
	Platform PC Genre Adventure Developer/Publisher Sierra Released 1996
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Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail

Beginning life as a parser adventure then advancing through the Ages, the Leisure Suit Larry series showcases some of the graphical enhancements made through the 80's to the 90's. Pixels through to the full-colored Windows-based sprites, the graphics were finally done-up for what would be the final and most enjoyable Larry adventure, Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love For Sail.

Following on from Larry 6, our polyester-suited hero is enjoying a hot night with his latest conquest, Shanara, when she decides that her real love is not Larry, nor sex, but money, and quickly leaves Larry handcuffed to a bed in a burning apartment building. After helping Larry escape in the game-tutorial opening, we follow Larry to the PMS Bouncy, a huge ship, steered by the bounty-ful Captain Thygh and choc-full of beautiful women and crazy characters. It's a perfect environment for the luckless Lounge Lizard to pursue new conquests.

For those unfamiliar, the Leisure Suit Larry games put us in the horny 40-something's shoes as he pursues several different women, all in the name of "love". Although it sounds sleazy, the games by designer Al Lowe and the creative Sierra team are lots of fun, full of hilarious situations and innuendo -- and Larry

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himself rarely gets the girl. The game is easy to learn, simply point and click to interact with the settings and people. A map of the ship makes moving around easier, as does reiterating the ability to type actions, reminiscent of the early DOS adventures, and makes for some hysterical possibilities.

The graphics are great. All flowing cartoons, with nice movement and a sense of reality, with things always going on. Like when talking to Drew

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Baring-More (snicker) on the ship's deck, in the background there are (nude) people swimming in the pools and getting up to all kinds of hijinks, which is fun to watch. The characters are well animated; the settings lovely and realistic (in a cartoonish kind of way, full of sight gags) and the women are sexy, very sexy. For cartoons at any rate. And although the game features little graphic sexual content, there are plenty of Easter Eggs for the real Larry fans to find, in which we get see even more of the PMS Bouncy ladies, if you know what I mean.

LSL7 is full of excellent audio. The background music and sounds give you the feeling that you're actually out at sea, making it feel like that ocean holiday you've always wanted but could never afford. The voices are done to perfection. Forget the terrible voice acting of many newer games, this IS the best voice acting I've heard in a video game to date. It seems almost all of the voice talent had previous experience in comedy and all of the voices are perfect, making the game all the more fun. Even digging out this game after a couple of years, it still left me impressed, that's how good it is.

The aim of the game is to "meet" the Captain, and to that end Larry goes through a series of wild misadventures, all involving puzzles of some sort, finding items and using them to get further in the game. It's a simple but enjoyable adventure game; none of the puzzles are too hard and the game is always funny, from the simple plentiful sight gags to the amusing running commentary on everything that happens.

LSL7 goes so far as to surpass the normal sight-and-sound games and incorporates a third sense into the mix, a scratch and smell ticket in every game box. A little icon appears in the game telling you when to scratch and sniff, fulfilling your need to smell whatever Larry smells, from sunscreen lotion, to chocolate moose, to you don't wanna know what. Also, the game gives you a starring role. You can include yourself in the action by putting a picture of yourself in the game, and recording some audio for your character. It's a nice little innovation that works well enough to keep you playing for a bit, and can be experimented with for amusing results.

This is a fun little game, definitely worth digging out to play again (if not for the nudity, do it for the humor!). It was unfortunately the last real Larry game, the following Leisure Suit Larry Casino game not nearly as fun as the adventures, and the sequel LSL8: Larry Explores Uranus was cancelled after some horrendous corporate decisions. Still, we can always enjoy the classics, and this is a classic in my book. Highly recommended for all you Lounge Lizards, and everyone else.

- Shocka

(August 3, 2003)