Leisure Suit Larry HD remakes announced

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 October, 2011

Really.

Leisure Suit Larry, the video game franchise that made its name off the back of virtual sexual innuendo, is being remade for the modern era in high definition.

Replay Games and series creator Al Lowe plan to revive the 10 million-selling franchise for all game platforms.

All of the Leisure Suit Larry games will be "re-imagined and redesigned". A new set of games will be made if these games are successful.

The first set for the HD remake treatment is the first Larry game, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. It's due out in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"We originally hooked players with the concept of a naughty game that was unusual and not found anywhere else," Lowe told VentureBeat.

"They stayed and liked the games because they were funny. My goal is to make it funny, and there is a sore lack of humour today in video games."

Replay aims to target all of the "aging" male gamers who grew up with Larry, and tap into nostalgia for eighties and nineties games such as The Secret of Monkey Island.

Ellie reviewed the last game in the series, 2009's Team17-developed Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, awarding it 2/10.

"It's not funny, it's not fun to play and it's less erotic than psoriasis," she wrote. "As the Smurfs would say: **** off, Larry."

"I watched the franchise dissipate and get watered down," Lowe continued. "It was not fun to watch. One of them thought it was all about creating basketball breasts. That wasn't it at all. Paul said he would get the rights and I wanted to redeem my creation."

Replay has rights to publish on Android, Gaikai, iOS, OnLive, PC, PlayStation Network, Mac, Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and all major affiliate portals. In other words, there is no escape.

While Lowe is consulting on the project, the actual developer is Adventure Mob, which is using the Unity Technologies game engine for cross-platform game creation.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • LazyNinjaUk #1 8 months ago

    Who asked for this?

  • Trillion #2 8 months ago

    "HD remake treatment" made me think of the smartened up Monkey Island.

    This is just a cynical 3d "remake", with none of the charm of the original, and looks very shit indeed.

  • bobfish09 #3 8 months ago

    WTF?

    Of all the amazing classic franchises that deserve an HD remake and comeback... they are doing this.. which should remain buried and forgotten forever!

  • Ultrasoundwave #4 8 months ago

    Really?

  • Subquest #5 8 months ago

    When internet pron is as plentiful as sand in the desert, the age of mild tittilation is well and truly over.

    EDIT: Although that's not strictly true, it's just found in less obvious places... BBC Breakfast & Strictly Come Dancing spring to mind
    Edited by Subquest at 11/10/11 @ 09:48

  • Fozzie_bear #6 8 months ago

    "there is a sore lack of humour today in video games"

    and this is unlikely to do anything to alter the situation.

  • thewool #7 8 months ago

    Trailer didn't do much for me I'm afraid. I'll stick with the pixelated originals thanks.

    Playing through LSL3 on iDOS at the moment, pure nostalgia...

    edit: thanks for pointing out that this is an old trailer, I'm more optimistic now looking at the new screenies :0)
    Edited by thewool at 11/10/11 @ 11:34

  • henro_ben #8 8 months ago

    Ugh. Was Leisure Suit Larry ever well thought of?

    I remember playing it when 14 and thinking it was, well, embarrassing rubbish.

    But perhaps I was too young for its subtle charms...

  • Astley #9 8 months ago

    The trailer above has nothing to do with the remake. It's from the failed 3D games that Al Lowe is criticising in the article. The HD remake is more like what they did with the Monkey Island HD versions. How can anyone object to this? The first LSL games were great!
    Edited by Astley at 11/10/11 @ 10:06

  • grussbarbar #10 8 months ago

    I'm looking forward to this. I loved the first 3 adventures, which indeed had a lot of humor in them. (Can't remember much of parts 5-7 though.)

    I've never played the recent spin-offs since they seemed to be completely different, extremely superficial minigame-fests, made without input from the original creator. It would have been good to mention the difference in the article, Eurogamer. (It's a bit unfair to only mention the score/quality of the newer completely differnet spinoffs, just like it would be unfair to, say, judge the main Dead or Alive games by only pointing at the quality and depth of the DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball spinoffs...)

