Expect this to happen, a lot!

Long before 3D Sonic games were all about bad camera angles, unreliable homing attacks and Big The Cat types, their main focus was on impeccable timing and awesome music – Sonic 3D was no exception!

Before being ported to the good old Sega Saturn to join the likes of Sonic R and Sonic Jam, this legendary 3D platformer shocked the world with its isometric camera angles and diverse gameplay. Little did we know that Sonic 3D would end up proving to be one of the most challenging games in the blue hedgehog’s career!

Nodding its head to the formidable platforming elements found in Snake, Rattle and Roll, Sonic 3D was a tough cookie of a game that required a keen eye for detail and a lot of patience! Successfully landing on a single platform would involve you judging distances and keeping a close watch on our blue hero’s shadow, whilst defeating enemies required a high level of both skill and patience. This game ultimately waved goodbye to easy boss fights and put a stop to speedily making your way through linear zones.

Special stages were somewhat familiar as you were thrown into a pre-set path that involved jumping over spiky obstacles and surviving with enough rings to earn yourself a brand spanking new chaos emerald. However, entering a special stage was a whole new ball game. Instead of simply finishing a stage with 50 rings and jumping into another dimension, you would have to hunt down your two-tailed sidekick or Knuckles and deliver a requested amount of rings to them. This was a superb way of forcing you to explore each and every zone and it definitely increased the games overall play time.

Isometric camera angles at their finest

The main aim of Sonic 3D was to relentlessly seek out and destroy Robotnik’s mechanical monstrosity’s and free the poor little flickies that were trapped inside. Sound familiar? Sure, but the twist was that you couldn’t possibly progress further into the game without first rescuing all flickies in the current stage. Easy as it sounds, once you had reached Spring Stadium the games difficulty increased by ten fold as it became a quest to keep your flickies free of harm – no easy task when danger was lurking around each and every corner!

Despite Sonic 3D’s development falling in the hands of Travelers Tales, Jun Senoue’s handy work still played a part in the games final product. Equipped with two separate soundtracks, Sonic 3D was a collection of catchy mellow rythms and pumped up trance – of course this was dependant on which system you owned it on. The Sega Saturn version boasted the most impressive sounds and graphics, whilst the Mega Drive was pushed to its capabilities with memorable stage music and never before seen visuals.

Unfortunately, Sonic 3D’s reign over the platforming genre is long gone, but such an innovative masterpiece will remain in the heart of every 90’s kid for years to come. Fantastic music, challenging boss fights and plenty of exploration to be had, what’s not to love?!

The Western Release

Black Belt for the Sega Master System is a side scrolling beat ‘em up with a decidedly Japanese overtone. The game is actually a localised version of the Japanese game “Hokutou no Ken” which is known in the west as “Fist of the North Star”, which in turn is based on the manga series of the same name. However, when the game was first released way back in 1986, Fist of the North Star was virtually unknown in America and Europe, thus the need for localisation. While this game has background featuring Japanese castles and the like, the original game was actually based in post-apocalyptic urban setting. Needless to say they changed the look of the game quite a bit. Black Belt is also a very rare occurrence of reverse localisation, as the game had a western like urban theme in Japan which was changed to a traditional Japanese theme for release in the west.

The game was published in 1986 by Sega. One of the programmers of Black Belt was Yuji Naka, who would later go on to become the lead programmer of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. This game was release quite early in the Master Systems life cycle, but it still looks pretty good. One annoyance is that the game is prone to a lot of pixel “clipping” or “flickering” when there are a lot of sprites on the screen at once (which is all the time).

The core mechanics of the game remain intact. There is more kicking, punching and feet-to-the-facing than you can shake a stick at. Although the basic enemies all look the same, and shatter (I repeat, shatter) when you hit them, each stage is broken up by a couple of sub bosses. These sub bosses were actually characters from the Manga series, but not knowing who they are doesn’t really change anything.

