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Platform: Xbox
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Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude Score: 2.0 / 10 |
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Pros: - Reveals what actually happened to the original Larry |
Cons: - Absolutely everything else |
Related Links: Review: Leisure Suit Larry - Magna Cum Laude (PC) Review: Leisure Suit Larry - Magna Cum Laude (PS2) Interview: Magna Cum Laude Q&A
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"Nothing ruins a fond memory like a crap game." |
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It’s only with protest that I write this review because it forces me to think about the game that may be the worst I’ve ever played: I’m of course writing about Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. Maybe it’s not the worst game he’s ever played but even Larry creator Al Lowe wants to distance himself from the project, “I had absolutely no part in the making of Magna Cum Laude.” A very wise move, Al.
I’m
sure the developers had their hearts in the right place when dealing
with such a fan favorite character, but then Larry himself only makes a
piddly cameo. The large
“Leisure Suit Larry” should have been erased from the title as
it’s entirely mis-leading. The
underlying principle of the Larry games remain: meet girls, attempt to impress them, then watch how
spectacularly Larry fails to “seal the deal”.
In this case “Larry” is actually Larry Lovege, nephew to the
original Larry, and the whole process of winning the girls over is done
by completing an inane bunch of mini-games that would have been
skippable in previous Larry games.
Story
and plot-wise MCL is as threadbare as most of the other Larry games. But
laughter is
thin much more so than previous Larry games. If
MCL was cheese, you wouldn’t even taste if it was placed on a
dry piece of toast. Most of the “jokes” are poor attempts at comedy.
And because the jokes are so tasteless and lame, the developers
attempt to compensate by |
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dousing
the whole works in more swear words
than all the Larry games combined (a feat accomplished in the first ten
minutes of the game).
Some will point to the fact I’m a woman for not “getting”
it, but even my husband failed to even smirk at 99% of MCL’s content.
And finding one or two smiles during conversations doesn’t make
up for or hide the fact you have to play a mini-game to converse with
the girls! There’s a dumpster’s worth of problems here as well – besides being truly unfunny – such as load times for every screen change no matter |
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how
small the screen, a crappy musical score, and a control scheme that
takes far too long to get used to.
If
Magna Cum Laude is any indication of the future of adventure games in
North America, then anyone who has fond memories of Sierra’s adventure
games should send me five bucks so I can purchase the rights to other
adventure franchises like Space Quest and King’s Quest. Nothing
ruins a fond memory like a crap game. - D.D. Nunavut (January
8, 2005) Editor's Note: This is a severely edited version of DD’s final review.
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