Larry Laffer, the lovable creepy and world’s worst pick up artist, is back in a new adventure – Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry.
Developer CrazyBunch is bringing Leisure Suit Larry to the 21st century in what will either be a complete disaster or a brilliant take on the character.
To those of you who didn’t play graphic adventure games in the 1980s and ’90s, the name Larry Laffer might not mean much. But to his fans, it’s a name right up there with Guybrush Threepwood, Gabriel Knight, George Stobbart, and Manuel Calavera.
Larry is the sleazy star of six games, starting with 1987’s Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, up to Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail in 1996.
The whole point of these point-and-click games was to help Larry, a 40-year-old loser to get laid. That was pretty much it. It was crude, vulgar and very, very funny.
Since the series ended, we’ve seen an attempt to reboot it in 2004 with the terrible (and terribly-named) Magna Cum Laude, followed by 2009’s Box Office Bust.
2013 saw the release of Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, a remake of the original game.
Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry marks the series’ first (and possibly last) step into the age of political correctness, social justice, and fourth wave feminism.
“Hey ladies, I’m back in business!” Lary says on the game’s Steam page. “My new adventure, Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry, takes me – whatever the route or twist of fate – from the end of the ’80s directly into the 21st century and wow, how the world has changed!
“While my view of the world and women from way back in the 1980s collides with modern reality harder than the breasts of a lusciously stacked blonde jogging along a beach, I’m all set to date my way across the modern world!”
The world might have changed, but it sounds like Larry stayed the same, for better or worse.
In Wet Dreams Don’t Dry, Larry is after a woman called Faith, the “hot-to-trot” assistant to the boss of a successful technology enterprise. To impress her, he must boost his score on the Timber dating app. You do that by going on dates with women and “satisfying their needs.”
Yep.
The game promises a non-linear, hand-drawn game world with over 30 different locations, where you… “interact” with over 30 new characters.
It will be interesting to see whether Wet Dreams Don’t Dry tries to force the series’ outdated brand of humor down 2018’s throat, or instead offer a satirical view on the tropes of the past.
As someone who played all six original games, I’m hoping for a mixture of the two. The series’ vulgar and pun-ridden humor hold a special place in my heart, but for Larry to remain a lovable creep and not just your average creep, the series needs to grow up a little.
Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is scheduled for, ahem, release later this year.