Japanese Release

I wouldn’t exactly call this game easy. The sheer number of enemies you face at once can be staggering, and often causes physical problem within the game; sprite flickering and slow down. The sub bosses that break up the levels all have predictable patterns of attack but remain a decent challenge. The end of level bosses pose more of a challenge, as while they also follow predictable patters, your timing has to be spot-on to land a hit.

There are various power-ups available throughout the game. They come in the form of icons that fly across the top of the screen. Here is where things get a little tricky. The stock standard jump isn’t high enough to reach the power-ups that fly across the screen. You can however perform a high-jump by holding down first and then up (up on the D pad is used to jump). The problem with this is that while you are crouching and getting your timing right to nab a power-up, you are also getting your ass handed to you by the half-a-million enemies also on screen. It’s not impossible to get the power-ups, but it is a lot harder than it looks.

At the end of the day, Black Belt is a lot of fun and a decent challenge. The game doesn’t let anyone push it around, but at the same time it is not so difficult that it will make you want to give up in the face of defeat. I would recommend this game to fan of the side scrolling beat ‘em up genre, and also fans of the Manga and Anime series Fist of the North Star.

Maybe it’s infused into humanity’s DNA. The instinctual hunger for power can lay dormant for years, suddenly awakening at the most opportune moment. Some cannot satiate their appetite, with the promise of fame, fortune and glory an irresistible prospect. Unfortunately, there can only be one who holds the ultimate position of power. Only one who can be worthy of holding the Power Stone; a stone which can make your wildest dreams come true. Talk about an attractive proposition!

Power Stone was unlike anything I had ever played. Frantic, fast, hilarious and genuinely exciting; the game was a mad dash to grab enough gem stones (whilst pummelling your opponent) to transform into a powerful, near-invincible bringer of destruction. Two players battled it out in beautiful, interactive environments, littered with powerful weapons and objects which could be used to force your opponent to drop their precious stones. That’s right, you could literally be one stone away from transforming when BAM! , barrel to the face, a stone scatters and you’re suddenly staring helplessly as your opponent collects what was once yours. This back and forth gameplay created truly unpredictable counters, as you relied on your character’s combos, the environment and ultimately, the ability to efficiently collect the stones in your attempt to win.

After collecting three gem stones, which appeared randomly across the map, the transformed player had access to a long range special move and a close-range special move. If performed successfully, the character could inflict significant damage to their opponent, considerably shaping the battle in their favour. It was vitally important to judge the timing and position of your moves, as if you misjudged it or took too long (the power up only lasts for a short period of time), your character is consequently stripped of the stones, scattering them across the map.

There were ten characters to choose from and a number of different environments to compete in; my particular favourite was a delightful, Japanese garden. Each character was quirky and unique in their fighting style and appearance, with a cartoony graphical atheistic complimenting the game’s attractive qualities. The often inventive gameplay truly felt next generational, a refreshing and bold approach after the wave of 2D fighters that dominated the market. I salivate slightly when I think about how glorious Power Stone could be if placed in the hands of the right developer if it was to be recreated this or in future generations. Extremely detailed barrel to the face, scattering even more gems in a bigger wackier environment? Please make it happen Capcom! I’ve even thought of a fantastic slogan for Power Stone 3.

“Power Stone 3…Time to get Stoned!” Maybe I’ll leave it to the experts…

Power Stone and its sequel Power Stone 2 were later ported over to the PSP, providing accessible pocket power to the masses. The gameplay holds up extremely well to this day, even though the lack of modern features such as competitive online play are unfortunate.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of battling your mates in this fantastic, fighting thrill-fest then I encourage you to check it out.

If you remove the four small screws holding the two halves of the controller together you’ll find the rectangular pcb, the plastic buttons and the mushy button culprit: four small rubber membranes. These small rubber pieces give each button its spring–that positive feedback you get after you push the button down. Typically the A button rubber piece is the first to go. That’s the most used button in the Family Computer, AV Famicom and Super Famicom consoles. That’s the button you press a million times a second trying to get your man to run faster in a game like Hyper Olympic.

