Full Throttle
Full Throttle was a SCUMM based LucasArts adventure game released in 1995, set in a futuristic world somewhat reminiscent of Mad Max and focusing on the Badass Biker Ben Throttle, leader of the motorcycle gang "The Polecats". After unexpectedly making friends with Corley Motors CEO Malcom Corley while resting at The Kickstand (a biker bar), he's taken out back by Corley's vice-president and confidant, Adrian Ripburger. Ripburger offers him and the Polecats a job to escort the limo to the annual shareholders meeting, but Ben declines out of pride. Faster than you can say "Corrupt Corporate Executive", Ripburger has Ben knocked out by his private thugs and chucks him in a dumpster, tricking the Polecats into following along with the escort. Ben attempts pursuit to make up for lost time, expecting an ambush for his gang, but finds his bike sabotaged and brutally wrecked on the highway. When he wakes up, he finds he's in a small mechanic's shop belonging to toaster repairman Maureen. She offers to fix his bike for free, as a favor, and also for the pleasure of working on a bike for the first time in a long while. But Ben quickly learns that things are not so simple, as his pursuit of Ripburger and his friendship with Maureen lead him into a greater conspiracy than he realized.
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Whenever I smell asphalt, I think of Maureen. That's the last sensation I had before I blacked out; that thick smell of asphalt. And the first thing I saw when I woke up was her face. She said she'd fix my bike. Free. No strings attached. I should've known then that things are never that simple. Yeah, when I think of Maureen, I think of two things: asphalt... and trouble.
—Ben's opening monologue
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The first solo project of legendary game developer Tim Schafer, Full Throttle features more of Schafer's sharp wit and love of heavy metal. It also had full voice acting and at-the-time revolutionary 3D rendering for the biker sequences. In addition, it was the only LucasArts game to make extensive use of licensed music, in this case by "authentic biker" metal band The Gone Jackals. While mostly an adventure game, it also splices in action-based bike fights during the driving sequences. The game is also notoriously short, even by adventure game standards, able to be completed in 10 hours even if you don't hurry. The game still has a cult following to this day.
- All Bikers Are Hells Angels - Combine this with Badass Biker and use liberally for the entire game.
- The Bartender - The bartender at The Kickstand has a large nose ring he got on a dare and apparently took an art class. Ben also hits him up for info a few times (literally hitting him the first time).
- Biker Babe - The Vultures have several of these as members, one of whom is Maureen.
- Bittersweet Ending - Maureen rightfully inherits her father's company, and Ben and the Polecats are cleared, but Maureen must trade her free biker life for that of a restricted corporate executive...which also costs her a budding relationship with Ben, who is last seen leaving her and riding off on his bike.
- Can't You Read the Sign? - Ben was knocked out and his unconscious body thrown in the dumpster out back. Then the player can kick the dumpster, thus violating about every single safety warning on the dumpster within the first couple minutes of gameplay.
- Chain Pain: One of the biker gangs in the game uses chains as their signature weapon. Ben can acquire one after defeating them.
- Chekhov's Boomerang - The Tire Iron
- Clear My Name - About halfway through the plot, Ben and the Polecats are framed for Malcom Corley's murder
- Cool Old Guy - Father Torque; but you can't beat Malcom Corley. Both of whom are voiced by the same guy!
- Corrupt Corporate Executive - Adrian Ripburger. See also Evil Chancellor.
- Cozy Catastrophe - Implied, even lampshaded, though never really stated. The "Apocalypse" really just got rid of all the annoying authority figures so everyone could ride around on motorcycles looking badass.
- Disney Villain Death - Ripburger falls off of a cliff at the end of the game.
- Eyes Always Shut: Everyone.
- Faking the Dead - A mission at the end of the game requires that Ben and Maureen fake their own deaths to Ripburger in order to lure him out of hiding.
- False Reassurance - Ripburger sneaks a hint about his plans in the opening scene. To his credit, his tone sounds more like 'indignant denial' than Sarcastic Confession.
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Corley: I know your plan, Ripburger. You're waiting for me to die so you can take over my company! |
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- Five-Finger Fillet - A hidden minigame.
- Fridge Brilliance - The last command you give to Ben in the game is Get on your bike.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: Invoked with the "Can't Beat A Corley" slogan. Turns into the Karmic Death moment later as seen below.
- Genius Bruiser - Several of those bikers are both very Badass and frighteningly smart people, not least Ben.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual - There's a hidden cave you can't get into without some special goggles, stolen from a rival biker. It's also the one case where the v button above cannot be used, as the biker must be defeated with a certain weapon to get the goggles.
