotgun syncing with the music in the first level) when the bike hits the limo’s hood ornament. This is where the music properly kicks in and I knew I was in for a good time.
Even though there’s an overarching theme of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, this experience is actually set in the future. This theme extends to the music and the in game interface. When you try and interact with anything, there’re skulls, fists, fire, and more representing actions.
Corley Motors is the last manufacturer of motorcycles and the founder is pretty old, but still a biker at heart. His vice president, Ripburger on the other hand is a scheming evil businessman. They stop their limo to hang out with the Polecats at a bar and one thing leads to another before Ben is knocked out. Ripburger tries to hire the bikers and it obviously doesn’t work out. Ben soon meets Maureen who is awesome. She’s a mechanic who fixes up his bike.
It feels weird referencing newer games when I talk about what is essentially over 20 years old here, but it just goes to show how far ahead of its time Full Throttle was or just how much other games are influenced by it. The relationship and dynamic that exists between Ben and Maureen here reminded me of that between Henry and Delilah in Firewatch. There’s a mini game or section that basically plays like an older Road Rash (remember where you have to take out bikers with weapons to get new weapons before trying to find a hidden cave?).
There’s a lot of pointing and clicking and the PC version has native support for the PS4 controller which is what I used for a bit while playing it. The mappings are a bit off as the Share button switched between visual styles as opposed to the touchpad for me. Having the option to kick, grab, or lick/talk to anything results in some interesting dialogue. Get ready to hear the lovely voice of the late Roy Conrad as Ben say “I’m not putting my lips on that” often if you try and lick random objects like I did. Puzzles obviously require you to have certain objects which are only found by opening and exploring. There are only a few time sensitive or action based puzzles here that require quick actions or inputs.
The remaster lets you switch between the original letterbox aspect ratio with old visuals and the widescreen remaster with the press of a button at any time. This is great to see how much has changed while keeping things true to the original art or vision. Animations are obviously smoother and the game is now 60fps. I did have some frame rate drops in the motorcycle mini game though. The old school style is also worth checking out just to see how much character the artists managed to get out of visual limitations while keeping the cinematic feel throughout.
I absolutely loved the voice acting in Grim Fandango and the cast here has done a magnificent job. Even the smaller characters like the bartender who has his face rammed into the bar and a merchandise seller in a stadium sound great. Roy Conrad’s performance as Ben is easily the highlight for me. The voice acting has had some tweaking for this remaster in the audio levels as well. When you switch to the old visual style, even the audio switches. There’s also an audio commentary that you can toggle when you feel like it in game, where you get some background for the scene and some of the characters.
Speaking of the audio, the music here is amazing. There’s a lot of original music from Peter McConnell and music by the biker band The Gone Jackals. I feel like the lack of Judas Priest music is an absolute missed opportunity. Heck I thought Priest’s Heading out to the Highway or Turbo Lover would play when Ben is riding on an empty road. That aside, The Gone Jackals songs used throughout are great.
My only complaints are with a few of the puzzles or mini games here. There’s one that involves toy bunnies that made me want to actually fling my computer into a minefield and one where kicking a wall in real life made more sense than a puzzle in game. I expected things like this already after Grim Fandango, but they are annoying nonetheless.
Full Throttle Remastered feels like a game I should have absolutely played back when it released and I’m glad this remaster has given me a chance to play it today. I really should get around to playing Day of the Tentacle Remastered soon and hope that Double Fine can get these three released physically somehow.
Pros:
Great characters, dynamic, and story
Gorgeous aesthetic
Soundtrack
Voice acting is excellent
Amazing opening
Cons:
Few annoying sections
Some performance issues in one section
My Score: 9.6/10
In Short:
Full Throttle Remastered is a fantastic point and click heavy metal adventure that is an essential for fans of the genre.

Updated and re-released in 2017 by Double Fine Productions, Full Throttle was initially released in 1995, developed by LucasArts. This game is a point and click adventure game with some driving action segments. This remastered version allows the choice of graphics, commentary tracks on specific moments throughout the game and concept art that is unlocked as progress is achieved in game.
Unlike other classical re-releases of LucasArts games, Full Throttle doesn’t include a hint button, but it does allow the highlight of interactable objects in each scene. Another thing that may differentiate this from other LucasArts games is its theme, that can be more aggressive than the monkey island games, for example, considering the heavy use of weapons throughout the game.
In a futuristic and slightly dystopian setting, you control Ben the leader of the Polecats, a motorcycle gang. While riding, the gang encounters a hovering limousine and in it the president of a traditional motorcycle manufacturer and the vice-president. Unkown to Ben, stumbling into this limousine thrust him into an investigation that will have immeasurable consequences.
Explore a vast highway, fight enemy gangs and investigate a conspiracy while using your motorcycle, items, and weapons available. The contrast of traditional motorcycles and hovering vehicles makes for a striking visual style, alongside the beautifully drawn character portraits and sceneries.
Full Throttle is an amazing adventure game, one that may present a higher difficulty for some timed puzzles, but still very much enjoyable and highly recommended.
If you enjoyed this review, I would like to invite you to visit Backlog log my curator page for recommendations and reviews.

