Throwback #2: Full Throttle

This throwback comes straight from the heart of the 90s, when LucasArts came out with various adventure games like Sam and Max and The Curse of Monkey Island. I’m talking about Full Throttle. A slightly lesser known throwback, yet a cult favorite for those who know about the game.

It was a brainchild of Tim Schafer, if you’re scratching your head and going who is this chump think Psychonauts. You played as Ben: a 5 o’clock shadow, leather jacket wearing guy who is a leader of the biker gang: the Polecats. It starts off with a dialogue between Malcom Corley, CEO of the last motorcycle company in the country, and Adrian Ripburger on their way to a shareholders meeting when a bike gang begins to overtake them. Ben runs over the hood ornament of the expensive hover limosine, which delights Corley who decides to follow Ben. Intrigue follows as the story begins to unfold rapidly and the characters begin to be more fleshed out. As much as a bad ass Ben seems to be, he isn’t the kind of badass you learn to hate while playing. The environment, albeit barren and almost post-apocalyptic, has so much depth when playing: most objects are easily interact-able via pie-menu interface while the dialogue between characters is far from shallow. It’s filled with bikers, hover cars, and a demolition derby: what is there NOT to love?

In addition to storyline and character development, the graphics for a DOS game is absolutely phenomenal and can stand the test of time against the most modern cell-shaded work (stretching this sentence a little bit farther from the truth ). Actually, its surprisingly great for a game that had standard VGA graphics (DVI was yet to be mainstream 5-6 years later). So going back to the beginning, why is this a cult classic instead of a mainstream game that everyone knows? Well for one, it was ridiculously short and most of the game was cut-scenes. But really now, does that need to stop you? Take a look at a short clip and see if the game is good enough to “immerse” you in the story mode.

So how did it find it’s ranks as a throwback? Well, Internet, I challenge you to find this game and play it. I’m almost certain that you will find the game just as enjoyable as any other  game you’ve played. It’s not holy crap amazing awesome, but it’s good clean fun without having to boast gore and the ripping of hearts out. A good storyline, good gameplay, and nice art make this game more than worthy for a Miss Geek throwback.

Enter the 1st geeylicious throwback.

What is a throwback you say?

I think webster or some other dictionary calls it a tribute to something old. Wikipedia tells you that it may refer to something “Old School”. In any event I’m giving you, Internet, a throwback.

I was a weeeeee toddler when videogames were introduced into my life. I may have been 3 or 4, but I distinctly remember a Commodore 64 in our den. It was the days where KILObytes were the highest form of computational measurement in user RAM. Real top of the line stuff.

Anyway, there was this game from LucasArts back then called Maniac Mansion. Some of you might remember it (you old farts), it had a bunch of kids snooping around, with a guy named Dave Miller as the protagonist trying to find his girlfriend Sandy Pantz.

Hilarity ensues with tentacle monsters and some evil loopy doctor running around the house trying to feed you to said tentacle monster. Then there’s the evil loopy doctor’s wacko family that has serious serious problems….all this and there’s some radioactive purple thing that is under the doc’s powers. Either way, Dave isn’t alone. No, he comes with a motley team that reeks of 80s: I remember some new wave guy; a surfer; Bernard Bournouli, the quintessential nerd archetype; and some punk rock chick (names obviously forgotten due to the fact I was THREE).

This game FREAKED me out at that time. From all the choices you had to make to the fact that one wrong move could potentially KILL your girlfriend and your friends and that the family that lived in this maniac mansion was clearly full of raging psychopaths and manic depressive plants, made my three-year-old mind whirl around like teacups at Disneyworld. In other words, it scared the shit out of me. I never could understand why my brothers, who were both 7 and 10 at the time, liked playing it to the end. Either way, as much as it was scary it was oddly compelling. I had to watch them play it, I needed to know if they were going to be OKAY!

I think in the end the purple thing was fed to one of the plants…

Fuck the ESRB ratings back then too, it was the happy days before shit like that (THANK YOU JOE LIEBERMAN, YOU JERK).

This throwback is made in tribute to this game that has potentially scarred me for the rest of my life. One of these days I will get my own Commodore 64 and play it, retro style, and appreciate what made me shit scared back in the days of ‘87-’88 and laugh.

To be noted: I haven’t played it ever since it came out because I’m a big pansy.

Oh my god, where is Sandy Pantz?