Reception
"My initial reaction was that I had wasted six months of my life."
Al Lowe, for 1UP.com in 2007| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Adventure Gamers | (1987 version) |
| Adventure Classic Gaming | |
| Amiga Action | 90% |
| The Games Machine | 83% |
Unsure of how the game would be received, Sierra's management chose to release it with no publicity or advertising budget. Unsurprisingly, its first-month sales were lower than any new Sierra product launch in years, initially selling only 4,000 copies, and many stores refused to stock the game because of its adult content. However, word-of-mouth spread quickly; by year’s end, the game became a critical and commercial success, and selling over 250,000 copies. According to Sierra's marketing director John Williams, "Obviously lots of retailers were selling lots of Leisure Suit Larry, but no one wanted to admit it." It also became widely pirated, including in the Soviet Union. According to Lowe, a film adaptation was considered and he was flown to Hollywood to demonstrate the game in person.
According to the review by The Games Machine, Leisure Suit Larry for the Atari ST was entertaining and very enjoyable, even if "wholeheartedly sexist". The review of the first remake by Amiga Action said "advanced graphics and new control system have improved the game by a huge degree", but "without a hard drive it is slow and almost a chore to play" and those who played the original "will probably find the new edition a waste of time and little more than an exercise in pretty pictures." In 2004, Adventure Gamers wrote: "Despite its weaknesses, it's a bonafide gaming classic, a must-play for adventure history buffs as well as those who just like risqué humor."
In 1988, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards was given an award for the Best Fantasy, Role Playing or Adventure Game of 1987 by the Software Publishers Association. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 69th best game of all time, also ranking it as the fifth most funny computer game ("Base, sexist, sometimes scatological humor, with no concessions made to taste or sensibilities, this was the best of a funny series"). In 2012, Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time ("A humor-filled adventure game that wasn’t bashful about showing some skin? The world hadn’t seen anything like it").
Read more about this topic: Leisure Suit Larry In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards
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