Customer Reviews

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I had to write this review since EVERY review I found before has thus been negative or downright brutal. Take it from soneone who ACTUALLY beat the game and didn't play it for five minutes because they were pissed off and don't know what a Larry game is all about. This game is fun! Granted, there are parts where the graphics can get choppy or the controls are frustrating. But as a whole the game is worth the play. If you are a LSL fan you are doing a disservice to yourself by not playing Larry 9 (I still haven't found the missing floppies for LSL 4...lol).

The Game does start out slow. Once you get to the first dreamscape (the Western) I guarantee you will be hooked. The story line is entertaining and Loveage keeps you laughing with his one liners and off-the-wall behavior.

No this one isn't written by Al Lowe, and no you don't get to play our beloved Larry, but it's fun nonetheless. There is a lot of crude humor, women in scantily clad outfits, and tons of sexual innuendos and puns (yes buns too my fellow pervs).

The bottom line is simple, if you are a fan of LSL, you need to give this game a shot. The graphics are better than any we have seen before, but still hold that comical and cartoonish tinge to 'em. True, there is no full frontal nudity or gratuitous sex scene depicted in the cutscenes like a lot of games are heading towards, but hell that never stopped Larry fans before...we're used to not scoring right? Only in the game right? ;) I promise you though, this one has a "happy ending."

To get there though is tough, this is not an easy game; it took me over twenty hours to reach the end and there are several scenes or scenarios that you will probably have to do darn near 10+ times (maybe even closer to 20-30...lol).

But persevere and you won't be let down. You'll laugh and enjoy the ride...ahem... the whole way through. As Larry would say, "Oh yeah!"

The game also has the usual gambit of minigames/challenges incorporated inside. You won't be looking for secret tokens (YEAH BABY!) but instead have to seek out 100 Larry Awards (golden statues) hidden throughout the film studio. There are also numerous girls to try and score with and also several stunt races to complete for special awards. Even if you've beat the main missions in the game and reached the grand finale, you can still attempt to accomplish these challenges for hours of extra gameplay. Good luck fellow leisure suiters!

Be advised, I played the game on PS3 and had also tried it on the PC. For the life of me I couldn't get it to work properly on the PC with my controller. Using a keyboard was horrific and I don't recommend this at all. Go with the console version!

The previous Larry's were great - wry smutty humor with good game play. This game sucks! The game play is terrible, the animation is awful. I've managed to get the character stuck in a wall and between walls. You can't talk to other characters or look at objects like in the past games. I'm glad I only paid $3 - yet I still feel ripped off!!

I was always a huge fan of Leisure Suit Larry, he's absolutely hilarious and I enjoyed the not-so-hard side missions, a nice change of pace and besides who in their right mind plays Leisure Suit Larry for a challenge? LSL has been more about relaxing and getting in some laughs. WOW! Is Box Office Bust a...bust. They even put in the title warning you not to buy it. Its terrible. Horrible. Horrendous and the rest of the words you can think of that mean 'bad'. I almost want to projectile vomit as Im writing this review because Im thinking about playing it. The camera views randomly change when you need them NOT to change, when u do want them to change they wont??? Thats bassackwards. Also, the inside of every building has 1 camera view and many things obstructing your view which is SOOO irritating. The controls are stupid, its the worst layout Ive ever seen probley (in my life). Not only that but he can sprint for like...2 feet then its back to a crawl. Ive spent more time trying to get Larry to get unstuck and go where I want him than my actual progression in the game. Some how, he has turned into a superhero and can do wall jumps and stuff now which are ridiculously hard to do, the timing has to be PERFECT. Anytime you have to jump to go somewhere, prepare to do it 1000 times because once again, when you dont want him to do something...he does it...wall jumping you completely away from your target area. Ive been playing it for about an hour and a half now and its already in my stack to take to Gamestop. I am stupified that the company who made this (Funsta I guess??) is in business at all. LSL is now dead, this game has killed any chance for LSL to appear on another box in the future, play and you'll feel me. Dont buy this, its a waste of cash...seriously. If you dont want to believe me thats fine, I have already fallen victim. I HIGHLY suggest renting (if video stores even have the patience to put this miserable attempt at profit on the shelves) prior to buying.

