Xbox

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

For me, the new Larry became a guilty pleasure, and I am not very good at mini-games. So if I can bed Morgan, I am pretty sure most of you out there with at least some familiarity with pushing buttons can too. Just don't expect a true adventure game of old. Oh, and the game has a lot of fun with sex and sexy situations. If this type of thing makes you even the least bit uncomfortable – like if watching old Benny Hill reruns sends you to confessional – might I instead suggest to you something with a more Sid Meier flavor.

To be fair, it's rather questionable whether a real true-to-the-original LSL rendition would have had any real (commercial) success in this day and age, especially on the console. The developers of Magna Cum Laude made a calculated bet in reviving the series, and tried to give a facelift not only to the graphics, but also to the concept - trying, for what it was worth, to port the game to a younger generation of gamers. They ended up with a game that is probably more playable by the masses, but is not quite what fans of the original were waiting for. It's still funny, it's still naughty, and it's still Larry, but ultimately, it's no longer a game for adults - it's for teens.

As a big fan of the series since its early days, I'm happy about where Larry is heading in this modern world. There is a lot of room for improvement, but the core of what makes these games so memorable is still there in full force - pretty girls, unspeakably embarrassing sexual acts, and an endearing dorkiness that makes the entire experience feel more charming and humorous than exploitative.

With a better variety of minigames and more precise controls, Larry could have been really been somebody. As it stands now, he's still just a likable loser.

Gather around and I’ll tell you the tale of a loveable loser named Larry Laffer. Larry is what you might call an aging hipster, a ladies man that doesn’t quite score with the ladies because--let’s face it--John Travolta he’s not (some guys just know how to wear polyester suits) and those pick-up lines he uses are as cheesy as a jumbo nacho platter. Yet somehow Larry’s exploits have fascinated PC gamers for quite some time mostly because it’s fun to see a likeable loser hilariously crash and burn when it comes to wooing gorgeous ladies. Now Larry has taken a backseat and the spotlight now falls on his nephew, Larry Lovage, in Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Does this game bring the same semi-raunchy fun of the PC games of old? Like young Larry, let’s give it the old college try.

Among those of us old enough to have played it, the Leisure Suit Larry series has been a real cherished memory. The well-loved adventure series stood out thanks to fantastic humor and "adult situations." Now, to the delight of kids over 17 everywhere (especially those whose parents don't have Cinemax), Vivendi and High Voltage have brought the series back in Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude.

If you can forgive its brain-dead gameplay and occasionally frustrating design, Magna Cum Laude is a hysterically entertaining romp through a world of wacky sexual hijinks. Times sure have changed since the last time a Leisure Suit Larry game hit store shelves. Once the name in sexually charged adventure gaming, the Leisure Suit Larry series has been altogether dormant since the '90s. This could at least be partially attributed to the fact that the sort of humor the series brought to the table was frequently being upstaged by increasingly foul and bawdy humor in all other facets of the media. Now, more than half a decade after the last Leisure Suit Larry, VU Games and developer High Voltage have brought out Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, a total reenvisioning of the franchise both from a gameplay and content perspective.

After six years of inactivity, Leisure Suit Larry has returned, prepared to leave a bittersweet taste in our mouths, like the early morning reincarnation of last night's pizza. Back when I was just a fledgling video game addicted teenager, I spent many a day and night stumbling through the Leisure Suit Larry games. I could probably blame my previous dysfunctional relationships and my haphazard interactions with people on this series. In the past, the Larry games had been among the top of the adventure genre, a genre that seems to be long dead and gone. I was personally hoping to see Magna Cum Laude revive the genre and bring it back to its previous glory, but it seems my hopes were in vain.

Once there was a man named Al Lowe, a former high-school music teacher who got his start in the game industry making educational software starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. This business wasn't enough to satisfy his creative urges, however, for he was secretly a dirty old man, the sort of person you wouldn't want your children be anywhere near during their formative years.

Like staying up late to sneak peeks at "Porky's III" on Cinemax and spying on your nubile next door neighbor, playing the Leisure Suit Larry games was a rite of passage for many teenage boys in the late 80's. Combining plenty of sexual innuendo, moderately challenging puzzle solving, and a healthy dash of ribald humor, the games changed the face of gaming in many ways, proving once and for all that it wasn't just for kids anymore. Of course, many parents didn't realize what sort of content was in the game, so plenty of youngsters learned about the birds and the bees from that likable shlub Larry Laffer.

Voilà encore une vieille série qui ne passe pas le virage du 21ème siècle. Trop différent de son modèle originel, mais surtout trop creux dans son gameplay, ce Larry boit la tasse et se noie dans sa vulgarité excessive.

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.

On se retrouve donc avec un jeu franchement vulgaire, très répétitif et pas marrant pour un sous, vraiment aux antipodes de ce qu'était la série originale. Encore une adaptation ratée d'une des vieilles gloires du passé…A éviter!

Don’t be fooled by all the wars, politics, and equal rights rhetoric - teen sexuality is a serious issue in America today. Many noble organizations try to thwart teen sex, but they’re getting beaten like gimps at an S&M show by all the lewdness on TV, and more than ever, video games.