    Edit: I should probably rephrase that. After rereading the article, I'm now guessing you mentioned that score of 2/10 to illustrate the criticism Al Lowe himself has, Wesley? It would probably still be best to mention they're spinoffs though, completely different from the original games and made without Al Lowe's input, just to avoid any possible confusion. =)
    Edited by grussbarbar at 11/10/11 @ 11:26

  • GAmbrose #11 8 months ago

    Walk over road
    "A car runs you over, you are dead"

    Look both ways and walk over road
    Walk left
    "You have been mugged and left for dead"

    Ah Sierra...you MASSIVE MASSIVE BASTARDS.

  • tjort #12 8 months ago

    Wow, what's up with all the Larry hatin'? Excluding the last two non-Lowe - and horrendous - outings I quite enjoyed Larry's original run of adventures. And not because of the naughty bits, which were never really the point anyway. That said, I'm hoping these remakes won't mess too much with the original's pixelated charm. Also nice to see Lowe returning to a more active role in game development.

  • InvisibleCrane #13 8 months ago

    Am I the only one here who liked Magna Cum Laude?, I will agree that Box Office Bust was horrible but I actually liked Magna Cum Laude

  • Rosswell #14 8 months ago

    The trailer above is for Box Office Bust not the remake. Here is a link to some screenshots of the remake which EG should put on this article

    http://www.egmnow.com/articles/exclusive...

  • Daikon #15 8 months ago

    I guess hell does freeze over sometimes. Even Al Lowe is on board for the remakes apparently.

    Oh and the recent Larry games do not count as "real" Larry games.

  • OnlyMe #16 8 months ago

    The new HD remakes actually has Al Lowe on board, and the graphics style is very much like Leisure Suit Larry (7): Love For Sail. I for one welcome this insanely good classic adventure games, although I think there's a lot of work to be done for Leisure Suit Larry 2 - the perfect example of how not to design adventure game puzzles. Forgot the sunscreen? Sorry, you won't be reminded until a couple of hours later in the game (around four days back then probably, due to disk swapping and loading times on the Amiga), where you will be stuck and have to reload an earlier save. Forgot to keep several saves? Oops, you're screwed.

    I don't think there are too many dead-ends in the later other games, a couple, but the whole thing could easily be fixed by just not letting you progress beyond a point of no return until youi've brought everything you need along with you. Like the sunscreen.

    I'm really hoping they make it up to LSL3, because that's probably one of my favourite adventure games of all time, thanks to the incredible jazz and lounge music. Stands shoulder to shoulder with Monkey Island 2 as the game with the best soundtracks ever.

  • Seoh #17 8 months ago

    Actually i think th trailer is for the terrible one released recently. I remember the originals as being quite funny in a "carry on" style manor.

  • Eraserhead #18 8 months ago

    Leisure Suit Larry was to Monkey Island as Two Pints of Lager is to Fawlty Towers.

  • Sicho #19 8 months ago

    best news in a long, long time!

  • grussbarbar #20 8 months ago

    @Roswell
    Thank you for posting that link! That was an extremely good read with some great and very recognizable examples of Al Lowe's style and humor in it. =)

  • marblepuke #21 8 months ago

    Weren't the rights to the series acquired by Codemasters? Something happened along the way? Anyway at least I'm interested how the first remake will pan out, especially with Lowe onboard.

  • Daikon #22 8 months ago

    @Rosswell

    Great article. Indeed, the original Larry games always had this indie feel about them, I hope Lowe and Trowe can recapture that.

    @OnlyMe

    Indeed, the dead-ends from the original have to be fixed. They have no place in this day and age. Even the original Monkey Island made fun of them.

  • Mr.Gordons #23 8 months ago

    1,2 and 3 were a bit meh, 4 was the best in series by far. and 5 was a bit complicated (broke new ground) 6 was fantastic and 7 was great too. 8 and 9 were complete shit (didnt play 9) because Lowe had nothing to do with them, didnt even know they were making it. I am looking forward to this, hope it lives up to the originals. I want space quest HD.