What can I say?

Awful console port, awful controls, awful story, awful dialogs, slightly less than awful graphics.

And this comes from a devoted fan of the old PC Larry series from Sierra that I continue to love.

Sad, really.

This is the worst game i have ever played. Clunky and unresponsive controls. Terrible camera angles. Nothing about this game is worth mentioning. I rented it to try and get an easy plat trophey. Little did i know i would be renting something that felt more like a chore to play. I could only make it through and hours worth of game play before i had to take it back.

At long last, I've finally found it...I've finally discovered it. The worst game ever conceived by an established video game studio. Ever.

Ever.

There is simply no excuse for the production quality and design elements of this game. It's not just lacking a layer of polish like some games which are rushed out early by a company's publisher.. it's lacking anything remotely resembling a gaming soul. It's wretched to the point where I'm almost convinced the developers made the game the way it is on purpose... everyone sitting around, drinking, giggling, cheering as they come up with another aggravating gameplay feature with which to torture the unwary gaming populace. Truly, you really have to TRY to make a game this loathsome, this abhorrent, this... painful.

Nearly EVERYTHING in this game is just... WRONG. From the archaic, "now you can control me, oops lol now you can't" camera that refuses to show you anything you really need to see to the unbelievably rotten "combat" system that makes fighting an agonizing chore, to the PSX-quality textures and pop-up, to the totally uncessary inclusion of a hidden stamina meter that keeps you from sprinting for more than 5 seconds per minute, this game is just an abomination... a freak of gaming nature... an utter insult to the gaming industry's sensibilities. It's a steaming fecal nightmare delivered unceremoniously from the rotting bowels of Team17 Software onto the collective face of videogaming. Yes, the industry is now worse off from the mere existence of this game. If you've ever seen, played, or heard of this game, you've taken a step back in your own personal evolution.

Team17 should be ashamed of themselves. Go ahead guys, take off one or two or 15 years and go stick your heads in the sand on some uncharted Pacific island, until humanity has forgotten most of what has transpired here. Shame, shame, shame. SHAME ON YOU. And God help any of you who list this game as a past project in your resume/CV, as truly any hint of involvement with such trash should immediately have you blacklisted from participating in the development of any other video game, ever again.

There's no forgiveness, no rest for you, Leisure Suit Larry. Rot in turmoil, you insipid turd.


PROS:
-Nothing. Avoid like syphilis.

CONS:
-Everything

Welcome to gaming in the year 2010!!! What does the video game market mostly consist of? Well, some pretty lame "World of Warcraft" type games that turn your friends and loved ones into the trolls they seek to kill in game, (Because they become anti-social and afraid of hygiene) the same shooter game, with really pretty graphics but missing quality and attention to gameplay, re-released about 30 times a year to make different shooter games that all sell really well because TONS of people blindly buy into hype and marketing campaigns, some hack and slash games, and some really "hardcore" games on social networking sites where you can build chicken cages, run a farm,(NOTE: Harvest Moon stole that idea from them and went back in time about 15 years to make the first Harvest Moon game on SNES) operate a fish tank...you know some real white knuckled sitting on the edge of your seat type gameplay? Soon we can expect to see a game on some of those sites where you can mow lawns for money, hold doors for people, or put your shoes on. AWW, DUDE TOO COOL!!! Yep, a lot's changed in the past couple of years from the days when your choices were PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, PC, or older systems with unique and original games being released quite frequently. Sure there are still good games that come out nowadays, but they are pretty scarce with all the lackluster games that flood the market. So where does all this leave a game like "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust?" Pretty much in a category of it's own, and that's not a bad thing at all.

First, most people will most likely notice right away the graphics aren't up to par with other games being released around this time. The question is: Why do some people really care about a game's graphics to the extent they do? Me? I'd be happy with a game that was super fun to play, and had mediocre graphics. But that's just me. These days developers focus way too much on graphics. Sure there may be some jaggy edges to some of the levels or whatever else, but you can see it can't you? Here's the deal. Anything man made is never going to be perfect. Video games are no exception. The game is $20 now...so for $20 people can get passed the graphics not looking flawless.