So how do I tell if my Famicom controller is bad?
Start with the A button rubber piece. Look for small cracks or tears between the center section and outer ring. If your A button is mushy and doesn’t have good feedback, you’ll probably see small cracks. Rubber pieces with cracks just can’t offer the same spring. Sometimes you’ll find the center part of the rubber piece is nearly torn completely from the outer ring.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How do I fix my old Famicom controller?
The only way to fix it is to replace the rubber parts. And since the Famicom is closing in on 30 years since it went into production, finding NOS (new old stock) rubber pieces is nearly impossible. Your best bet is to salvage parts from a good, working #2 controller that hasn’t been abused.

It’s usually the #1 controller A button that goes first. I’ve seen fc #1 controllers that looked like they’d been used as a hockey puck, with both A and B buttons only partially functioning, yet the #2 controller still had the thin plastic protector film covering the top side, and buttons with excellent, like-new response. Scavenging spare #2 controllers is an option.

Usually the pcb and wiring on the FC controllers continue to work, trouble free. It’s rare to have a controller with good rubber that doesn’t work as it should. Though I have seen bad, flaky pcbs on occassion.

What about the AV Famicom and Super Famicom controllers?
The same principals apply to the AV and SFC. If you’ve got a flaky controller with poor response, carefully take it apart, clean out the dust, and check the rubber membranes. The AV uses the “dog bone” shaped controller. Since the AV and the SFC are not quite as old as the FC, their rubber parts might be in better shape–a 1983 part vs. a 1993 part.

Famicom controller buying advice
Ultimately, the quality of a controller boils down to how many times each button was pressed, and was the console put back in its box after use, out of sunlight? If you can’t actually feel the controller, if you are buying online, then give the A button a close look. If the seller doesn’t provide high quality close up images, don’t buy it. Look for wear marks around the A button. If you see definite wear marks, then don’t buy the controller. The cleaner the better. Even if you do buy a clean looking controller, the rubber parts inside may be worn out. But you stand a much better chance with a clean, less used controller. Also, you can simply ask the seller if the buttons have good response and feel. If the seller says, I don’t know, or No, then stay away.

I hope this helps you in your quest for quality controllers.

Dave at http://retrogamerjapan.com sells Nintendo Famicom consoles, games and more.

My Hero is a very early side scrolling beat ‘em up for the Sega Master System. It has very simple game mechanics and the graphics are about what you would expect for an 8bit title released in the mid 80s. The game opens to a scene of you (the Hero) on a date with your high school sweetheart, when some no-good rotten punk comes along, gives you a sucker punch and makes off with your pixilated companion. And thus begins your quest to save your girlfriend. The “plot” only really serves as a way to set the stage for the game itself. There is no dialogue or character development. It’s not that kind of game.

My Hero was first appeared in the arcades in 1985 before being ported exclusively to the Sega Master System in 1986. The game was released quite early in the system’s life cycle and has a slightly more old school feel to it. The game was published by Sega, but was designed by a company called Coreland, which would later go on to become Banpresto (and eventually sell its soul to Namco). Pointless piece of trivia: the company now makes arcade prize machines for a living.

The main villain of the game quite literally has a small army at his disposal. Seriously, I would love to know where he finds these guys. You really have to keep your wits about you when playing this game as one hit and you’re out. Luckily the controls are quite fluid so the whole game really boils down to timing your attacks. You have three fighting moves in My Hero, a stock standard punch, a leg sweep and a flying kick. The first two moves are adequate, but the flying kick ultimately makes them redundant. For whatever reason, the collision detection when fly-kicking someone in the head is really forgiving, meaning that with a little practice you can start taking out a couple of baddies at a time.

