Replay Games Acquires Leisure Suit Larry, Remakes 'n Sequels En Route

No one would blame the video game industry from simply moving on from Leisure Suit Larry, given the battering the franchise and character have taken in the last decade. Replay Games still believes in ol' Larry Laffer, however, and has announced a deal to produce high-definition updates of the series, in addition to a brand-new Leisure Suite Larry game.

We've been down this road before, though, but take confidence in knowing Replay is headed up by Paul Rowe, formerly of Sierra On-line, and series creator Al Lowe is involved with this effort.

"I'm totally jazzed to work with long-term friend and Sierra buddy, Paul Trowe," said Lowe in the press release. "He's worked tirelessly for years to get the Larry rights and return them to the hands of the Sierra ‘family.’ Working with Paul's team ensures that the world’s favorite leisure suit-wearer remains the same guy we all learned to love a quarter-century ago. I'll oversee the entire production of these games to ensure the highest standards and some amazing new adventures for my pal, Larry."

The plan involves a reworked version of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, the first in the series, originally released in 1987 and remade (the first time!) in 1991. Replay intends to release the remake on every platform imaginable--PC, Mac, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS, Android, Steam, OnLive, Gaikai, others--and follow that with a proper sequel late next year.

If fans dig this one, the press release implies Replay would be happy to remake the whole series. Fans have been tricked by Leisure Suit Larry resurrections in the past, though.

God speed, gentleman. The world could use a few more respectable sex jokes in video games.

Here's a question from someone who's never played one of these games: will they hold up?

Magna Cum Laude!

Fuck this. Bring me Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango instead and keep your Larry weirdo. He was weird fifteen years ago and still is today.

@patrickklepek said:

We've been down this road before, though, but take confidence in knowing Replay is headed up by Paul Rowe, formerly of Sierra On-line, and series creator Al Lowe is involved with this effort.

"I'm totally jazzed to work with long-term friend and Sierra buddy, Paul Trowe," said Lowe in the press release.

Uh. Is it Rowe or Trowe? And another guy is Lowe? Yeez.

They're acquiring it so they can burn it to the ground?

Well, these games were okay at one point...I think (I was a child, the prospect of boobs may have blinded me). Soooo, good luck replay and I hope it goes well?

@jamesisaacs said:

Magna Cum Laude!

LOL YEAH BRO CUZ LIKE LOUD ORGASMS.

I imagine these games haven't aged well.

This seems roughly as necessary as acquiring the Herpes Simplex Virus.

I've been looking to get some games that are fun for the whole family...

@patrickklepek said:

We've been down this road before, though, but take confidence in knowing Replay is headed up by Paul Rowe, formerly of Sierra On-line, and series creator Al Lowe is involved with this effort.

"I'm totally jazzed to work with long-term friend and Sierra buddy, Paul Trowe," said Lowe in the press release.

Uh. Is it Rowe or Trowe? And another guy is Lowe? Yeez.

Since I really liked the old Larry games, I'm slightly optimistic and happy right now. But only slightly.

Does anybody else keep reading Replay as Rapelay? (It would certainly make sense, given the context.)

The games themselves were a product of their time -- they were initially text parser-based, but gradually moved on to a less-crazy array of actions, Sam & Max-style. They also had ridiculous deaths, early and often; not to a King's Quest level of punishment, but still.

It got better with each installment, though! LSL6 still holds up well, and LSL7 -- the real one, not the cellphone game that has nothing to do with the original -- has the best interface of any adventure game.

I can't wait for the new one, if only to see how Lowe's bawdy dad-jokes work in modern times. If anything, it'll be better than anything Team17 or High Voltage could've come up with.

God damnit.

I would always get an STD within the first couple of minutes. And then die.

Is it Rowe or Trowe? The world needs to know! And so does Lowe.

@Klei said:

Fuck this. Bring me Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango instead and keep your Larry weirdo. He was weird fifteen years ago and still is today.

Eh... you do know they remade both Monkey Island games, right? Also, what's keeping you from buying Full Throttle and Grim Fandango? Those games totally hold up.

