Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust is an action-adventure video game developed by Team17 and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released on March 27, 2009 in Europe.[1] It is the 8th game in the series, and the first Leisure Suit Larry game to be released for seventh generation consoles.[2] It was announced on January 17, 2008 in a press release.[3] There was a Wii version in development to be released 2 months after the release of the HD version, but was cancelled due to negative reviews.

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
Cover art for Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
Developer(s)Team17
Publisher(s)Codemasters[lower-alpha 1]
Designer(s)Paul Dunstan
Programmer(s)Paul Tapper
Artist(s)Aten Skinner
Billy Allison
Writer(s)Allen Covert
Composer(s)Jay Waters
Oliver Wood
SeriesLeisure Suit Larry
EngineUnreal Engine 3
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Release
  • EU: March 27, 2009
  • NA: March 31, 2009
  • EU: April 24, 2009 (PS3)
  • AU: April 30, 2009
  • NA: May 5, 2009 (PS3)
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

Box Office Bust has open world sandbox gameplay such as exploration, platforming, racing and puzzle-solving. As with other games in the series, it features humor, attractive women, and suggestive themes, although, unlike Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, this game does not contain nudity and sexual content despite its appeal for adult audiences. This was a decision championed by Executive Producer John Melchior, who believed that nudity was just a "mask for poor gameplay" and had stated that they (Team17) created a game with "a good solid story, clever set ups, and great pay offs."[4]

Plot

Box Office Bust features Larry Lovage, the main character of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, whose uncle Larry, the original Larry Laffer calls upon his assistance at his movie studio (Laffer Studios), doing odd jobs and trying to uncover a mole from a rival studio who is attempting to sabotage Laffer Studios.[5]

The storyline was written by Allen Covert of Happy Madison Productions, and the voiceover cast includes Josh Keaton as Larry Lovage, Jeffrey Tambor as Larry Laffer, Jay Mohr, Patrick Warburton, Shannon Elizabeth and Carmen Electra.[5] Artie Lange and Dave Attell were also featured as voice characters.

Development

On July 29, Activision Blizzard announced that as part of a business consolidation strategy following the completion in July 2008 of a merger with Vivendi Games, the same day Crash: Mind over Mutant and The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon was released as well as the first crossover games since Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, a number of games under development, including Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust (except Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry series), would not be published at this time.[6] This is the second Larry game that was created entirely without any input from original Larry game designer and developer Al Lowe, though the character Big Al is a homage to Lowe.

Artie Lange, who voiced Big Al, said he was paid $30,000 for his 1.5-hour studio session. He has also stated that this installment has a higher budget than all the predecessors.

Reception

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust was met with negative reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 26.08% and 25/100,[7][10] the PC version 20.22% and 20/100[8][11] and the PlayStation 3 version 16.00% and 17/100.[9][12]

Chris Walters of GameSpot described the game as "Mindless, repetitive gameplay and a truly atrocious sense of humor help Leisure Suit Larry live up to its name—it's a total bust"[14] while Charles Onyett expressed his opinion on his review of the game on IGN as "The lowest rating numbers here at IGN are reserved for games with nearly no redeeming qualities or interesting ideas, with next to nothing enjoyable to offer players, and which under no circumstances should be purchased by anyone. Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust is, without a doubt, one of those games."[18]

GameTrailers gave the game a 2.3 out of 10, making it the lowest rated game on the website; it also described the game as "A horrible joke in and of itself, if you buy Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust the joke will be on you. We can think of a good number of other uses for your two hands; and we're using ours to give this stinker two thumbs way down."[17]

Official Xbox Magazine (UK) gave the game a 1 out of 10, calling it an "astroturd" of a game. They also stated it was their worst rated game of the year so far, as well as going as far to say that it was the worst game on the Xbox 360 console thus far.[19]

Al Lowe thanked Vivendi Games on his website for keeping him away from what he called "the latest disaster".[25]

In PlayStation: The Official Magazine's September 2009 issue, they joked about punishing a PlayStation 3 owner's dog by making it play the Leisure Suit Larry game. The dog had urinated on his owner's PlayStation 3, which surprisingly still works.

GameSpot nominated the game for "Flat Out Worst Game of the Year" in 2009. It "lost" to Stalin vs. Martians.

Giant Bomb gave the game the Worst Game of the Year Award in 2009. Australian television show Good Game "honored" it as the Worst Game of 2009.

Screwattack.com gave the game a SAGY award for the Worst Multiconsole game of 2009. Similarly, GamesRadar gave Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust the title of the 28th worst game of all time.[26]

Notes
  1. Released under the Funsta brand name

References
  1. "Codemasters publishing Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, coming in April". Joystiq. 2009-02-21. Archived from the original on 2012-10-31. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
  2. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Page". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
  3. "Leisure Suit Larry Does Hollywood With New Comedic Adventure Video Game in 2008". Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  4. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Interview". IGN. 2008-01-17. Archived from the original on 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
  5. "Leisure Suit Larry Does Hollywood With New Comedic Adventure Video Game in 2008". PR Newswire. 2008-01-17. Archived from the original on 2008-01-24. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
  6. "Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters, more dropped by Activision". 2008-07-29. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
  7. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for Xbox 360". GameRankings. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  8. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PC". GameRankings. Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  9. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PlayStation 3". GameRankings. Archived from the original on 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  10. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  11. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2012-12-30. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  12. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2012-12-28. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  13. Gibsol, Ellie (2009-04-03). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  14. Walters, Chris (2009-04-06). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review (PC)". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
  15. Walters, Chris (2009-05-07). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review (PS3)". GameSpot. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  16. Walker, John (2009-04-27). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  17. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". GameTrailers. 2009-04-24. Archived from the original on 2013-11-01. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  18. Onyett, Charles (2009-05-12). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 2012-10-06. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
  19. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". Official Xbox Magazine UK: 93. June 2009.
  20. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust". PC Gamer UK: 92. June 2009.
  21. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". PC Zone: 76. July 2009.
  22. Play magazine review, issue 180, Imagine Publishing
  23. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". PSM3: 77. July 2009.
  24. Nardozzi, Dale (2009-04-08). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review (Xbox 360)". TeamXbox. Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  25. "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust". 2009-04-07. Archived from the original on 2009-02-04. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  26. GamesRadar staff. "The 100 worst games of all time". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 2015-05-09. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
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