Second, the dialogue in this game is a step up from the last game. Great voice cast, too! I LOVED THE LAST LEISURE SUIT LARRY GAME, but the last "Leisure Suit Larry game" had potty humor that was a bit grosser and comparable in levels of cheesiness to the later seasons of "Married With Children." In this game, the writer, who also wrote Grandma's Boy (A pretty sweet movie)did a good job, and managed to make the dialogue intelligent potty humor. I didn't like the dialogue originally when I played through the first level with someone else, but when I got my own copy of this game and played through things again I found the dialogue enjoyable, funny, and I actually understood everything that was going on the second time through!

Third, the controls in this game are actually pretty good, despite what a lot of people have said. I think a lot of people got upset when they died a couple of times and gave up after that. Yeah, when I first picked up the game, it was a bit of a challenge. But when I went back and re-played some levels, I was able to control Larry very well. For instance, the first time I played the first studio level, I couldn't jump from platform to platform very well without dying. The Second time? Piece of Cake. Never died once. As the game went on, I was having NO problem controlling Larry. Also, the vehicle controls in this game were hard at first, and I heard many people rip on the vehicle controls. AGAIN...Once I learned to control the vehicles, I had no problem cruising around. Also, one reviewer on here said there's no way to get the vehicle unstuck. Wrong. Press down the left thumbstick on your controller (It's called the L3 button) and keep pressing it until your car bounces around enough to wiggle free of being trapped.

Bad controls to me are controls that are unresponsive sometimes or just don't work. This game just takes practice to get through. That's it. Maybe no one has patience anymore since the next gen systems came out?

Fourth, the gameplay was pretty fun and managed to stay varied so that the platforming aspects of this game remained enjoyable. There is the main film lot and three film scenarios you enter and play through...With the second one being the best in my opinion! All of them are different from the last, and that provides for fun gameplay. Now some of the missions can be challenging at points, but keep practicing and experiment with different ways of doing things, and you should be able to pass. For example, the second studio had a mission that involved fire. About 1/2 way through that mission, I could never make it to my destination without the fire lasting and then the mission would end shortly after that. Eventually, I figured out that while my fire was lit I had to keep running back to the fire in order to make it to my destination. I apologize for being vague, I am trying not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't gotten to that part of the game yet, or who may pick this game up to play in the future. Also, the stealth missions were fun to play. I've played tons of stealth games where you get caught once and it's all the way back to the beginning. (For the record the "The Family Guy Game" had the worst stealth missions ever!) But in this game, if you get caught by a guard, you beat them to death, and continue on! There fore, stealth missions can still be fun and not tedious things that make you want to chuck your controller through the center of the TV. Total Win!!! Also, besides the main story missions, you can search for Larry statues located through out the lot, (100 of them total) play race missions, and play missions where you talk to girls. So there's enough quality content here for $20.

Okay, now we've reached the part of the review where we talk about the bad aspects of this game. First, the ending of this game is funny, but it's nothing epic. It doesn't really leave you with a great feeling of achievement. Remember the end of the last game. It was epic and it left you feeling awesome! This ending...you expect another mission to pop up when your done. Second, I loved how in the previous game you could walk up to ALMOST everyone and anything and investigate and interact with them. That's missing in this game. Sure, some people yell if you run into them while on foot but that's it, and it leaves you wanting more. Third, this game has the type of mission where you talk to females, like from the last game, but they aren't all that special. Basically, all the girls look the same except different colored clothing and skin, you go talk to them and say the right thing so that you can go find them an item, then talk to them again and say the right thing, and then every mission ends the same, except for different dialogue. It's nothing great, but the only plus is you can't die and don't have to restart the talking part of these missions over again. Fifth, sometimes...not all the time...but sometimes...the camera does act very stupid. Like in a mission where I had to reach a satelite. Jumping between two pillars and making it to the top depended on if the camera would be in the right position. If not, I usually kept falling. That was annoying. Sixth, Sometimes a dot would appear on my in screen mini-map, but when I'd pause to check for the dot on my larger map and...THE DOTS NEVER SHOWED UP! That's just horrible. The dots did this in the first studio level, I didn't check it out in later parts of the game, so maybe they show up there. Lastly, there's nothing for beating this game or finishing certain aspects of this game...just trophies. OH BOY! The last game gave you new modes of gameplay and you were able to purchase new things and the other endings you didn't get. This time I just get a trophy for bragging rights so all my friends can go online and see I beat a certain a game or a certain aspect of a game. BECAUSE YOU KNOW I MIGHT BRAG TO THOSE SAME FRIENDS IN REAL LIFE ABOUT BEATING SOMETHING, AND THEY NEED TO BE ABLE TO CHECK ME OUT AND MAKE SURE I'M LEGIT...or something lame like that. God, remember when gaming used to be a hobby and now it's a sport? LAME. But I think some trophies are so some developers can be lazy. They say, "And if they beat all these missions or get so many points, instead of unlocking new in game features...we'll save ourselves time and resources by just giving them a trophy!"

