Leisure Suit Larry In the Land of the Lounge Lizards

Review by King Broccoli

""Good Game. Bad Name." - Bill"

Leisure Suit Larry encompasses the charming little tale of a forty-year-old man who still has one of his least prized possessions, his virginity. The player must use all their guile, skill and luck to finally get poor little Larry to hop into bed with one of the women that he happens to run into around town. It was one of Sierras first-up efforts and it’s a pretty darn good game. There’s a fair bit of adult content in there (but if you don’t tell anyone then I won’t either).

GAMEPLAY
Thank heavens Sierra got the gameplay of Leisure Suit Larry right, they’re always pretty good in this area and like the many others that have followed it, the gameplay in this game’s damn good. You start out in a seedy bar with only some pocket lint and some other value-less items. You must find a way to utilise everything to your utmost advantage and somehow manage to finish this game with a happy ending.

Everything is done by the typing in of commands and seeing if they will work or not, this is annoying as you have to learn the right language to use, for in some instances you might have the right idea as to what to do but just type in the wrong command. Also, if you’re required to act swiftly in a situation then it just won’t happen for you, the most likely scenario is that you’ll panic and won’t be able to type a thing in on time. It’s a clumsy interface but one that worked well back in those primitive times.

There are many places that Larry can travel to in his quest such as the casino, a convenient store, a nightclub and even a church (what’s a lovely place like that doing in a game like this?). Of course crossing the roads or even talking a little stroll is just asking for trouble so you have to travel around from place to place in a taxi, paying ridiculous fees as you go. Money is earned here by winning it at the blackjack tables or in the slot machines, you’ll spend a lot of time here as there’s a lot of things that need to be paid for (including the services of one lady of the night) and they don’t come (a little pun there) cheap.

Naturally, in a dangerous place like the real world there’s going to be numerous ways for our poor little chap Larry to meet his maker. It’s unfortunate that the game makers had to go overboard slipping deaths into the game such as Larry drowning because he flushes the toilet button, or getting arrested for indecent exposure for no apparent reason. These annoyances mean that you have to save the game often, lest death finds his way to your doormat. It’s one of the biggest frustrations of the game getting killed off very thirty seconds, you can learn to live with it though. The puzzles that this game gives to you are not particularly difficult in comparison to other games of this type. It takes only a small brain and a tiny bit of logical thinking and this game can be knocked over in no time flat. There are a couple of more cryptic brainteasers, but these are in a very small minority group.

Overall, the gameplay of Leisure Suit Larry is fantastic. It’s got a wicked sense of humour that will keep you glued to your seat until the thrilling climax (another little pun there) of the game. Whilst it may be confusing to get used to the world and ways of our intrepid adventurer Larry, you’ll be a certified professional in the language of the game and will have no more headaches for the rest of the game. It’s a fine effort; this game is addictive, funny and just generally marvellous.

GRAPHICS
The graphics were most certainly not the high point of Leisure Suit Larry, even for a game that ancient there were still quite a few sections that could have been a bit more deuglified (not a real word for all those dictionary fanatics out there).

The backgrounds and general surroundings that encompassed Larry as he hit the town were of reasonable detail, stumble into a back alley and you’ll see walls scrawled with graffiti, overflowing trash-cans and quite a few mean people. This type of detail is kept up throughout most of the game, and if it weren’t for the blockiness of the scenes then it would have turned out a lot better. The colour palette used had a great deal of variety and wasn’t too drab or too bright either. What you got was a nice mix of dank back streets and flashy disco clubs.

Whilst the in-game characters also had a great deal of variety, they looked quite ugly as a total package. They often just looked like a mangled group of arms and legs moving about the game world in random directions, they certainly weren’t detailed too much at all. Larry himself wasn’t much of a looker, a receding hairline, bald spot and bright white disco suit just seemed to scream LOSER at whoever was controlling him. The people you met certainly looked a whole lot better if you got up close to them, if you struck up a conversation then you would sometimes be treated to a lovely caricature of their faces, definitely the most professional part of the graphics.

The animation's put into effort were reasonably slick, and generally of a decent quality. Some of them were quiet comical, for instance the walking style of Larry was very funny and would just make you wish you had as much style as he did, LOL. A few times when more complicated animation's were put into effect, such as Larry disco-dancing, it was tough to tell what exactly was going on. Of course that’s to be expected with a game as old as this.

