Leisure Suit Larry 20th Anniversary

Written by Joe Martin

June 5, 2007 | 12:01

Tags: #360 #al #classic #guybrush #larry #lechuck #leisure #lounge #monkey-island #suit #threepwood

Companies: #lucasarts #sierra

Adventure games were the hook that dragged many gamers deep into the geek lifestyle, with characters like Guybrush Threepwood from The Secret of Monkey Island and King Graham from King's Quest being the most fondly remembered. However, no list of gaming greats would be complete without at least a mention of Larry Laffer, the star of the naughty Leisure Suit Larry series.

Celebrating his twentieth birthday today, the main character of Leisure Suit Larry was a short and sleazy lounge lizard forever on a quest to 'sow his seed'. Originally thought up by Al Lowe for Sierra Entertainment, Larry starred in a total of twelve games including a casino spin-off and a few mobile adaptations.

Al Lowe took the time yesterday to talk about Larry in his daily joke email list:

"Today is the 20th anniversary of Leisure Suit Larry. On June 4th, 1987, LSL1: Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards shipped ...to the lowest sales of any game in the history of Sierra! A year later, Larry was in the Top 10 and soon after that was number one. So lift a glass with me to my dear departed friend, Mr. Laffer! Together we had one hell of a decade of great times."

To this day the Leisure Suit Larry compilation packs remain sought after items for many collectors, with the Leisure Suit Larry Ultimate Pleasure Pack reportedly selling on eBay for over $150.

The Leisure Suit Larry Collection released by Vivendi is equally well known among hardcore adventure game fans for demonstrating how fear of bad ESRB ratings can alter a game. The VU collection of the series cuts out all of Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail!, reportedly because the marketing department were worried about a five second long cartoon nude scene in the game finale.

Despite being told how to remove the scene, VU were apparently still worried about the effect the hidden code may have on the rating and opted to remove the game from the collection entirely.

Will you be raising a glass to Larry's memory, or are you more of a Police Quest fan? Do games like Leisure Suit Larry have a negative effect on games as a whole, or should their topics be encouraged? Hit the forums, drop us your answers.
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