Have you ever wanted to play a bad man? A 12.0 on a 10.0 scale of badness? Well, this game might not be it, but it features Ben Throttle, a tormented man with a permanent stubble and a severe case of stereotypical gritty manliness that gets dragged into a grand scheme win which he is framed for the death of a diminutive father figure by a slimy corpo. Ben must fight, puzzle and drive his way to redemption in a great point and click adventure that is a rather sober story of greed and friendship all in all.
If you have played an old school lucas arts adventure game you know what you can expect from this remastered title and Double Fine have done a great job hosting up the graphics and the overall design while staying true to the games roots. I remembered that some parts of the game felt janky back in the days and honestly, they still do, but at least it's playable and gets to be enjoyed again 30 years later.. Personally I enjoyed my playthrough and the combination of memorable characters, quirky cutscenes and the overall message of the story is solid even in today's landscape where storytelling most often takes the backseat to monetization..
Full Throttle is one of Lucasarts more divisive games that although it contains charming puzzles and a lot of great setpieces it is rather short and fails to capture the grand epic scale that many of the other games in the series bring to the table. I do enjoy it however and it is great to once again see a slight resurgence in adventure games amidst all the looter shooters and skinner-boxes of this day and age. Check it out or get it in a bundle, it is a nice and breezy game that genuinely has a great heart..

Full Throttle was the first video game I ever played back when I was around 6 years old. All thanks to my mother, who not only -loved- all old LucasArts point and click games, but also kept all the original discs so she could play with me as I grew up. I have played it so many times since then that I can actually say all the dialogues out loud before the characters do, so it's obvious that it'll always have a special place in my heart.
To my dear mother, I love you. Thanks for being so awesome and for everything you've done for me. ♡
And to Tim Schafer, thank you for this game and this remake. Answering your question from the making of video: I have not become a biker after playing it, but at least it got me into video games haha.

"For my brother, keep moving forward dude!"
Full Throttle and I go way back, so this review will have a few flash back moments.
I never actually had this game until I got here on Steam.
My brother had it on CD-ROM, so I got to play it several times, but the son of a gun never gave me or sold me his game, until he finally lost it.
Game was launched in 1995, and I do recall watching its opening at a store in a VGA monitor.
Quite a shock as it was fast paced, voice acted, with great sound track from The Gone Jackals.
Btw, Bone to Pick is the record which has the game songs.
The only other game of this genre I had played so far was Fate of Atlantis, the Floppy Disk version, which was all text based.
Full Throttle is probably one of the first games to deliver the so called "cinematic experience" in PC gaming.
It has good and elaborated story, with great characters and very good voice acting. Listening to Mark Hamill playing Ripburger is just great!
It's unfortunate that Roy Conrad passed away back in 2002, and I do recall reading somewhere this was the reason why a second game was never done. May he rest in peace!
The set is somewhat futuristic, with hovering cars, mixing bikers and heavy metal in a desert landscape.
It's put together so well that you will have no trouble getting yourself immersed in its world.
In terms of playing time, game is short, if you know what to do.
One of my friends had the game, back in the day, and I've told him I could finish it in 45 minutes. He didn't believe, so I got it done at his PC on a Sunday afternoon. Off course I got to skip dialogs, etc.
Still, I do recommend exploring all areas, talking to everyone all dialog lines, as the game has many good dialogs.
Please note most old games were short if you had a walkthrough telling what to do, however the value in those games was playing and trying to solve the puzzles and exploring.
There are good puzzles, and also brutal puzzles, which could keep you stuck for a long time.
About the puzzles, there are two moments in which you could have trouble.
The mining road battles can be hard, as it works like a puzzle. You got to figure out which weapons should be used against who, unless you use the "shift + v" cheat for auto win. It still works.
The other one is a car battle at a destruction derby. for this one, it's better look for a walkthrough in the internet, as I still forget how to get this one done, after all these years.
This remastered version is quite nice.
Graphics can be shifted "on the fly" between old style letter box and remastered widescreen while playing the game.
The remastered graphics stay true to the original.
There is also a bonus section with concept art, sound track and even an option for audio commentary for the game.
Double Fine did a great job with this game, as well as Day of the Tentacle.
Different from other point and click adventure games, FT has a cleaner screen and actions can be accessed by left clicking the mouse for action menu and right click mouse for inventory.
It enhances the gaming experience when compared to the titles which came berore this one.
Together with Fate of Atlantis, The Dig and Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle makes a great combo for one who likes point and click adventure games.
Note: I never got to play Monkey Island though. People say it's good.
I suppose these old games bring lots of memory to people like me, and they are good ones, worth playing these days.
It would be great if we could get a Fate of Atlantis remastered, wouldn't it?

Great remaster of an awesome classic game.
Very nice pixel graphics, a lot of care and detail in the remaster. The ability to switch back and forth is a nice touch.
Sound effects and voice acting are great, so many hilarious interactions and quotes. The music is awesome. It's one of those games where you can just chill and listen to the music for hours.
The gameplay is what you would expect from a point-&-click adventure game. Some of the puzzles are a bit confusing, but overall they are solvable with a bit of trial and error. Just enjoy all the weird and funny interactions with the different objects and characters.
The story is nice, not the greatest, but it offers you nice immersion, a lot of memorable characters and a bunch of weird and crazy moments.
Also, the remaster comes with a bunch of extras, like the art gallery and creators commentary, which are nice additions.
In short, great remaster, awesome game, a must-have in the point-&-click game collection.