What video game combines my love of motorcycles, being a bad ass, murder and adventure all the while listening to heavy rock at the same time? No, not The Lost and Damned, you yuppie (but I did love that game too), I’m talking about LucasArt’s SCUMM classic: Full Throttle.

First released in April 1995, Full Throttle was LucasArt’s tenth SCUMM game, and the first game they’ve released for Windows. The adventure, point-and-click follows the story of protagonist and biker gang leader “Ben” as he attempts to clear his name after being falsely accused of the murder of the last motorcycle manufacturer, Malcolm Corley.

Corley having been murdered by his assistant, and the game’s token bad guy, Adrian Ripburger. Ripburger framed Ben’s gang, The PoleCats. At the time of the murder, the gang was escorting Corley to a shareholder’s meeting where Ripburger caught up with them during a pitstop and beat the old man to death. Ben catches up just in time to get Corley’s dying words: he wants revenge on Ripburger, and for Ben to find his daughter “Moe” and place her in charge of the company.

We later discover that a photo-journalist managed to grab pictures of the grizzly murder, but that they had been stolen. Eventually recovering these photos, Ben displays them to the Corley Motors’ shareholders, revealing Ripburger’s dirty secret to the world.

The interface, the graphics and the sound

Full Throttle was built on Same and Max’s SCUMM-based engine with several enhancements thrown in, notably the 3D effects and animations. The game still blows me away to this date on how detailed characters were despite their resolutions.

The sound is one of the game’s biggest sale points. The soundtrack kicks some serious ass with music by the Gone Jackals. Just listen to the intro.

Bad ass. Not only is the sound track awesome, Ben’s voice actor, Roy Conrad (who sadly deceased in 2002), nailed the part like very few have before. Roy’s voice is perfectly suited to Ben’s dry, sarcastic wit and grunt-like retorts.

The world Full Throttle takes place in is a little hard to describe. It’s a mix of grimy and dystopian industrial. Traditional motor vehicles are being replaced by hover cars and Ripburger plans on ceasing motorcycle production to being producing hover minivans (gasp); a plan that would have the late Malcolm Corley spinning in his grave. The game features several dozen locations: from a western biker bar to a tacky souvenir store with cute fluffy bunnies, inside a grounded cargo plane, an underground secret lair, scrapyards, trashy trailer and a whole lot more.

In closing

Full Throttle is one of those games that hold a very special place in my heart. It was my first real point-and-click adventure game, and the first game that actually made me buy a strategy guide since we didn’t have internet access at that time. It’s also one of the first games to crash (during the old mine road sequences) on me requiring me to troubleshoot at the age of eleven. I eventually figured out a way to make it playable enough to get through that zone. It’s one of those games I’d give everything to forget and replay all over again.

Also, hidden knife game.