PSX 2016 – Full Throttle Remastered Preview – Rebuilt Restored (PS4)

Tim Schafer and LucasArts made a bunch of great graphical point-and-click adventure games in the ’90s, and two of them have already been remastered and released for PS4. Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle were both amazing recreations, taking old pixelated imagery and updating them with stunning art. I had the opportunity to run through a short demo of Full Throttle Remastered with Tim Schafer himself standing at shoulder to shoulder with me.

He casually explained that the demo we were playing was actually an old PC Magazine demo from a demo disc (yes, there was once a time when physical magazines came with physical demo discs so that people could try out games!) that was remastered on par with the Full Throttle Remaster quality. It’s actually an awesome throwback, the kind of little facts that most will never know, but add a special little spark to the story of the creation of these games, from its birth over 20 years ago to it’s mirrored remaster today. Even the original demo is being used to get player’s hands on the remaster, albeit at PSX and not on a demo disc.

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Full Throttle Remaster looks incredible. The animations look hand drawn, but fit neatly over the original game, which can be toggled to on the fly to show how far the game has come. Signature Tim Schafer humor is here in spades, and made me want to click on every possible object to hear what hilarious thing Ben would say next in the search for the keys to his bike, especially because you can try each object with hand, mouth, or foot, each of which lead to funny interactions. “I’m not puttin’ my lips on that!” “I can’t kick that high!” Ben’s gruff voice is reminiscent of Duke Nukem in a way, but way cooler and far less of a womanizing douche. He’s just a biker looking to keep motorcycle riding pure, which is a cause that I can definitely get behind.

Full Throttle Remastered Preview 1

These point-and-click adventures are classics that set the stage for much of Tim Schafer’s career, so this housekeeping to bring them up to current standards feels like a natural way to study up for the future. Games like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend were spawned from the ideas that came before, and it’s important to keep a good hold on our past. The demo was a short ride and didn’t show much except to confirm that Full Throttle is back with a beautiful new coat of paint, like a restored 1948 panhead that is road ready once again. I’m eager to see if Full Throttle Remastered can keep the rubber on the road when it releases next year, but the demo shows promise that they’ll keep things at…yeah, full throttle.

Read the latest PSX 2016 news and hands-on previews on PlayStation LifeStyle.

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