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, 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.

Loading…loading…loading…
(I’m sure you’re sick of reading this, so imagine reading
it about 300 more times while playing the game).

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+
(find
out more about our grading system)