1995 was a wild year in video games. CDs were just becoming mainstream enough in consumer PCs to really start publishing games on them. Where developers had previously been constricted to a mere 1.44mb by floppy disks, they now had an effectively infinite 650mb of space to throw all their ideas into. That does of course seem laughably small in the context of today’s higher end games, and Full Throttle Remastered takes the already huge filesize of the classic graphic adventure and adds several more infinities worth of high definition assets and audio commentary.

Full Throttle sees you taking on the role of Ben Throttle, leader of the biker gang the Polecats. Down and out of money, a chance meeting brings the Polecats an opportunity to earn some cash working for an elderly Malcolm Corley, the last domestic manufacturer of motorcycles and well-respected patriarch of Corley Motors and of biker culture. All is not as it seems however, and it’s revealed that the Vice President of Corley Motors intends to murder Malcolm and take over the company by force. It’s now up to Ben to warn Malcolm of the impending danger, prevent the Polecats being implicated, and expose Vice President Ripburger’s schemes.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward and matches up with graphic adventures of the era. The interface is entirely mouse-based, although the Remaster enables the use of modern console controllers as well. Simply move the crosshair around to examine the area that Ben is currently in. Left click the ground to move to that spot. An arrow indicates movement to a different area. Red brackets around the crosshair indicate that an object can be interacted with; left click to bring up a submenu and declare whether you intend to examine, handle, kick, or have Ben declare in memetic disgust “I'm not putting my lips on that.” Right click to bring up your inventory and use objects you’ve collected. Half the fun of the game is in simply examining objects to learn a bit of lore.

Full Throttle also mixes in some action in the form of bike fights – deadly fisticuffs with rival bikers at high speed. Simply move the mouse to close in or veer away, right click to select a weapon, and then left click to wail away.

As with most adventure games of the period, gameplay revolves around solving various environmental puzzles. Keys to your bike are gone? Check out the nearby bar. Is the door stuck? “Fix” it with a liberal application of your boots. Is the barkeep not cooperating? Perhaps it’s time to show off the dangers of having a nose-ring. Is the rival biker fight not going your way? Try a different weapon or adjusting the timing of your hits. LucasArts adventure games are known for their use of… unconventional solutions. Suffice it to say that there’s a surreal humor that comes from watching such solutions play out.

Full Throttle is a short game, and can be finished in about three hours if you know what’s happening. If you don't know what's up though, some unconventional solutions will halt your progress until you exhaust every item interaction and look up the solution in a guide, pushing that out another hour or two. In the 1990s, this would have been painfully short for an adventure game, but over the last two decades gamers have also come to enjoy short but focused experiences. In this regard, Full Throttle is more at home as a modern game than it was when originally released.

The remaster brings much higher resolution assets to the game. All the jagged, pixelated lines are now rendered smoothly, although you’re also free to switch between the classic and remastered graphics with a single button. The future wastelands of a greatly depopulated future have never looked better. Players are sure to recognise a few voices depending on their age, most notably Mark Hamill as the villainous Ripburger or Maurice LaMarche as Nestor. The dull droning of the soundtrack would ordinarily be a complaint, but here it works with the visuals and various bits of lore in a fitting example of world-building done well. You can really feel the Mad Max vibes here; the apocalypse has come and gone, and this is a story about the last holdouts of civilization rather than the rag tag marauders.

The Remaster also includes developer commentary, a jukebox, and a collection of concept art, features bound to tickle the fancy of those old enough to be fanatics of this game.

As a story about a Biker gang, it’s not surprising that the game has some violence. You’ll be wailing on rival bikers in dangerous road fight fisticuffs until someone is knocked off balance and sent sprawling. One character dies in a cinematic in a puddle of blood. Language is surprisingly tame; I didn’t hear even a peep of crude language, although I can’t quite guarantee the developer commentary is as sanitary. I didn’t go too deep on it, but there’s definitely some child un-friendly stories floating around in there. There is also use of alcohol and tobacco by characters.

Full Throttle Remastered is a remake of one of the best remembered graphic adventures released in the 1990s. Even if the desert wasteland or biker aesthetic are not your thing, there’s enough here to engage with over the feature-movie length of the game. By the time you’re done, the smell of asphalt may well have you thinking of this game.