Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

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Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
"Help Larry earn a BA in T&A."
Genre(s): Action-adventure Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Xbox PlayStation 2 Release Date: Microsoft Windows NA: October 5, 2004 EU: October 29, 2004 PlayStation 2 and Xbox NA: October 5, 2004 EU: November 5, 2004 Developer(s): High Voltage Software Publisher(s): Vivendi Universal Games Country: United Kingdom Series: Leisure Suit Larry Predecessor: Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! Successor: Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is an action-adventure game released in October 2004 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. Developed by High Voltage Software and published by Vivendi Universal Games. This is the seventh installment in the Leisure Suit Larry series and is a series reboot - focusing on a new protagonist - Larry Lovage, who is Larry Laffer's nephew.

Plot

Larry Lovage is a student at Walnut Log Community College and is wanting to make a name for himself by chasing all the hot girls in the property after being refused entry on a dating show.

Bad Qualities

1. The main reason for its flaws comes with the fact that Al Lowe, the original creator of the series, not being involved or even aware of the project. He was promised a role by Vivendi Universal, but they decided not to let him in the project in the end and told him that they finished writing the story once they started contacting him.
2. There are almost no connections to the original games. The original Larry titles were adventure games with puzzles, interactive dialog, a narrator, character development, laugh-out-loud plotlines, self-aware humor and fourth wall jokes, innuendos and entendre, and most importantly the sex appeal. This title swaps out all of this for raunchy content, scantily-clad woman, fart jokes, pop-culture references, gross-out humor, constant swearing that is said every few words (mainly by the college girls), and uncensored full-on-front nudity and sex scenes (although they are censored in the US release), which previous games in the series didn't have or kept to a minimum.
   • On the topic of the game's profanity level, there's more swearing than any other Larry title at the time combined in the first sequence.
3. The transition to a 3D art style can be a bit of an eyesore, and the graphics are a bit on the cheap side.
4. The graphic adventure gameplay was swapped out for a selection of minigames to impress the college girls which get very repetitive and boring as they all share the same gameplay style of moving a cursor.
   • One example is when Larry has a conversation with the girl mainly about sexual topics.
   • Another is a Wack-a-Mole style game where Larry must get the girl drunk.
5. Larry Lovage himself is pretty unlikeable, especially when compared to his uncle from the previous games. While Laffer was an unlucky and dorky person who was overall trying to get a purpose in life to try and find the woman of his dreams, Lovage is a drunken foul-mouthed pest who stalks all the girls on his college camp spouting one-liners despite the fact they all hate him for what he does.
6. The college girls in the title are nothing more than typical college girl stereotypes. You have the biker, the French maid, the Bookworm vixen, a sex-obsessed band geek, the slutty girl, and the cheerleader, among others.
   • They're also gay and lesbian stereotypes as well, which are solely used as part of gross-out gags. Yeah, that has aged well!
7. Instead of original tracks like in the previous games, the soundtrack is pretty much just licensed heavy metal and rap songs that focus on sexual topics, which shows the game is trying too hard to be edgy.
8. Long, frequent loading times which can last about 15-30 seconds long depending on the version.

Good Qualities

1. There are still many references to the original games sprinkled in and out throughout the title
2. The soundtrack is good, albeit unfitting for the theme of the game.
3. Thankfully, unlike its sequel, there aren't any unfunny sex jokes, and the swearing isn't as forced as the title.
4. There are a few funny moments here and there.
5. Good voice acting.

Reception

The game has received mainly mixed reviews. It has a score of 60 for the PS2, and 59 for the Windows on Metacritic.

Trivia

• As noted above, Al Lowe was offered to work on the title but gained no calls from Sierra or Vivendi Universal afterward as they were downsizing.
• The US release of the game censors the full-frontal nudity and sex scenes after the game got a rare AO rating from the ESRB. It was eventually re-released on PC as "Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude - Uncut and Uncensored!" in September 2005, with altered cover art that removed the clothing from the two girls on the cover with Larry. The game was passed uncut on all three platforms in European territories and so was released as Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude - Uncut. The game is banned outright in Australia after both the original and censored versions were refused classification.

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