Game Review #428: Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry (Nintendo Switch)
Reviewer: Steven Green
Developer: CrazyBunch
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment
Category: Point-and-Click Adventure
Release Date: 6.13.2019
Price: $39.99
Buy Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
Here We Go Again
Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is a classic point-and-click adventure that brings a long-dormant series back from the alien capture device to let the late, great Larry Laffer back into the 21st century. He has been hidden away for decades, and the changes to our world since he last saw it are vast, so journey with Larry as he discovers Timber (the dating app), smart phones, and the way people act today versus how they did back in the 80’s. Time to go dating yet again!
Revival
The gameplay is exactly what you would picture for a point-and-click adventure. You will move around examining objects, picking up random junk, and combining it to make other random junk with which you will solve puzzles. Traversal in this title isn’t great, which is a translation issue from PC to console. You can move Larry around just fine but clicking on objects requires you to move a pointer across the screen as well rather than just making it proximity-based to Larry. This makes things a pretty big hassle, and general UI issues added onto it make for a game best played on PC versus the Switch.
Puzzles are fairly simple, with a lack of the crazy absurd combos that grace many titles in this genre, which is a plus and a minus. The puzzles in games like this usually aren’t hard, unless they are absurd. So, you have a bit more realism in this title allowing for easier puzzles. If you want a more difficult experience this won’t be the one for you. The writing is pretty good, but you have to be aware of what you are getting into with a Leisure Suit Larry game. The comedy is juvenile throughout, and sex jokes are the only ones you will find, and in abundance. The characters have very trope-filled personalities, and the callbacks to the real world get a bit played out, as literally every little thing has an alternate name to riff on the real-world alternative. The art is top notch for a point-and-click adventure title, and you can tell they really put in the work in the hand drawn characters and world.
Alien Return
Leisure Suit Larry was a product of the era when it originally was made. Point-and-click adventures were all the rage, and something more R-rated was bound to happen at the time. This translates to today where sex and violence is commonplace in our games. This doesn’t hurt the validity of this title but pegs it down a spot or two. You have some good writing if the comedy is what you are into, and decent puzzles and gameplay, but a lack of a good console port in the controls and UI department make the experience chug along, and the lack of a serious story outside of “let’s get Larry laid” makes for something that is filled with fanservice, but isn’t going to impress the general gaming community. A fun title, just one that hasn’t adjusted well to the 21st century.
Score: 7/10
Buy Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
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*Review code was provided for review purposes.