- Incendiary Exponent - Lampshaded and parodied:
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Announcer: "It's the Unknown Avenger--and he's on fire! Well, let's give him a hand, folks. That looks painful!"
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- If it goes on long enough, the announcer has other lines about it.
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"This is your moment to shine!" |
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- Intrepid Reporter - Miranda; semi-subverted in that she feels ashamed when she shows signs of humanity.
- Karmic Death - The crux of Ripberger's plan is his savage beating of Malcom Corley. In the game's finale, Ripburger falls to his death when, after attempting to kill the last of the Corley family and failing miserably, the license plate (belonging to a huge truck) he's holding on to snaps off of the truck. The plate bears the slogan "Can't Beat A Corley".
- Mega Manning - Sort of; you need a particular item to beat a particular biker to get a particular weapon to beat the next biker...eventually resulting in you getting an item needed to complete a non-fighty quest.
- The fighting sequences are in fact puzzles. With the exception of one biker (the guy using the skull-head flail), every biker is easily defeated by using a specific weapon. In the case of the girl wielding the chainsaw, you have to figure out that she's not wearing a pair of goggles like everyone else, and throw fertilizer in her face; nothing else will take her down. Unfortunately, most of the weapons are pretty worthless except for the 2x4 and the chain, which are needed to get the items to jump the gorge.
- Mistaken for Murderer - Ben is accused of killing Malcom Corley thanks to Ripburger. Unfortunately for him, Corley's daughter Maureen also believes he did it and tries to have him drawn and quartered via motorcycle.
- Motorcycle Jousting - Occurs as a minigame.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast - Ripburger is not the name of a guy you should take financial advice from, let alone put as your second in command for your company or let handle your security when you are taking a long road trip with just him and his flunkies and the biker gang he hired.
- No Fair Cheating: There's exactly 3 of one specific kind of biker on the road during one segment. You must figure out how to get their goggles. It involves using a specific weapon against them. If you do not use the weapon to defeat them (it's one of only 2 or three that actually work), you will not get their goggles. Pressing v counts as using something other than the weapon you're supposed to use.
- No Name Given: Ben's last name is never given during the game. The manual calls him Ben Whatsisname, (though that's probably a joke) while Tim Schafer says his last name is Throttle.
- Opening Monologue
- Paper-Thin Disguise - Subverted: the villains actually see through it, but this was planned in order to fake the characters' deaths.
- Parental Abandonment - Maureen's father abandoned her when she was quite young, leaving her too depressed to work on anything but toasters up until the events of the game. Eventually, it's revealed that her father is Malcom Corley, and while he used to maintain a strong relationship with his daughter, he eventually cut it off at Ripburger's advice since she was an illegitimate child.
- Perma-Stubble - Ben.
- Pixel Hunt - The rock-kicking puzzle near the end - also counts for a Scrappy Level for its insanity.
- Private Eye Monologue - The quote at the top of the page that opens the game.
- Put on a Bus - Miranda. She asks you to find her publisher, and is never heard from again.
- "Ride of the Valkyries": Clearing the minefield, featuring a fantastic contradiction between a full orchestra and a cheap plinky-plonk synth
- Riding Into the Sunset - Twice!
- Shout-Out / Mythology Gag:
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Miranda: Well, I tracked the guy to Melonweed. But I'm not going near the place! They'd kill me! Get my editor! He's got to get me out of this! Take one of these fake I Ds to get through the roadblocks. My career is riding on those pictures! Help me, Ben, you're my only hope! |
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- Spiritual Successor - Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend bears some visual similarities to this one, though Brutal Legend is focused entirely on heavy metal. The style of the bikes and cars are almost identical across both games (though no hover cars in Brutal Legend).
- A cut sequence from the game (thanks to Executive Meddling) in which Ben experienced a peyote-influenced hallucinogenic trip would also go on to inspire a later Schafer project, Psychonauts.
- Shout-Out - The chainsaw wielding biker. With the red punk hair. Named Razor. She shows up at the funeral. It's Razor from Maniac Mansion, and, Fridge Brilliance, she finally found that chainsaw gas.
- Stuff Blowing Up - See also Incendiary Exponent.
- Swallowed a Fly: Ben chats with his old biker gang leader, Father Torque, while they're both in the middle of riding. Exhausting all conversation trees will cause Torque to say that he can't talk anymore because he's eating too many bugs.
- Terrible Trio - Adrian Ripburger's mooks Nestor and Bolus.
- Treacherous Advisor - Even Malcom doesn't trust him and he's the one who hired him! So it comes as no shock when Ripburger bludgeons the old guy to death with his cane and takes over his company by force.
- Wrench Wench - Maureen.
- Video Will - Malcom has one of these. Playing it at the board meeting is a major plot point.