As is the case with most games in existence, My Hero gets increasingly difficult as you progress. Difficult to the point of making you want to put a cricket bat through your television set. It is so difficult that you earn points simply for moving forward. To me that’s like passing an exam just by showing up, however for a game like this one needs all the help one can get. There are also a few platform jumping sections, complete with fireballs, bombs and flying fire bombs, but to call this game a platformer would be bit of a stretch.

I have never finished this game myself; however I don’t think it can be finished. I am almost certain that the game simply repeats in a loop for all time, meaning that you NEVER GET YOUR GIRLFRIEND BACK. Or rather, every time you rescue her, she gets kidnapped again. This turns the game into a bit of an endurance run, but doesn’t take away much from the fun. And it is a lot of fun. The game is addictive in a really strange kind of way. It will probably bring you to a blood boiling rage due to the sheer difficulty, but it won’t make you want to throw down your control pad in defeat, either. And that, for better or worse, is the sign of a well designed game.

Multiplayer mode played out.

There is only one word to describe this game; Mad, absolutely mad. Grab your Game Boy Advance and get ready to be thrown into a world of absolute randomness.

Wario Ware Inc Mini Game Mania is as the title suggests a game full of Minigames , it was released by Nintendo for the Gameboy Advance in the year of 2003.  The gaming is nothing more than a rapid succession of the most basic gaming challenges , but it is how they are linked together that makes this game what it is.

At first glance Wario Ware Inc seems a simple and uninteresting game, but as I was soon to find out it could be nothing further from uninteresting. The story told in Wario Ware Inc is not one of the easiest to understand, but what I got from it was that Wario is attempting to make money by setting up a video game business. Players must make there way through each character in the Wario Ware world completing the challenges that are thrown at them. Each character has their own preferred style of Mini Games to dish out, 9 Volt for instance giving you 5 second nuggets from classic Nintendo games to go against. Whereas Kat offers up Nature based Mini Games. After clearing a certain number of Mini Games depending on the Difficulty of the level the player must win a ‘Boss’ game in which the player must defeat a Mini Game that has 3 levels increasing in difficulty each time , which gives a nice touch to finish off the stage. The only controls utilised in the game are the D Pad and A button, at first this may seem too simplified and unchallenging, and however as the game progresses you begin to see why this only adds to the addictive and attractive game play. A feature which I very much enjoyed in the game was the Bonus Games that became unlockable after attaining certain scores in certain categories. Games such as Paper Plane or Rope Jump became almost as fun and mad to me as the 200 minigames found in the central game, and kept me attempting for hours to beat my high score. This overall gives a feel of a game of seemingly large size when in fact it is a very ‘mini’ game.

Intertwined with the mini games are little animations.

When coming into a game full of mini challenges it would not be entirely fare to expect lush graphics and a fine tuned soundtrack. But it continued to surprise me that the graphics and sound in the game effectively enhance a game that is both addictive gameplay wise and beautiful to cast your eyes upon. With graphics superior to many GBA titles even though challenges last a few seconds the classic Nintendo challenges looked well drawn and suited to the game, and many other challenges were extremely detailed and interesting animations. The music is both ear pleasing and addictive suiting the games quirky but quick style. It is clear that the composer of Wario Land 4 has had input on the games soundtrack using many of the noises and sounds from that game in this one.

As quick and quirky as the game is, it does of course have a few minor flaws. The game can at points become repetitive when replaying stages and repeating similar mini games, and also the attempt at a story being incorporated does not merge well with the game style or gameplay.

Nintendo have always strived for innovation, despite falling short in many instances they always seem to produce something special, something with charm that is both quirky and original. Wario Ware Inc epitomizes this. It produces an experience for old and new gamers alike that is perfectly suited to the GBA console. Although at first it may seem too quirky and different, it provides too much fun to be looked over. A certain classic which sadly will never reach the audience it deserves.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In it’s latest release of DeRail Games, Shock and Awe changes the style completely from their previous two games which were bouncy ball games reviewed on this site. Shock and Awe is an alien shooter. Aliens have invaded, and you have to defeat them.