Overall, I think "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust" would have had a better chance at being successful if it were released about 5 years ago. But nowadays, most gamers are too hardcore and too critical of games. Seriously, this was voted worst game of the year by some sites?!?!? WHY?!?! IT'S NOT THAT BAD, IF YOU ARE OPEN TO NEW THINGS AND GIVE IT A CHANCE!!! People... don't fully trust reviews you read from magazines or well known video game critics online where a game is rated 1-10, on a scale of 1-10, to tell you if a game is good or bad. I am convinced a lot of reviewers are paid off or usually can't get passed there own biased thoughts when reviewing games. You are better of checking things out yourself. And if you hate this game, because you loved the old Al Lowe made Leisure Suit Larry games, get over it and give something new a chance. I heard the sequel to the last game (Magna Cum Laude) was canceled, and I was skeptical of this game, but I gave it a shot and walked away loving it.

But sadly, because of poor sales, this is probably going to be the last "Leisure Suit Larry" game. But am I the only one that noticed Larry, who pretty much died after this game was released, wore a Micheal Jackson jacket in this game, and shortly after Micheal died in real life? I am going to miss them both very much. Thanks Larry, for the great memories I had of playing "Magna Cuim Laude" with friends after school and on the weekends and the memories of playing this game. R.I.P. Larry.

I've been a big fan of the Larry series from back in the day when it was good. The nudity is not there, this new Larry do not match up to the original. If you really love the series then give the company who put this out a message: BRING BACK THE SEX HOUND LARRY FROM THE PAST AND LET THE MAN GET LAID. You should not need to use trainers to finish the game. Fix the bugs, the systems can handle the upgrade, do your jobs programmers.

When the main character of a video game is constantly reminding you how terrible it is, you can't help but believe him. That's the case with Larry Laffer in "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust". And he's right. The graphics are very, very bad and sometimes look to be on par with the graphics from the original incarnation of the series ... that came out in 1987. The controls are just as bad, as the most annoying part of the game is driving. Be careful when you are behind the wheel of a golf cart. You may crash into an invisible object or worse, get stuck if you bump into a tree while driving around the lot. If Larry's car gets stuck, there is no way of getting out and you have to restart from the last save point. All you'll get is a sarcastic Larry letting you know "the exit is impossible to reach". Lazy game making at its finest.

You would hope that one saving grace of this game would be the comedy factor, especially with voice acting from Dave Attell, Artie Lange, Jeffrey Tambor, and a host of other kinda well known celebrities. The writing is credited to Allen Covert, who penned and starred in the cult hit "Grandma's Boy". But there are no laughs to be had here. The "humor" is downright mean spirited at times - including a host of bestiality jokes and Larry making fun of his own deceased mother.

It's amazing how garbage like this can make it to store shelves, as there is really no redeemable part of playing this game. The "Leisure Suit Larry" games aren't for everyone, but "Box Office Bust" isn't for anyone. Quite possibly the "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" for the PS3 generation.

I really didn't care for this game I love Leisure Suit Larry however this game had no connection to the original games...
If I had played this one or had a chance to preview it I would have never purchased this game (at all)