Full Throttle

For the Coca-Cola energy drink, see Full Throttle (drink).

Full Throttle is a graphical adventure game, originally developed in-house and released in May 1995 by LucasArts. It is the tenth game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine.

Plot

The story focuses on Ben, the leader of a biker gang called the Polecats. He is approached in a bar by Malcolm Corley, the CEO and founder of the last domestic motorcycle manufacturer in the country, Corley Motors. When he declines an offer, he is knocked out and thrown in a dumpster by Nester and Bolus, malicious flunkies of the sinister vice president of Corley Motors, Adrian Ripburger, who seems to have designs on taking over the company. He attempts to link up with the Polecats, whom Ripburger has coerced into escorting Corley and himself to the annual shareholder's meeting. Along the way, he meets a female mechanic named Mo, who later is revealed to be Corley's illegitimate daughter.

Ben finds his gang in time to witness Ripburger murder Corley and pin the murder on the Polecats. A fugitive, he is forced to cross the desert to find a way to clear his name, save his gang, and prevent Ripburger from turning Corley Motors into a minivan producer. He crosses paths with a number of other motorcycle gangs: the speed addicted Vultures (of whom Mo used to be a member), the brutish Rottwheelers and the enigmatic Cavefish. He arrives at the shareholders meeting in time to catch Ripburger announcing his new control of and plan for the company. He and Mo expose Ripburger as the murderer, and broadcast the last will and testament of Malcolm Corley, who names Mo as the rightful successor to his company. Ben is able to free his gang, and the game ends with Ben riding off into the sunset, leaving Mo. The game was admired for its polished look and involving storyline; its only major criticism was that it was of insufficient length.

Technical information

Full Throttle was released only on CD-ROM, featuring a full voiceover soundtrack. The project was led by Day of the Tentacle creator Tim Schafer, who was also its writer and designer. Weak points of the game included its linearity and short duration, elements that brought the game in comparison to LOOM. It was also one of the few LucasArts games to use externally recorded music, courtesy of the Gone Jackals. Certain tracks from their then current album, Bone to Pick, were featured in the game.

Interface

The game introduced a new system of interface: Holding the left mouse button over a recognisable item should bring up a graphic menu rendered as a flaming skull (made to look like a tatoo a biker might have), with icons featuring Fist (use or hit), Eyes (examine), Tongue (Speak, taste, use mouth) and Foot (Kick). As the button was pressed, the user had to point at one of those icons and then release the button to select it. In effect it was a type of pie menu. Inventory (a gigantic cranium with a wide open mouth containing the items) was invoked by right clicking anywhere on the screen. This interface was reused only in Curse of Monkey Island.

It also provided a portion where the player had to drive across a deserted road and occasionally fight with enemy bikers. The fight is done with fists and kicks and later chains, planks etc. These 'weapons' are effective only with certain combinations that the player must discover alone. This part is done with INSANE. The use for Full Throttle caused some problems since INSANE was intended to be photorealistic, contrasting to the intended general cartoony feeling. The rendered environment had to be scaled down to match to the rest of the game world.

Cast

Full Throttle employed plenty of skilled voice acting professionals, such as Roy Conrad, Kath Soucie, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, Hamilton Camp, Steven Jay Blum and Mark Hamill. Full Throttle was the first computer game to employ mostly SAG-registered professional voice actors instead of relying entirely on in-house talent, and also featured a few pieces of licensed music. The Gone Jackals provided some of these pieces.

Sequel

Two attempts have been made by LucasArts to create a sequel to Full Throttle. The first attempt, entitled Full Throttle II: Payback, both began and ceased development prior to 2000. In 2003 however, development on the second attempt Full Throttle II: Hell on Wheels began. Sean Clark's Hell on Wheels made it much further through development than Payback. A video teaser was released and an interactive demo was shown at E3 that year, but shortly afterwards this game was also cancelled.

References

External links

The Kickstand fansite at The International House of Mojo
ScummVM, a program to play Full Throttle and other SCUMM adventures on modern computers.
The Gneech's Full Throttle page
Lucasarts' Full Throttle: The Movie (Edited by VMGD)

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