Review Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude Developer: High Voltage Publisher: VU Games Genre: Adventure/Arcade Release Date: October 2004 Platform: (version reviewed) Review by Randy Sluganski November 19, 2004		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

In 1986, the late, great Rodney Dangerfield took us Back to School as a fun-loving, middle-aged college freshman who out-parties students 30 years his junior as he attempts to help his son get through college. In 2004, Larry Laffer (aka Leisure Suit Larry) - the polyester king of adventure comedy – is only a phone call away to offer advice to nephew Larry Lovage, a seventh-year junior who is attempting to emulate his beloved uncle and sleep his way to a college degree.

The other similarity between movie and game is that neither Rodney nor Larry ever received the respect they deserved.

First, let’s be real clear here – Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (LSL:MCL) is by no means a point-and-click, inventory based adventure game, but the humor and nostalgic value may appeal to fans of the original series. On the other hand, fans of the original series who view the past through rose colored glasses may be put off by the unrelenting, sometimes over-the-top, raunchiness.

I’m really torn over what to say about LSL:MCL. At times, there are flashes of brilliance, but too often the humor consists of relentless vulgarity or sophomoric humor masquerading as, well, actually it is just relentless vulgarity and sophomoric humor.

What happened to the wonderful game I saw and played at a private showing in New York four months ago, a game that I stated was, ‘the funniest, most side-splitting game I’ve ever played.’ And it was, I swear it! Then I had tears in my eyes, now I sometimes wanted to tear out my eyes in boredom.

Yes, mind-numbing, sleep-inducing, button-mashing boredom. You know how when you see a movie preview and the trailer is awesome and then when you get to the theatre you discover that all of the good scenes were crammed into that 30 second trailer and the rest of the movie sucks (I think a perfect example here would be Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), well the gameplay and trailers I saw for LSL:MCL were hysterical and many portions of the game are hilarious. But there are major obstacles that leave Larry limp.

For LSL:MCL is chock full of arcade game after arcade game after arcade game. And it’s not that the games themselves are so boring – most are, some are not – but when playing the game on the Xbox every single time an arcade sequence begins or ends or if you enter a building or leave a building, there is a dreaded load screen and truth be told as much time was spent playing the game as was spent watching the word ‘loading.’

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The arcade sequences do get boring after a bit, but if you have collected and saved enough tokens, you can ‘wimp out’ of every single arcade sequence in the second half of the game (as I did). The sad part is that once I decided to ‘wimp-out’ of the arcade games, LSL:MCL actually became a wonderful, free-flowing game as I was then able to concentrate more on the humor and how to obtain my goals rather than beating another, harder, version of Tapper, or Pong, or…

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Now maybe if I were ten years younger, okay twenty…screw you then, maybe if I were thirty years younger I would have enjoyed the twaddle attempts all in the name of seeing some ta-tas. But I’m telling you right now, if I had to play quarters or Tapper every time I wanted to see my wife’s boobies, well, I’d most likely still be a virgin.

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And speaking of those ta-tas, how did this game come to be censored? All of the naughty parts are now ‘covered.’ Oh, I get it, it’s okay to play games like GTA:SA and kill policemen or Mortal Kombat Deception and decapitate your enemies, but show a little booby and you’re censored. In fact (soapbox time here) so called ‘family’ stores like Toys ‘R Us are selling GTA:SA, but will not carry LSL:MCL. Thanks for looking out for our morals. There is though an uncensored version now available online from Vivendi.

The plot has remained the same, and for that I'm glad. Changing it would be akin to me changing my winning formula when horse racing betting (but that's another story altogether). Larry Lovage simply wants to 'sleep' with as many girls as possible and true to the tradition of the original series, he actually doesn't 'sleep' with anyone (well, at least not until the final scene of the game!). He does though engage in quite a bit of extracurricular activities such as bondage and spanking, but it is all in an attempt to earn a token of appreciation from each woman so that he can achieve his ultimate goal and appear on an episode of the hit television dating show Swingles.

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The gay humor seems to be more mean-spirited and clichéd than funny. Every male in the gay bar is a flaming queen and every female butch. Any hidden cash is now a three-dollar bill. But just when you’re thinking the clichés can’t get any more heavy-handed, High Voltage presents an inspired musical version of Lesbian Nights sung to the tune of Grease’s Summer Nights that leaves you rolling with laughter. Even one of the funnier characters in the game is Helmut, a gay caricature of a certain California governator. And this is when the game shines the most, when it satirizes modern culture. More of this type of humor and musical numbers, instead of arcade games, would have gone a long way towards picking up the pace.

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More highlights: the sorority rooms are occupied by the Facts of Life girls among other recognizable names, the Benny Hill theme song plays when Larry streaks the campus and in a great scene, Larry breaks out of his character and argues with the developers. The problem is that when the characters are only satirizing ‘regular’ clichés like the bubble-headed cheerleader or the macho BMOC, then the humor has no cultural reference point and the characters often fall flat.

There are a few homages paid to the original Larry: his nephew has the legendary ‘lost’ Larry game, LSL 4 loaded on his computer and the school library has a section titled, ‘Famous Westerns, From Davy Crockett to Freddy Pharkas,’ just to name a few. And yes, regardless of reviews you have read claiming that the original Larry does not appear, he does appear in full 3D glory about halfway through the game. Uncle Larry is now a little gray at the temples and somewhat of a barfly who lives in the past, but Larry fans will get a kick from his references to past adventures. He is also accessible by phone at any time during the game, but this feature was as pointless as it was unfunny.

Still though, kudos to Vivendi for at least attempting to resurrect Larry for a new generation of gamers and double kudos for having the courage to stray from Larry’s adventure roots. In the final analysis, Magna Cum Laude is not a bad game simply because it features no adventure elements, it’s just seems to be a misguided attempt, punctuated by moments of hilarity. Cut the arcade games in half, add a few more musical numbers and a few real puzzles and LCL:MCL would shine.

It’s still too early to tell if LCL:MCL is a success, though it was at the top of the rental charts for a few weeks, but I still have high hopes that if Larry spawns a new franchise, that Vivendi would then resurrect other classics such as Gabriel Knight or King’s Quest or….

Randy was unable to finish the remainder of this review as he went blind after seeing a naked cartoon Larry engaged in sexual intercourse. The doctors are hopeful that his vision will return soon as long as he is not subjected to another drastic shock.

Final Grade: C+
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