Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals

The Good
I'm not the kind of man who likes to play classic graphic adventure games. I wish I wasn't but I find watching someone who is trying his/her best to follow the scenario much more appealing than playing it by myself (at least my elder brother and some of my friends give more of themselves when playing these games; I never managed unfortunately, ever!). But wouldn't it be great if you had the chance to watch, for example LucasArt's "The Secret of Monkey Island" or "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"? I could watch them over and over and over again! As a movie buff I can honestly say that watching a good adventure game may sometimes become a more effective experience than watching a good movie (even if it is based on that movie and that was Indy's last crusade! :)

Well, I would be really very happy if I had watched Larry Laffer's third adventure. Maybe it was Al Lowe's "another humorous, harmless 3-D animated endeavor for adults" (I don't like his humor or Larry character much however he sometimes could create some nice snapshots) but what I liked most in the game was its outstanding atmosphere that set the scenes. You really can't help but admire Roger Hardy and William D. Skirvin's excellent piece of pixel art or Mike Dana's GREAT musical score. From the very beginning (lovely vista point) you already love their work.

I'm not inside the story much but in all of Larry adventures, to me, it was Larry's best adventure. From the jungle island to the amazon cannibal women, mad scientists to secret laboratories nearly all ideas were formed very well. The switching role with Patti was really fun and a nice change to see the story from another point of view...

I also liked the manual the game comes with. Different from an ordinary game manual its manual was designed like a guide to the island where you can find many absurd staff. Besides, the illustration William Eaken had created for "the Punk Flamingo Disco" was simply incredible, "dance your grass off at the disco in the beautiful downtown Nontoonyt Mall"!

The Bad
Well, hmm, let me think! Maybe "Polyester Patty in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals" was a better title. No! I thought again! It isn't. When I hear "Polyester" I always remember John Waters' movie of the same name. You know? Anyway, never mind. I reckon...

The Bottom Line
Even if you didn't play any Larry adventure before, this third part would be a perfect beginning. Yeah, it's time to meet Leisure Suit Larry and Passionate Patti!

The Good
No, the question mark at the end of the one-liner is not a mistake, but the result depending on well well the player goes at the quiz at the beginning of this game. I will get to the quiz at the moment. Like the first game in the series, this third incarnation is about Larry associating with attractive women who happen to have interesting careers.

In Leisure Suit Larry 2, the polyester dork outsmarted KGB agents that were trying to get a "onklunk" he was carrying and saved a tropical island from an evil doctor. He also met a sexy native girl who happens to marry and make love to her afterwards. The third game sees the island he saves get terraformed into a resort which is half-populated by birds (and I'm not talking about the ones who are capable of flying). Not everything is going well with Larry. He finds out that his wife dumps him for a lesbian and he is fired by his employer for being too slack. But despite this double-whammy, Larry vows to try his luck once again.

Before you have the chance to do anything in the game, you are asked your age followed by a series of questions that normally an adult would know. How raunchier the game gets depends on hell well you do with the questions. A neat feature is the postcard on the left in which the girl in it takes off her black swimsuit piece by piece every time you get a question correct; and when she is completely naked, the game is set at the raunchiest level. Anyone smart enough will find a way to bypass these questions.

LSL3 is the first Larry game to feature more than one protagonist. You also play as Passionate Patti, who Larry briefly meets at the end of Larry 2. I liked playing as Patti, because I think that the things you do with her are quite interesting. In the first half of the game, Larry has to speak with a number of birds and must give them something they really want; and only then will they "express their appreciation" (ie: sex). In the second half, Patti has to find her lover who left her after a night of hedonistic bliss.

The sex scenes are quite graphic, even if the game is set at its less raunchiest level. Unlike the first game, there is no censored bar covering the two people. I last played this game at the 'Rather Risque' level, and when Larry has sex with the lawyer, you see him actually thrust into her. These sex scenes often lead to embarrassing situations ranging from Larry's "case of the crabs" to the breaking down of the tanning machine. I found Larry's incident with the lawyer very amusing.

The text parser is very funny. If you type something that it doesn't understand, it will get angry, usually displaying things like "Oh yeah! Well, [command] this" or "I got your [command] right here." Every action you perform in the game will often result in hilarious dialog boxes, which would be even more hilarious if Neil Ross read them.

The graphics are quite colorful, and I enjoyed walking around the resort's jungles as much as I enjoyed the later part. The music sounds excellent as well, and one of the tunes I remember very well is in Patti's penthouse where she just got up the next morning. I also remember the tune that plays when you are walking around outside as Larry.

The Bad
People who have a fast computer may have trouble with some parts of the game, notably concerning the showgirl and the gym equipment at Fat City. Before the invention of DOSBox, the only way to avoid this is to use software that slow your CPU down.

Why is there so much copy protection in the game? You need to consult your manual if you want to see a show, then consult it again to gain access to someone's belongings, then again to get through the bamboo maze. That's three times, but imagine if you are playing some other game and you need to consult its manual about twenty times, you would refuse to play the game.

The Bottom Line
In my opinion, Leisure Suit Larry 3 must be the dirtiest game of the series, as it contains graphic sex scenes, nudity, and sexually-explicit dialogue. And buy playing this game, there is one thing I learned about Larry: he's a loser, and any attempts by him to have sex with women he happens to lay eyes on will result in him being a turn-off.

