Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!

The Leisure Suit Larry series has been around since 1987. Sierra was the company that was making the most and the best point and click adventure games. To gamers today, I'm sure that point and click sounds like a boring genre when there are tons of games out there with non stop gun shooting 360 no scoping action.

Well, to me and I'm sure a lot of other probably mostly older gamers, the point and click adventure is a favourite genre for the stories, animation and exploration.

If you liked point and click, then you were always in anticipation of a new Sierra game. They have created many, many popular adventure games over the years until the company closed down. Not only did they have the Leisure Suit Larry series, they also had the popular Police Quest which they collaborated with a veteran officer to get certain details of police life portrayed in a realistic way.

They also had the King's Quest series which spanned 7 games and now has a newer episodic game that I haven't looked into yet. They had Quest for Glory, Roger Wilco, Gabriel Knight, and one of my personal favourites, Phantasmagoria.

Adventure games were so popular that many companies were making them. Interplay had their Star Trek series, Lucas Arts had a ton of classics such as The Dig, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and The Monkey Island series.

Other notable games were the Tex Murphy series and Dreamfall. Also some more recent adventure games for Focus Entertainment were the Runaway games which are excellent in every way.

As for Larry, I was pretty young when someone showed me a part of the game that I was too young to be seeing. A few years later I saw LSL 7 Love for Sail in a store and bought it. The game came out in 1996 so I was 15 years old. I took the game home and couldn't wait to play it. The graphics on the back of the box looked amazing , like a cartoon.

The Game disk was bright and colourful and the first gag of the game was that Larry was shocked that the hole in the middle of the CD was where his crotch should be.

Along with the manual, inside the jewel case was another card with small different coloured and numbered boxed that you could scratch and sniff. I didn't realize until playing the game, that at different parts of the game that card would pop up on the bottom right of the screen and show you with section to scratch and sniff so you knew what Larry was smelling. Pretty neat and unique if you ask me.

That was when I was 15, and while I still have my disk version complete with box and manual and scratch and sniff, the version I played recently was from GOG.com The Larry series goes on sale often on that site and I purchased LSL 7 on there so I didn't have to deal with the hassle of using the CD and it was only a couple dollars.

For the most part I remembered what to do and where to go in the game so it didn't take me too long to get through, but if for some reason you have never played it before and decide to buy it and play it, I suggest you do what I did my first time. Take your time, click on everything and select every option.

The game is fully voice acted. Larry has internal thoughts about what he's seeing or doing, or the people he's talking to and there is also a narrator who talks to Larry sometimes giving information and sometimes warning him that what he's doing doesn't make sense or isn't a good idea.

The game starts you off with the girl from LSL 6, though she's had enough of Larry and handcuffs him to the bed and leaves him with a cigarette in his mouth which starts a fire after she leaves.

Larry has to find a way out of the situation and out of the burning room. After he does, he decides to go on a cruise. This is where the game really starts. Larry meets the Captain of the ship, Captain Thygh and finds out that the person who wins the competitions on the ship can spend a week with the captain doing things that Larry wants to do!

Like the other games in the series (The series has no 4th installment), Larry meets women and tries to get them into bed. He usually has to perform tasks for them and win them over and sometimes it works out for him and other times it just doesn't.

Larry is a pretty pathetic guy. His jokes and pick up lines are pretty cheesy and his luck is always terrible. The first thing that happens is Larry finds out there was a problem with his room so he's been bumped down to the supply room.

The women you meet are all based on famous women. You will meet, Jaimie Lee Coitus, Dewmi Moore, Drew Barringmore, Wydoncha and Nayomi Juggs, Annette Boning and Victoria. There are lots of references to famous characters throughout the game. At the pool, where clothing is not allowed, you can see Mickey Mouse's shorts, Fred and Wilma's clothes and every so often Ron Jeremy will walk by. When you get into the pool area you can see Archie, Jughead , Betty and Veronica playing nude pool volleyball.

There is a bit of nudity in the game, so if that is something that bothers you then you should avoid the game and probably the series. You see naked people swimming, you see the Juggs on stage with Larry and you get glimpses of their nipples and you even see Larry's tiny member later in the game. Most of the nudity though is hidden in easter eggs. Little out of the way things you can do that will add a scene of nudity to the game. One instance in where you are in the library and the once prude Victoria who you now converted to a sex enthusiast has LSL 6 on her computer behind her. Click on one of the characters on the screen and a slashing egg appears on the top corner of the game. Then when you ask her about the weather she jumps you and because the egg is activated this time you will see her breasts.

Another case is when talking to Drew who is naked at the pool but covered by a pesky branch. You have options when you click on the branch to move it or break it but neither option works. Though if you select the "other" option and type in "push" Larry will move the branch exposing Drew's breasts.

The animation in the game, while dated now still looks pretty good and the voice acting as I've mentioned is great. If you aren't offended by the content and can appreciate the type of humour then I would suggest trying this game out if you are into the adventure games. Then if you like this one, I might suggest getting the series collection which usually goes on sale on GOG.com.

The end of Love for Sail hints at a Larry 8 but that game never got made. Instead, not long ago a remake of the first game was released called Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded. I'll be playing through that soon for the first time.