Overall, in terms of quality the graphics of Leisure Suit Larry were close to mid-range. They had their fair share of flaws but were by no means overly ugly. It was just a solid, average job done here. Nothing more, nothing less, just something somewhere in the middle.

SOUND
The sound is one of the more forgettable aspects of this game. It’s decidedly sparse and none too pleasant on the eardrums. Considering the age of the game once again, many of these audio flaws can be easily forgiven, unfortunately there are to many of them to forgive completely and no matter how hard you try it’s unlikely you’ll enjoy the sounds that Leisure Suit Larry offers.

The background themes are an uncommon occurrence, and considering how annoying they are I cannot say that this is necessarily a bad thing. It’s made up of that digital music that emanates from somewhere deep inside your computer, the usual fare for all of the elderly games out there, but in this case to put it lightly, it’s not very nice music. It’s hard to pinpoint anything even close to resembling a melody, and the appearance of it can have people reaching for the sound OFF button within mere seconds.

The sound effects do little to nothing to improve the quality of the overall audio, they occur only under the most extreme circumstances and sound as if somebody was deliberately trying to foul them up badly. They consist of an odd little collection of beeps and other things that sound like beeps, they all pretty much sound the same, that is they sound terrible. If a sound effect and the music makes an appearance, you’ll be throwing a brick at the sound OFF button within a hundredth of a second.

Overall, it should be pretty obvious to most of you by now that the sound is pretty terrible. There is not a single redeeming feature in this section and you’ll be happy to see the sound either turned down or turned off, if you’re prolonged to the sounds here I recommend you visit either your local doctor or resident psychiatrist, it gets that bad.

LIFESPAN
The lifespan unfortunately suffers a little bit, it’s a game that can be finished in two or three days if you have the know how and, whilst it’s likely that you’ll tackle the game again it just gets easier every time since you’ll know exactly what to do. The lifespan suffers because of this and makes it certainly not one of Leisure Suit Larry’s strong points.

FUN FACTOR
Despite the adult themes (nobody under eighteen is meant to play it for heavens sakes) the game still maintains a wicked sense of humour that can have people as young as ten **NOTE**THIS REVIEWER DOES NOT CONDONE TEN YEAR OLDS PLAYING LEISURE SUIT LARRY, IT IS A NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY GAME**NOTE** giggling hysterically. It’s a very funny and enjoyable game, there are very few titles that have a story that goes along the themes of this game, and Leisure Suit Larry just does it so well. Witty lines just flow like champagne, you don’t get time to recover from the previous one before you’re hit with the next pearler. Just be careful, laugh too hard and you may explode.

CHALLENGE
The challenge is somewhere between low and high. Why the generic statement you say? Well that’s because the game is as hard as you want it to be, search too hard for what to do next and you’ll just end up overlooking the vital information that you needed. If you play your cards right this game is nota particularly hard one and it’s also reasonably short meaning that it’s a bit of a push over. There’s a nice range, although it’s not meant to be played by younger people it’s just as likely that they’ll knock the game over as a more mature gamer.

THE FINAL PARAGRAPH
Leisure Suit Larry could almost be described as a revolutionary game, before it’s time very few titles had tackled more mature themes and Leisure Suit Larry tackled one of the most controversial of them all head-on and came away the victor. It may not be the most civilised type of humour that you’ll see in a game, nor does it have a tear-jerking plot. But despite these sudden criticisms on my behalf this game is a damn good effort and if you’re above eighteen this (or even better, the latest in this long series) is a game that you simply must try.
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GOOD POINTS
- A funny, funny, funny game
- An interesting game concept makes it THAT much more interesting
- Some top gameplay on offer for you

NOT SO GOOD POINTS
- Drab graphics and annoying audio
- A smaller lifespan than people care for
- That is one darn ugly suit that Larry’s wearing
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GRAPHICS – 6/10
SOUND – 2/10
GAMEPLAY – 9/10
LIFESPAN – 7/10
FUN FACTOR – 10/10
CHALLENGE – 8/10
OVERALL – 8/10