Putting the over-the-top copy protection aside, LSL3 has great graphics and sound, and there are lines of amusing dialogue all throughout the game. It is also the first Larry game to feature two protagonists, something that is repeated in the fifth game.

I read somewhere that LSL3 was meant to be the end of the trilogy, and that is why we never saw a LSL4.

The Good
The third game in the humorously adult adventure series is also the last of the trilogy that was initially conceived as such: later games appeared mostly thanks to the popularity of the franchise. Larry 3 wraps up an overarching story that started with a forty-year-old bachelor trying to find the love of his life in the city of Lost Wages. It is considered by many fans the highlight of Larry Laffer's earlier escapades. While it's hard to say which of the first three games is the best, this final entry is decidedly the most polished and well-designed of the bunch.

The first installment of the series provided a handy, convenient template for (mostly) futile seduction attempts: a small, yet open collection of recognizable urban areas. The sequel opted for a more dynamic, eventful, yet linear adventure. Larry 3 mostly follows the first school of thought: from the onset, you are free to explore an island with its places of interest which include a hotel, beaches, a jungle, a gym, a law office, and more. Like in the first game, several young women are strategically placed in different areas to provide the incentive for typically adventurous item-collecting and manipulation. You wander around, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong and enjoying the familiarity with the formula. After having completed all the actions needed to seduce the "boss girl", i.e. the one female character you cannot woo without having previously charmed all the others, you feel somewhat satisfied and yet disappointed with the game's predictable flow and short length.

It is then that Larry 3 shows you its trump card: Patti. Just when you thought the game was nearing its expected end, it switches gears, putting you in control of the mysterious woman Larry has just conquered against all odds. The game's second half is smaller and much more linear than the first - and that's precisely what it needed to be. It is as if a large segment from the second game was attached to a variation of the first. The Patti section brings the much-needed dynamism and tension to the rather placid Larry-controlling gameplay. It is an excellent addition to an already very solid and competently made adventure, giving it more diversity and flavor.

Generally, the gameplay in Larry 3 is noticeably richer and more varied than in the opening entry. Some of the more convoluted puzzles of the Larry part are actually quite good and amusing. Exploring the island is a pleasant, laid-back activity. The amount of lethal situations has been greatly reduced compared to the previous game, and I don't think it is possible to get irrevocably stuck when playing as Larry. I was missing the nerve-wrecking traps and action of the second game, but then I got it all back in the Patti section. Thus, the third game offers the best of both in a generous gesture.

In terms of comedy, this installment may lack the social satire and the black humor of the predecessor, but makes up for it with its depiction of the island's life, with its cheap tourist attractions and greedy women crossing Larry's path. The game goes back to laughing at Larry and presenting his comically unsuccessful amorous encounters, which has always been the focus of the series' humor. Personally, I preferred the more varied laughs of the second game, but that's a matter of taste. Anyway, some of the situations Larry finds himself in are really funny. There is an entire comedy show you can sit through for a good chunk of points, its jokes featuring ethnicities actually selected by the player - lack of political correctness at its best! Also, the part where you meet the game's creator involves one of the best meta-jokes I've seen in a game.

Those who disliked the lack of love in the aptly titled second installment will rejoice at the fact that the third game is the raunchiest Larry episode so far. Not only there are more full-screened women than ever before - Larry actually goes much farther with them, with only comical accidents interrupting full-fledged coitus. Paradoxically, with this amount of meaningless sex, Larry 3 also manages to be the warmest and most soulful game of the entire series - the romance with Patti goes beyond carnal pleasures and culminates in what at least the heroes perceive as true love at the moment. This makes this installment much more emotionally intense and fulfilling than the previous adventures.

The graphics are roughly at the same level as in the second game, but the music has gotten a significant boost. This was the first Larry adventure with a memorable soundtrack - though in a way quite different from the tasty, jazzy tunes of its successors. The opening melancholic theme is surprisingly beautiful, giving an unexpected tinge of sadness to what is supposed to be a cheerfully nonsensical comedy, and making us see the beginning that involves a sudden divorce and loss of a job in a different, more serious light.

The Bad
Larry 3 tries to avoid dead ends and other unpleasant situations as much as it can; as a result, the game turned out to be a tiny bit too easy. There are a few fairly tricky puzzles, but also entire tasks that consist of walking from one place to another and asking simple questions. For example, the actions needed to seduce Cherri are so elementary that the result doesn't feel rewarding enough. In general, the few young women you almost get lucky with are somewhat underwhelming, lacking the spark that made the female characters of the first game less forgettable.

There is too much copy protection. I like the clever solution to the bamboo maze (it is well-hidden in the manual), but I don't quite see the necessity of having to resort to the supplied written materials for a mere input of a few numbers. In particular, the locker-finding and the combination needed to open it were rather superfluous.

The Bottom Line
Larry 3 is a powerful finale of the series' first trilogy. It takes what was best in its predecessors, expanding gameplay, correcting annoyances, and crowning itself with an ironically told, yet emotionally charged love story. The then-concluding chapter in a tale about a loser trying to get laid surprisingly reveals itself as one of the best adventure games of its time.