This game plays across between Alien Breed and Smash TV. The controls are fairly simple, with both of the analog pads used – one used for shooting, the other is used for directing your character through the levels. The controls are pretty secure, I never had any problems with aiming, and unlike Smash TV the game has full 360-degree rotation, rather than 8 directions for shots, it does make the game fairer.

There's often a lot going on on the screen.

Before beginning the game, you pick one of 4 characters. Each character has one of two different standard weapons (either a machine gun or a slower but more powerful shotgun), and a special attack which is unique to the character. These help you clear areas of enemies. You have 300 health points, and you can lose them at various, almost regular intervals.

Yes this game is tough, incredibly tough, as you can pick up different weapons, the flamethrower and the freezer are two that are fairly common. The freezer can come in handy when you need to get across various fires which take up the screen. Everything seems to hurt you, and there doesn’t seem to be any pickups to help heal you. It’s a tough game.

It’s enjoyable and a solid game, and for the price of 80 Microsoft Points it’s perfectly reasonable on Xbox Live Arcade. However on one player mode it is tough, on more than one players though, it is quite a fun distraction.

Buy Shock and Awe today for 80 Microsoft Points

Here, we’ll take a look inside this little piece of retro gaming history and see what makes her tick. And in case you were wondering, yes, this FC unit works great, and still does after reassembly. No retro-gaming hardware was destroyed in the making of this teardown!

Unplug the famicom *before* disassembly! You probably already knew this, but…

Ok, let’s get to it:

Here’s a view of the console before disassembly.

Step 1. Remove the 6 screws on the bottom (red) side of the console and lift off the bottom half.

Step 2. Remove the #1 controller connector. You may want to use a common-type screwdriver here to gently pry the connector loose. Be careful not to damage the connector housing where it is soldered to the mother board.

Step 3. Now remove the #1 controller wire and grommit. Make sure to keep the plastic grommit handy because you’ll need it again for reassembly.

Step 4. Remove the four screws holding the main motherboard in place. Then remove controller #2 just like we did with controller #1. Usually it’s easiest to remove the motherboard screws first so you can lift the board out of the way to get the controller wires free. Now both controllers should be free.

Step 5. Now remove the four screws holding the top board in place. Don’t let the screwdriver accidentally damage the solder points on either board. At this point you can lift both boards off together. (They are connected by a flat cable.) The on/off switch is still connected so be careful not to pull on the wire.

Step 6. Remove the two screws holding the on/off switch.

Step 7. Now the motherboard should be free of the red plastic base. Here’s a picture of all of the components. Now that you know how to take your famicom apart, you can do cool things like replace bad controllers or finally get around to cleaning out the years of dust lurking inside the case.

Fom Dave at retrogamerjapan.com. Retrogamerjapan.com sells famicom consoles and more.

The task was to base a Zelda timeline using James Rolfe’s Angry Video Game Nerd’s Chronologically Confused video as a starting point. He believes that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link never got a sequel, so that was our premise. With the help of my good friend Sophie Smith we set about creating a Zelda timeline that didn’t rely on multiple identical characters to make sense of it all. Another rule we gave ourselves was that we didn’t want Ganon to be able to turn back into Ganondorf unless he’d been killed. If he’s just locked away then he can’t turn back into Ganondorf; to do that he has to die and be resurrected. We also ignored Skyward Sword, it’s not out yet so how could we know the ages of characters or anything else that might scupper our little space-time continuum.

Bear in mind a few things though, firstly, there will be errors you can find with the timeline I’m sure. We haven’t played every Zelda game, so we did the best we could with the information we had, every Zelda timeline I’ve seen has errors in it, so ours will probably be no different. We’re also not pretending that the creators of the Zelda games knew what they were going to be doing fifteen games down the line, we put things where we felt they made most sense, regardless of the chronology of Zelda release dates. There will be spoilers, and most importantly, don’t take it too seriously guys, it may be one of the greatest game series of all time, but remember, there’s no need to start any World Wars about it.

