I finally got a chance to play this magna-um opus. I keep getting the feeling they’d planned a “Larry” version of The Simpsons: Hit and Run, minus the cars. The entire menu system of the game is layed out the same way. If only they’d come up with more mini-games and more varied activities. Hit and Run was limited in that aspect as well, but at least you could drive in it.
Larry Lovage is a bit of a twerp. It’s obvious that the Laffer blood flows through his veins, (Hard to see how, since to my knowledge, Larry was an only child.) But he gives off just one too many pathetic whimpers whenever things don’t go his way. Leisure Suit Larry should be an icon of bravery in the face of nerdity, he shouldn’t “Lose confidence points and recieve a request from the game to lower the difficulty level.”
The ladies are Larry 6 and 7 fare. They’re parodic fantasy objects as opposed to the sane, normal women of the earlier games. Lovage expresses a vastly un-Larry-like trait by sneaking out his dorm room window every time a woman proves to be too much for him. Take a cue from your uncle Larry, Larry, you can’t be picky about these things, just let the woman put the ball-gag on you. It’s funny, or it was funny about the original games. At least they stay true to the convention that Larry never really gets lucky, just gets into several situations where he comes close.
Ultimately, LCLMCL is like staring at a woman through a pair of binoculars: good from afar but far from good. While the themes of Larry are prevailant through the saga, the humor falls extremely flat. It’s missing that great, big, throbbing, pulsating….heart that the original games had in spades, but at least it’s not a total waste of silicon.