  • grussbarbar #24 8 months ago

    @Mr. Gordons
    Are you sure you're not mistaken? At least as far as I know there was never a Leisure Suit Larry 4? (That's why they're referring to it as "Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies", to be remastered to "Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Digital Download HD". XD)
    If I'm mistaken though, please point me towards number 4. I'd definitely want to have a go at that one then. =)

    Personally, I loved 2 the most, with 3 taking second place. I loved the sillyness of the situations you got yourself in. XP

  • jamieleng #25 8 months ago

    LS1 on Amiga 500 was my sex education. I loved thinking up things to type into the text parser & it helped me hone my chatting up skills. Needless to say, I'm very lonely.

  • DrStrangelove #26 8 months ago

    Oh for the love of...

    As an 11-year-old I was mildly turned on by those games. But back then I was also turned on by lady underwear catalogues, and if I'd have had Custer's Revenge, I'd have exploded by sheer arousal. Today every boy that age knows where on the web to find close-up imagery of girls putting all sorts of edibles in inappropriate orifices.

    I also don't remember Larry being particularly funny. Monkey Island was funny, and Indy. But Larry? I really wonder who needs this today.

  • bigtechno #27 8 months ago

    I think this would be a bit crap now, yeah it was fun when I was 13
    They would be better remaking Police Quest series

  • TonyCB #28 8 months ago

    eraserhead - brilliant +1 sir

    Speaking as someone who was playing games when the first lot of these came out.....they could've been funny if the character had been ironic but no, it was misogyny and poor humour all the way

  • grussbarbar #29 8 months ago

    But titillation was never the point of the games. You were invited to laugh with and laugh at the clumsy attempts of the lead character at finding sex, and indeed love, never really reaching your goal because you managed to get yourself in ridiculous situations all the time. =P

    As for whether they were funny or not, I guess that's just personal taste. I found them funny. =)

    ***SPOILER ALERT***

    For example, when you spout the most ridiculous pick-up lines ever and then get mistaken for a secret agent because those lines, that nobody in their right mind would ever utter, happened to be the exact same as the secret password the real secret agent had.
    Or when you're at the airport and get in line for a ticket, but you can't get further because no matter what queue you're in, it of course is the one that never moves. XD

    The first few games continually made fun of you for being the most loserish guy ever, while you yourself think you're the best ever. =P

  • Mr.Gordons #30 8 months ago

    @grussbarbar

    that was the joke :) 4 was never made at all. just jumped to 5. which I think is pretty cool for a game

  • Dynamize #31 8 months ago

    Yay, Al Lowe!
    Do an HD Freddy Pharkas after these, ta.

  • dingo75 #32 8 months ago

    Am I the only one here who liked Magna Cum Laude?, I will agree that Box Office Bust was horrible but I actually liked Magna Cum Laude

    You and me.
    Magna Cum Laude was a bit entertaining at least now Box Office Bust was pure crap.

    Oh and LSL 4 doesn't exist because Al said he would never do a Part 4 after having finished LSL 3.
    So when he was finally ready for a new part they skipped 4 to keep his promise.

  • siro #33 8 months ago

    Q4 2012? A full year, really?

  • grussbarbar #34 8 months ago

    @Mr. Gordons.

    Ah, I see. Sorry for missing that one. XD Oh man, I'm so bad at spotting jokes on the internet... I take everything too seriously. =P

    Anyway, I agree; how they handled number 4 was pretty cool. ;-)

  • RawNinjaKid #35 8 months ago

    grown up, sorry.

  • albo #36 8 months ago

    they're doing the smart thing really since you'd be surprised at what people buy with some good marketing behind the product. this can use sex to sell so it's bound to sell more than those generic army simulators and football sims that are so popular with people today. *sigh*

  • Kaminari #37 8 months ago

    Larry 3 was ace (still is), especially with a Roland MT-32.

  • oupe #38 8 months ago

    Tie rope around waist
    Tie rope around balcony
    Climb over balcony
    Use hammer
    Get pills

    I remember it was quite good back in the day. A decent distraction from Test Drive 1, Operation Wolf, etc (the competition sucked as hard as Sierra)

  • grussbarbar #39 8 months ago

    @oupe
    Oh man, I remember that. English isn't my native language, so I learned English by playing adventure games. It took me a few tries to realize I shouldn't type "tie Larry to rope" but "tie rope to Larry". XD