Now to offer some explanation. Spirit Tracks comes first, because Link is some kind of train engineer, he’s not wearing his normal green outfit at the start. Minish Cap is next, as in all the following games Link has his Cap with him, which he acquires in this game. Controversially we put Wind Waker next because Ganondorf is in this game, he never appears as Ganon, so we figure it has to come before Ocarina of Time (when we see the transformation). The stained glass window depicting Impa in Wind Waker merely shows that on this timeline Impa is important, but not that Link has encountered her yet. Phantom Hourglass does seem to be a direct sequel to Wind Waker so that’s why that comes next.

Link’s Awakening is a tricky one for almost all Zelda fans. Without a Ganon(dorf) in this game to base the decision on, it can almost come anywhere (as well as the “it’s all a dream” excuse), but we figure that if the game starts with Link floating on driftwood in the middle of the ocean, he must have been on a ship before the game starts. What better place to put it then than directly after our pirate games: Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. Here’s where we make things up a bit, we’re assuming that the ship that Link, Tetra, and the other pirates were on has crashed between Phantom Hourglass and Link’s Awakening. I’m afraid you’ll have to forgive us embellishing the Zelda canon a bit here. Link then safely finds land for the next game to continue.

Next of course is the most hellish game for all Zelda timelines: Ocarina of Time. Not because it’s problematic in itself, but because of the issues it causes other games in the series. Given that it’s Ganon’s first appearance we figure it should come before all of the other games which have Ganon in it. That’s why it comes next. Of course at the end of Ocarina of Time Link is sent back to experience his childhood. In this sequence we don’t see his horse Epona being sent back with him, but in Majora’s Mask Link has Epona. We assume that Link has been sent back onto a different timeline, one where Epona has existed but Ocarina of Time never happens. Again we must embellish and assume that Link has met Epona on this timeline and established a relationship just as strong as we saw in the other timeline.

The Oracle games can be played in any order, but Ganon appears as a final enemy on the second play through of each game. Therefore they must come at some point after Ocarina of Time, assuming Ganondorf transformed into Ganon on this timeline at the same point in time as on the other one. Impa appears as a relatively young guardian in these games, so it must come before all the CD-I games where she is very old. That stained glass window causes some trouble, but we can assume that she has been revered for quite some time from a young age, enough at least to get a window of herself all that time ago. Her age is never stated, but imagine that the window was made when she was in her early twenties and she’s now forty in the Oracle games.

There is a decent gap between the Oracle games and the CD-I games and the animated series in order for Impa to age. Many people discard these games and the TV show because they are horrifically bad, but they’re still part of the series, so we wanted to make them fit. These games set up a much closer relationship between Link and Zelda, and that’s continued in the Four Swords games. Four Swords Adventures goes on to tell a very similar story to that of A Link to the Past’s prologue. The difference being that in Four Swords Adventures, Ganon is locked away in the Four Sword. We then assume that the King of Hyrule and the seven wise men did not have faith in the Four Sword’s strength to imprison Ganon, so locked him away in the Golden Land/Dark World.

A Link to the Past therefore follows with the prologue telling us about Ganon and the Triforce, but not telling us about the events of the original NES games. Therefore it must naturally be considered a prequel to them. Crossbow Training follows, that game can go anywhere, but Link seems relatively grown up in it, and it looks like the world in Twilight Princess so we popped it just before where Twilight Princess appears. Ganondorf is in Twilight Princess: he travels between the Twilight Realm and Hyrule, we figure this all happens in one block and doesn’t span any other games. Ganon from A Link to the Past was therefore killed at the end by Link and has somehow been resurrected as Ganondorf for this game. Unfortunately it has to be awkward like this because Link is considerably more grown up than any other game where Ganondorf appears.

