Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (MCL from now on) is currently available overseas on Xbox in two versions. There is a ‘censored' version available in NTSC territories (E.g. USA) and an ‘uncut' version available in Europe. The European release, like all Xbox games from the United Kingdom, will run on all PAL Xboxes including those sold in Australia. This review is based on an imported UK PAL version of the game.

Leisure Suit Larry games aren't a new concept: this latest instalment is no less than the tenth game to bear the Leisure Suit Larry name. This is however, the first time a game in the series has appeared on a console. In MCL you control the actions of Larry Lovage, 7th year Junior at Walnut Log Community College as he attempts to earn a BA in T&A. Larry is the Nephew of Larry Laffer, main character of all previous Leisure Suit Larry games. This new generation Leisure Suit Larry game breaks away from its...ehem, roots by taking the series into the third dimension. The graphics in MCL manage to capture the cartoon charm of previous iterations and really look great in motion. Character animations are superbly delivered and many subtle graphical touches make all the difference.

The story begins with the reality dating show ‘Swingles' arriving on campus, and young Larry wants nothing more than to be a contestant. Who wouldn't when the grand prize is the chance to woo three of the hottest chicks in Walnut Log? Unfortunately for Larry the only way to qualify for the show is to produce items of affection collected from the fairer sex. Each time Larry sufficiently impresses a female friend, she will reward his efforts with a personal item (and maybe a little more). Larry needs to collect two such items to enter each round of Swingles.

The game itself is broken down into two modes. Wander mode allows Larry to explore his surroundings interacting with its inhabitants and objects in a similar way to the freestyle mission system in Grand Theft Auto. As you explore you will uncover secret tokens and cash. Secret tokens are used to unlock raunchier game content that can be bought from various characters that you will come to recognise. Cash is spent on some minigames but also to purchase items from key locations or vending machines. Each item has a positive effect on a specific type of minigame and makes them easier in the future.

Minigames are broken down into the categories of Chat, Quarters, Bartending, Rhythm, Slaps, Wack-a-Mole, Wack-a-Pole (yes it is what you think), Avoidance, Water Sports (no it isn't what you think), Photos and finally Pose. As you can see, there is quite a variety of game types and some are much more fun than others.

Chat is in my opinion the most entertaining, as it involves Larry engaging someone in conversation with the direction and content of this verbal interaction determined by guiding a sperm cell through a side scrolling obstacle course. To win you have to finish with a high heart level, achieved by collecting green icons with your sperm. Any other icons if collected will have some other kind of effect on your progress such as loosing heart level or getting drunk and therefore making your sperm harder to control...Oh, how true that is. Okay, it sounds ridiculous, but the different possibilities for conversations are priceless and produce considerable replay value.

Quarters is a drinking game where you attempt to get your opponent drunk before yourself by bouncing coins into an empty glass with flicks of the Left Thumbstick. Bartending games have you running up and down four isles tending everything from drinks to monkey chow and avoiding or collecting such things as empty glasses and monkey crap...No really! Rhythm games are by far the hardest and most annoying and resemble Dance Dance Revolution challenges.

Direction and button presses scroll across the bottom of the screen as you feebly attempt to press them all in time. Without a dance mat (of which the game does not support) these game are nigh impossible. Not to worry though, as any minigame can be automatically won in return for a small number of secret tokens by opting to ‘wimp out'. This option is a god send later in the game.

Slaps is simply the one-on-one schoolyard game I'm sure we are all familiar with. Wack-a-Mole games get their name from the ticket dispensing mallet games common to video arcades and bowling alleys. Buttons corresponding to the face button on the Xbox controller flash on screen indicating what to press before they disappear. Wack-a-Pole games are what masturbation would look like on an 8-Bit game system complete with beeppity-beep ‘PC speaker' music.

Essentially it's a variation of the classic Pong game with two pixilated hands (paddles) that move up and down the left and right sides of the screen with a square pixel bouncing between them. But what sets it apart from the modest original, is the growing phallus in between the two hands! The aim of the game being to score enough hits on the paddles to grow the phallus until it hits a bell at its end...I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!

Avoidance games require Larry to run around his environment either collecting or distributing items within a set time limit or just running around naked and disgusting a set number of innocent bystanders. Water Sport games are wet t-shirt contests where Larry controls a super soaker from a first-person perspective and Photos are exactly that. During wander mode you can take photos of whatever takes your fancy and sell them to different dodgy characters from place to place.

Pose games can only be initiated when Larrys' confidence or drunkenness is at an appropriate level and requires you to rapidly repeat a simple button sequence. Larrys' confidence and intoxication levels are significant gameplay devices in MCL as the lower your confidence the slower you move and the harder it is to impress anyone, yet at the same time certain levels of each may be required to perform different tasks.

I can't finish this review without mentioning the games fantastic soundtrack. Incredibly suitable songs such as Right Said Fred's "I'm too sexy” and The 2 Live Crew's "Pop that Coochie” spurt out of your speakers at just the right moments, giving the on-screen action an extra pearly lustre. The crowning glory of the musical score in MCL has to be the unforgettable scene that takes place in a Gay Bar between Larry with Helmut the male stripper and his sugar daddy in tow and Larry's newly lesbian ex-girlfriend with new butch overall wearing marital aid model girlfriend. This chat mini-game takes the form of a hilarious piss take of a well-known song from the musical Grease and will have you rolling around on the ground in laughter.

The game's only real downfall is the same flaw that bestows every adventure game...Replay value. Although MCL is quite a large game, you will still reach a point where you have seen or down everything that you are ever going to. This point should come at around the 10 -12 hour mark for most gamers and unfortunately once you reach it, MCL has little more to offer you. You could always try and unlock the ‘Nude' mode but the time expenditure required may cause others to question your motivations.

All this fun and frivolity is well and good but is it really worth being banned? Without a R18+ classification for video games, the OFLC has no choice other than to refuse classification to a game that is deemed unsuitable for a MA15+ classification. This game does have simulated sex scenes, drug references, adult themes, nudity and I have to admit that the content and context of the spoken dialogue is very explicit and full of colourful language.

Given the cartoonish nature of the graphics, I would be very surprised is anyone but the worlds' biggest prude found any of the images offensive. Even though the OFLC make the final decisions for game classifications, they are only implementing current government policy and are constrained to work within the framework of the law. This is a perfect example why a standard classification system between all media needs to be implemented ASAP, as I'm sure MCL would have received a similar rating to the United Kingdom and mature gamers should have the right to purchase games such as this adequately classified.