Anyway, Larry. Yep, it was a novelty. Yep, it was pretty funny. And yep, it was interesting to see a genre known for stuff like King's Quest get all grown up and meta, although I'm pretty sure it was teenagers like myself playing them most of the time. I also remember being disappointed at how tame they were but eventually growing up to realize that it was sort of, part of the joke to make a big fuss about the tits that weren't actually there, which is where some of the later Larry games went wrong. It was never about the softcore porn, it was about the sex jokes around a rather pathetic character.

I wouldn't claim that the first game is playable today for anything other than historic appreciation, and the series just went downhill from there, but hey, preservation of gaming is a good thing. You can also go play the King's Quest remakes if you want. More of Sierra's back catalogue needs to be republished and relicensed (starting with Homeworld, probably).

@Cincaid said:

@patrickklepek said:

We've been down this road before, though, but take confidence in knowing Replay is headed up by Paul Rowe, formerly of Sierra On-line, and series creator Al Lowe is involved with this effort.

"I'm totally jazzed to work with long-term friend and Sierra buddy, Paul Trowe," said Lowe in the press release.

Uh. Is it Rowe or Trowe? And another guy is Lowe?

No. Oh, you didn't know? Lowe is Rowe, and Trowe is Lowe. Trowe is not Rowe, though.

Thank goodness. I can only get my fix through Leisure Suit Larry.

The originals were great, for their time. The LSL games of the last 10 years were an attempt by a different developer (not the original creator) to update them with worse jokes and more contemporary gameplay. Spoiler: they weren't that great.

I can't imagine these will hold up, but I'm happy to find out.

HELL YES

Yeah, I remember hearing about this a while back, but I thought they were only licensing the IP to release emulated iPhone ports. Turns out it was way more than that! I wonder how much they had to give Activision for it.

Is Leisure Suit Larry like an American version of Sid the Sexist? Never been remotely interested in the game so am not familliar with LSL. Is he a hit with the ladies or a pathetic loser?

As long they make Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! I'll be happy!!

@Subjugation said:

Is it Rowe or Trowe? The world needs to know! And so does Lowe.

My surname is Rowe

I remember when I was younger and I first discovered Leisure Suit Larry among the millions of pirated Amiga games that my cousin owned. At the time, it seemed really exciting, probably because the subject matter was considered "adult" to my 10 year old brain. Now that I'm nearing 30, I just kind of roll my eyes at the whole thing.

Right on, I love me some classic adventure, and Larry was always funny in a "roll my eyes and shake my head" kind of way, but I enjoy that kind of humor.

Now someone needs to get that Police Quest license.

Al Lowe is like the secret lord of video games. If you read the behind the scenes stuff about him at Sierra making Leisure Suit Larry, say what you will about the games but damn if that guy isn't a fucking genius.

Is the series even RELEVANT anymore? Are there really people who are going to go "fuck yes another Leisure Suit Larry game!?"

@NoelVeiga

Yes, they remade Monkey 1 and 2, but not Curse of Monkey Island. They should give the same treatment to Full Throttle. As for Grim Fandango, it's no where to be found on sites like gog.com, unless you buy it online. Fortunately I've kept my copy from 98 and guess what? I won't install on my computer unless I use some launcher that crashes the game every once in a while.

@RobertOrri: If I remember correctly, the last LSL was published by a label of Codemasters. So it probably cost Replay pennies to acquire it from them.

if lowe is involved,

fuck yes another Leisure Suit Larry game!

Woohoo, more Larry!

Will they make Leisure Suit Larry 4?

Does this mean I will finally after all those years get the teased Larry 8: Lust in Space???? This is the best Monday.

Awesome news! Hopefully LSL7: Love for Sail also gets an immediate re-release on steam or GOG since it doesn't really need any re-make being the newest of the proper series. Looking at that screenshot, the older games are being remade to look like LSL7.

This could very well be terrible. I'd like it if they made some sort of The Game parody though.

@Klei said:

@NoelVeiga

Yes, they remade Monkey 1 and 2, but not Curse of Monkey Island. They should give the same treatment to Full Throttle. As for Grim Fandango, it's no where to be found on sites like gog.com, unless you buy it online. Fortunately I've kept my copy from 98 and guess what? I won't install on my computer unless I use some launcher that crashes the game every once in a while.