Finally the NES games come because they don’t appear in A Link to the Past’s prologue and at last we’re at the end. As I said I’m sure many of you will find fault with this, but it was an enjoyable if exceedingly difficult exercise, and we feel like we’ve come up with a simplified solution to the Zelda timeline which can hopefully be improved upon. Please do take it and add to it, and if you can find a way of making the Smash Bros. games make sense then you’re a better person than I.

Ben’s dialogue is generally quite serious

LucasArts are responsible for some of my favourite games ever. Their tireless wit has already been praised on this site in a review of Monkey Island, but here I wanted to explore a point and click game outside of the wondrous pirate series. But of course I’ll have to make comparisons to that masterpiece.

Now, to hedge expectations, Full Throttle is not as good as the Monkey Island series and that’s mostly because Ben, the protagonist, is really cool. That may sound quite backwards, but there’s something special about blundering through with a slightly inept, self-deprecating character. Ben is a biker on a mission in a world quickly abandoning the sound of tyre squeal in favour of the hover car.
Framed for the murder of the CEO of his beloved bike manufacturer, Ben is out to clear his name and in doing so he comes across various other biker gangs. Ben is tough and badass, and you wouldn’t want all of LucasArts’s characters to be the same. He’s certainly fun to play as, even if his dialogue isn’t as humorous as some of their other outings.

That’s not to say that Ben is totally serious, his responses to your point-and-click commands are sometimes deathly sarcastic, of course he’s talking to himself and keeping the fourth wall intact, but you know the game makers are calling you out on clicking more in hope than expectation. Of course there’s not room for this witticism at every turn, so at times you have to deal with a dull negative response. It’s worth trying almost everything though, as you are rewarded some of the time with a fantastic put down. You also get the enjoyment of a fresh dynamic in conversations with people, because Ben is such a threatening character, and so are many of the rest of the people in the game, there’s high tension in most conversations, making for an antagonistic feel to much of the game.

Speaking of the feel of the game, this takes place in a rather dystopian future, it’s not apocalyptic by any means, but the colour shades of much of the game (specifically when you’re in a settlement or manmade structure) focus mostly at the darker end of the spectrum, often resulting in your PC screen being close to entirely black. Compare that to the scenes of Ben riding through the country, the bright orange of the desert complemented by the blue sky makes those city scenes feel ever more ominous. The soundtrack is largely supplied by The Gone Jackals, I must admit I’d not come across them before the game, but their music is excellently chosen, it fits the brutish personalities of the biker gangs brilliantly.

Action sequences are fun, if frustrating

I’ve got this far and not really mentioned the gameplay at all. Well, it’s a point and click game, so you know the score, it’s more the Monkey Island 3 deal with a wheel of three actions than a bar with loads of different commands. There are a few deviations from the norm though. There’s a section where you must progress past ever more dangerously armed bikers using your own weapons to knock them from their bike. It’s enjoyable for a while, but unfortunately it’s not the easiest level ever so it does become quite tiresome very quickly. And there is another level involving a destruction derby which has such a convoluted way of completing it that it’s likely that you’ll need a walkthrough. I myself had to use the old fashioned technique of asking someone how to do it. As well as these specific examples, there are many occasions where Ben can actually die. Though this adds to the dark tone of the story, it does mean that you end up having to sit through a short death sequence repeatedly while you work out what to do. It can get incredibly frustrating having to listen to the same dying scream again and again and again. It’ll get bored into your skull and pop up in your dreams.

As the story marches on, some characters die, giving a different feel to most LucasArts games, but some things stay consistent, like the little Star Wars references here and there. Full Throttle’s legacy is large: its creator, Tim Schafer, planned to have Ben go on a hallucinogenic trip, this was scrapped and instead we got that theme in Psychonauts, one of the most fun games I’ve ever had the joy of playing. Truly, that’s enough, but I’d still like Full Throttle to get the TellTale Games sequel or remake it deserves.