Full Throttle

2.99 Classics
£2.99

Good grief! This takes me back. I remember when this game came out! At the time everybody went coo, phweep, wow, cor, flip, zowie about it. It was with some trepidation that I loaded one of my old faves, hoping that two years of accelerated sophistication in games didn't kill it for me....

Phew! The loading screen was a bit dicey there. All puke green and migraine magenta. But the game looks fair enough I guess. Let's take it for a spin. Vrrrrroooom? Hey, not bad. Shame there's no gears, but I s'pose it's a bit easier as an automatic transmission jobby.

In its time this was a first class simulation. Fortunately time hasn't diminished its playability (or indeed credibility) in the simulator arena. Basically, if you don't own a copy of this genuine classic, then at just under three quid you can't afford not to have Full Throttle on your shelf.

No FT, no comment.

Roger: As a long-standing motorcycle fetishist, Full Throttle's simulator promises were fatally attractive to me and it absorbed far more of my time than I originally planned - however, I couldn't help having one or two misgivings.

Program content initially excludes Grand Prix bike racing authenticity; the player is offered a menu of 10 of the greatest Grand Prix circuits in Europe. Throttle, brakes and steering all function in an apparently realistic way - the 'racing line' you take through the corners is critical to speed - but complete control is difficult on the keyboard. The 3D graphics are fairly good but, compromised by a lumpy horizon, each track has a habit of looking the same. Worse still an absence of visual reference make 'learning' each circuit almost impossible, so anticipation is seriously limited; just naming the corners of each circuit would have helped.

Unfortunately, the whole thing crumbles into arcadia when the player gets fast enough in the saddle to ride with the pack. The other 40 riders hop about like a bunch of idiots... and bang goes the realism. Aspirant Barry Sheenes will bit Sinclair's finest with abject frustration as the opposition crank through the turns without ever crashing. 4/5 HIT

Ron: I found this game quite impossible to play - the only way I got to race with the rest of the pack was to let them lap me. 2/5 HIT

David: It's not the most colourful game I've seen, but it's certainly the best bike-racing game by far. Impressive 3D bikes and a selection of race tracks made this a winner! 4/5 HIT