Reviews// Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

The other adult-orientated theme synonymous with Larry and his debauched college colleagues is the central role of the mighty lager-biere. Fight-juice plays an important role in the running of any higher education system, and Larry’s place of learning is no exception. You can buy beer from vending machines, bars or be force-drunk by failing at drinking games. The ‘quarters’ drinking game re-occurs throughout the adventure, and players have to ‘flick’ a quarter into a glass in a Tiger Woods stylee. The problem here is that it’s just too simple. As soon as you’ve worked out how hard and fast you have to flick the analogue stick to get the coin in its goal, you’ll be able to get it right on nearly every occasion. Soon enough, the drinking games just become a chore: being completely devoid of any level of challenge and, more importantly, fun.

Booze also comes into play when Larry’s ice-breaking in the local dance club. One lady charmingly nicknamed the College Bicycle will offer up her well worn front bumpers only if Larry is drunk enough to approach her. You then have to repeat the sperm scrolling mini-game, with a head full of lager meaning that all your reactions are slowed. This suddenly makes this sub-game far more difficult, almost to the point of inevitable failure, in which case you’ll need to sober up enough before a second attempt. There are two main ways to shatter the inebriating mist - drink coffee or urinate all over the floor. Yup, in one of the most delightful developments in recent game history, Leisure Suit Larry can take a slash anywhere he wants to.

Slashing on the leg of a maths geek is definitely quite funny, particularly when followed up with a quick upwind chuff of parp-gas. If you have the will and inclination to make your own jokes out of the Magna Cum Laude gamiverse the humerous possibilities do open up exponentially. However, it’s not a particularly impressive toybox, if you’re after a game of your own making, one of The Sims titles would probably be far more appropriate. Very few objects are interactive, beyond a brief comedy description, and the actual gaming environment isn’t particularly big - with some shameful loading times (partly rescued by loading screens of half-naked girls) between most areas.