I was always a fan of the King’s Quest series of Sierra computer games, but my interest never really shifted to their other big series: Leisure Suit Larry. Nevertheless, I took it upon myself to experience the next entry in the “games for ‘mature’ gamers” genre that seems to have popped up this year.
In Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, the player assumes control of Larry Lovage, who is actually the nephew of the original Larry. Our intrepid hero is a seventh-year-senior at community college. He enjoys the company of beautiful women, but naturally, the feeling is not mutual. Nevertheless, Larry never stops trying, and when a dating show arrives on campus, Larry feels the need to prove that he has what it takes to appear on the show. In order to achieve his goal, Larry must collect “tokens of affection” from various girls he attempts to seduce. There are a wide variety of girls on campus, ranging from a wholesome girl next door, a Russian exchange student, an activist and just about every stereotype in-between.
By simply walking up to a girl and talking to her, Larry initiates a mini-game that involves guiding a swimming sperm through an obstacle course: swimming through green icons on the course raises the girls’ heart meters and red icons lower the meter and can make Larry say stupid things. The player’s performance affects the direction of the conversation and if the meter is high enough at the end of the game, the “encounter” proceeds to the next round.
The mini-game driven concept is fairly fun, at first. Unfortunately, after the second girl, the player realizes that the minigames are exactly the same- the only difference might be a change of theme. For example, in a clone of the classic game Tapper, the player will have to use Larry to pass out dishes of monkey chow. In another Tapper clone, the player will have to use Larry to distribute fliers for the activist girl. There are also several variations of rhythm games, being chased games, Quarters, and endless rounds of the swimming sperm conversation game. If Larry happens to be drunk while playing a game, the timing of the game will be significantly affected. This might have been an interesting twist for the gameplay, but the player can simply opt out of the game; when he returns, Larry will be sober. If the player fails the game enough times, he will have the option to lower the difficulty level and eventually just skip the game entirely.
There’s nothing wrong to the minigames themselves. Some of them are actually quite amusing. But there’s absolutely nothing funny about the ridiculous amount of repetition. There is something to be said for giving people what they want, but this game just smacks of laziness.
Larry also needs to make money to buy things during the course of the game. The most basic way to acquire money is to look for it in everyday objects like trees and bookshelves. If Larry does not find money during a search, he will fart. This gets old quickly. Larry can also earn money by taking photographs and then selling them. Larry can also replay some of the earlier minigames (like the mixing drinks game and quarters) to earn quick cash. When money is on the line, the games are harder than they were the first time around.
Of course, this really isn’t the sort of game that people play for the stellar gameplay. A couple of months ago, I said that The Guy Game provided mindless sophomoric fun. After suffering through this game, I can now say that my definition of sophomoric has changed- significantly. This game offers a large catalogue of bizarre sexual practices that will most assuredly permanently traumatize the teen boys who buy this game to see video game girls naked.
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude also features some of the most oppressive load times I’ve ever experienced on the Xbox. I’m not quite sure what the need for the long load times is, since the game is clearly not pushing the capabilities of the Xbox to its limits. But it’s really quite ridiculous- every time Larry goes anywhere, the player has to wait for the game to load. While waiting for the game to load, the player is treated to a picture of a scantily clad version of one of the girls from the game. Or, on occasion, the image is of a real person dressed up like one of the characters from the game. This is just downright silly.
The graphics are fairly unremarkable. They are bright and cartoonish, but they don’t really offer anything out of the ordinary. For the most part, the girls look good, but there are a couple of exceptions. Luba Licious, who gained notoriety for appearing in Playboy earlier this year, looks absolutely hideous in the game. I suppose that even fake girls can be airbrushed. There is a bit of choppiness, which is rather puzzling: as I mentioned before, this game is hardly pushing the Xbox to its limits.
The dialogue is fairly insipid, which is to be expected. There are a couple of amusing lines, but these little gems are greatly overshadowed by the hugely ridiculous things that Larry can be found saying, some of which has little or nothing to do with the subject of the conversation. This is rather disappointing because the few gems that exist lead me to believe that the writing team is talented. Unfortunately, they appear to have carefully rationed their talents, so the lame material significantly outweighs the good material. The sound effects are equally dismal and are headlined by the ever-present farting and burping noises.
Overall, Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude had a lot of potential. To begin with, MCL was a very fun game for the first twenty minutes or so. But as soon as the player begins to realize that the set-up is going to be the same for every single girl, the game really loses its appeal. The game bases itself on immense amounts of repetition, which is an absolute dealbreaker. There is absolutely no reason to even rent this game; it’s just not worth it.