I agree Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, and Curse of Monkey island should be on Steam or GOG, but they don't really need an HD treatment. Go load up Curse of Monkey Island or Full Throttle, it's art is better than the MI1&2 remakes. The voice acting and audio quality in all of these games are better than every Telltale game (who compress the audio way too much).

Great?

the problem with adventure games is that they've forgotten what made adventure games fun in the first place.

They "evolved" with gimmicks and aping whatever trend was sold the most units a few months previous, and as a result, people stopped playing them.

The genre needs to find the fun again, which, generally speaking, means doing away with the computer pointing out objects to interact with (as a favor to you), pointing out where to go (as a favor to you), and telling you how to solve all it's problems. (as a favor to you.)

@President_Barackbar said:

Is the series even RELEVANT anymore? Are there really people who are going to go "fuck yes another Leisure Suit Larry game!?"

Upon seeing this news, I pretty much said exactly that.

I'm... not quite sure why people like this franchise. Especially now.

@JazGalaxy said:

the problem with adventure games is that they've forgotten what made adventure games fun in the first place.

They "evolved" with gimmicks and aping whatever trend was sold the most units a few months previous, and as a result, people stopped playing them.

The genre needs to find the fun again, which, generally speaking, means doing away with the computer pointing out objects to interact with (as a favor to you), pointing out where to go (as a favor to you), and telling you how to solve all it's problems. (as a favor to you.)

I disagree with this. I used to tout adventure games as one of my favourite genres back in the day. I must have played a ton of them, but I didn't finish them all. The problem with most adventure games was that they relied on a single solution to each problem, and if you couldn't work out that solution then it just turned into an exercise in pixel hunting, using every command on every item, and every item on every character. Far too many times I just got stopped cold by an obtuse puzzle.

I try and play them still now, every once in a while. They can still be satisfying, solving a tricky puzzle is always rewarding. I just don't have the patience to try and second-guess everything the designers put in, and the temptation to check an online guide is hard to resist. I actually applaud the current trend of putting hints into the games, that way a clue can be given without using an external source and without spoiling a later puzzle by accident.

My favourite of the modern adventures was Stacking. The puzzles weren't too difficult, and they had multiple solutions. You can burn through the main story without too much difficulty as usually one of the solutions to each puzzle should be obvious to every player. Finding them all is there as an optional challenge for those that want it, and there is a robust hints system to help out if you can't crack them all yourself. I think that is probably the best balance of challenge and player satisfaction.

Younger players won't even realise what a pain it was back in the day to get stuck on an adventure game. No GameFAQs, no YouTube walkthroughs, no online forums ... you had to catch the walkthrough in a gaming magazine or be stuck on a puzzle forever.

This is hilarious.

Rowe Lowe and Trowe.

HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA

Best damn news I've heard in years. Al Lowe is a bit of a personal hero and Mark Rowe did some amazing work back in the day. Glad to see one of my favorite franchises is back in good hands.

I've never played a Leisure Suit Larry.
 
I'm interested though.

@JazGalaxy said:

The genre needs to find the fun again, which, generally speaking, means doing away with the computer pointing out objects to interact with (as a favor to you), pointing out where to go (as a favor to you), and telling you how to solve all it's problems. (as a favor to you.)

Those "favors"/assists that you're so against are basically the only reason the point-n-click adventure genre even had a revival. I like the classics in the genre, but there just isn't enough gameplay depth for it to exist much longer. It made sense when it first came into existence, because the public was still getting used to using a point and click OS, so the idea of a game where you could point and click on random objects was quite novel.

But now that I reexamine the genre, I notice that unless you can deduce the moon logic that the game designer was following, even the best of games amount to the player brute forcing their way through by trying to use their inventory items on every imaginable thing in the environment.

If you think hours of fruitless trial and error help give these games genuine longevity, and make the game legitimately more fun, then the values that govern how you enjoy games are insane. The assists that give the player an idea what to do are keeping the genre on life support. Point-n-click adventure games will not become "fun again" if you remove the assists - they will just die.

Well, that Love for Sail art-style was the best version... so, I guess I'd be okay with this if it keeps that up.