There was once a time when Leisure Suit Larry was a tongue-in-cheek comedy adventure series about a guy named Larry Laffer out looking for love and falling into zany storylines. It was enough to sustain a number of sequels before quietly coming to a halt in the 90's. The legacy continues in Magna Cum Laude, but instead of Larry Laffer, the loser stuck in the 70's, players can follow the exploits of his college-going nephew, Larry Lovage.

Leisure suits are no longer part of the picture, and Larry Laffer is little more than an advisor of sorts. Nor is this an adventure game in the traditional sense. Instead, it is a collection of mini-games strung together around a plot that was obviously inspired by raunchy comedies like National Lampoon's Van Wilder and American Pie. The tongue-in-cheek innuendoes have been traded in for overtly sexual jokes and situations. Moving from place-to-place on college campus, Larry Loveage has to score with a number of stereotypical chicks before earning a spot on a matchmaking gameshow and making himself the big man on campus.

Now you have to earn your way into girls' hearts (and pants), ranging from a ditzy cheerleader to a repressed brainy lesbian. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Magna Cum Laude is its conversation mini-game, where the player has to move a smiling sperm up and down to dodge oncoming icons. Picking up a green icon will lead to Larry producing positive conversation. Red icons will cause him to stutter, become distracted, fart, burp, etc. Yes, the whole gamut of emotions is represented here. This is amusing the first few times you play it, but when you realize that you have to do it over and over again, this little game gets stale very quickly. However, like in any situation where you're trying to score, conversation is just a part of a bigger game. The rest involves booze. The mini-games primarily involve hitting arrow keys at the right time, like in many rhythm games, when icons light up or when they scroll and line up with the right spot. There's a mini-game for every occasion, whether it be mixing drinks, dancing, trampoline bouncing, or whatever. Any person with nominal typing skills will be able to play these games successfully on the keyboard; it's just a question of how many of them they are willing to put up with. Some of the games are fun, like the sperm game for conversations. Others are inane and annoying, like the red hands game against the band girl.

Sooner or later, you'll have to face down a girl in a game of quarters. Using the mouse to control bouncing a quarter into a glass takes some getting used to, but even this challenge can be easily surmounted. Sure, there are still adventure-like components, like having to get a bottle of liquor back from a wino in order to return it to the dean, thus impressing his niece. There is also a great deal of running around the campus and the town outside. While walking around, getting random comments from random people through bugging them, you can try to up your self-confidence through playing non-committal mini-games. However, moving around leads to a ton of load screens, as every area, every room, building... basically any place that has a door has a load screen. The save-anywhere feature isn't quite anywhere, so there are critical points where one mini-game will go straight into another and players won't get a chance to save their progress. That means even more load screens, should players decided to reload and try for a better score. With gameplay this shallow, it isn't a good idea to break the action as much as this game does.

The prize is, of course, raunchy comedic sex scenes, complete with cartoon nudity. Parts below the belt are covered by a black censor bar, but there is an uncensored version available. Unfortunately, this is all contingent on Larry's self confidence level. Every time Larry fails a mini-game and has to retry, he loses a little bit of self confidence. This will often happen as the player is getting accustomed to the rules or rhythms of a new game. If the level is too low, the player automatically fails the encounter and all the hard work will be for nothing.

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is far from being a terrible game. It's not exactly a great game either. The mini-games are cute, the character voice acting is decent, and the graphics are brightly colored, following the light comedic theme of the game. If lowbrow, bawdy humor is your kind of style, then this fits the bill perfectly. In all fairness, the story can be very funny at times. The problem is, the game doesn't really go anywhere. Most of the mini-games are very similar to each other. Oftentimes, it felt like we were doing the same thing over and over again, making things go stale pretty quickly. Magna Cum Laude starts at a certain level and stays there. If this isn't a problem, then the game might be appealing. If not, then you won't miss what the next generation of Larry has to offer.