Metacritic Games

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (Xbox)

Larry Cum Laude! College is tough for Larry - between classes, fraternities, and odd jobs there's hardly time for parties and chasing girls. So when a dating show comes to campus, Larry knows that getting on TV is his best chance ever to lay more than groundwork. Can Larry get on TV, get the girl, and not flunk out of college? It's all up to you in Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude! Magna Cum Laude brings back humor from the most respected funny brand on PC - Leisure Suit Larry. Updated for the 21st century with 3D graphics, engaging conversations, and a fully realized college campus, Larry is back to give gamers some loving. Coming to PC and consoles. [Vivendi Universal]

Vivendi Universal / Sierra
Third-Person Adventure, Action
Players: 1
M (Mature)
Developer: High Voltage Software
Released October 5, 2004

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

62 / 100

Critic Reviews

92 Game Chronicles
Larry makes the transition to next-gen console perfectly and creates his own little naughty slice of niche-genre pie. If you love to laugh you’ll love this game.
83 Next Level Gaming
Just one of the most hilarious games I have played in a long time.
80 RewiredMind
Prudish I am not, but some of the in-game “action” can be fairly shocking simply because you don't expect it of a videogame.
80 Stuff
Worth buying, especially for the cartoon raunchiness. But don't let on that this is the only way you meet women.
79 Xbox World Australia
The funniest game I have played since "Monkey Island." It was disturbingly addictive and because of this was all over far too soon.
77 Gaming Target
Leisure Suit Larry takes off its clothes and shows us an imaginative world full of sexually starved monkeys that can talk, chicks with dicks, and several other zany enticements that will have you so horny, you'll be licking the dust off your television screen.
75 Game Informer
The core of what makes these games so memorable is still there in full force - pretty girls, unspeakably embarrassing sexual acts, and an endearing dorkiness that makes the entire experience feel mroe charming and humorous than exploitive. [Nov 2004, p.148]
74 Gamers' Temple
A skewed, funny, and at times hilarious look at the campus mating game. Unfortunately, just like the mating game it’s not without its frustrating moments.
74 TotalGames.net
While it won't be to everyone's tastes, it's hard not to get hooked into Larry's world, there's a lot to explore and experiment with - including honing your photography skills, unlocking some uniquely sleazy mini-games and simply enjoying one of the funniest scripts in a game since, well, the classic adventures of the Eighties and early Nineties.
73 TeamXbox
While the game does contain some exploration and adventure aspects, the core gameplay boils down to a never-ending series of mini games that become repetitive fairly quickly.
72 Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)
Wear your morals round your ankles and keep your mind in the gutter, otherwise this crude comedy is shooting blank. [GamesMaster]
72 GameZone
An outrageously funny and extremely naughty game that bends the rules but still falls a bit flat due to its repetitive nature.
72 IGN
As an adventure or puzzle game, Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude falls short...The titillating moments certainly deserve some credit for helping maintain your interest here, but it's the game's humor that's the real star and, ultimately, the only reason to keep playing once the allure of polygonal boobies has worn thin.
72 WHAM! Gaming
Is Leisure Suit Larry crass? Yes. Vulgar? You bet. Immature? Of course. Funny? Downright hilarious.
71 GameSpot
If you're willing to forgive its brain-dead gameplay and occasionally frustrating design, Magna Cum Laude is a hysterically entertaining romp through the world of wacky sexual hijinks.
71 GamingTrend
For an attempt at creating a worthwhile recreational experience, it’s an otherwise fun game rendered boring by constant loading screens.
70 Xbox Nation Magazine
It's all so well written, acted, and directed that such seemingly unfunny lines as "Are those my Funyuns?" will make you laugh as hard as any comedy you've seen this year could. [Dec 2004, p.96]
70 GamerFeed
The presentation hits the mark in terms of humor, and there are quite a few things to try in the game. However, it lacks in long-term enjoyment, and repetition sets in quickly. In the end, Leisure Suit Larry is like a one-night stand. You'll enjoy it, but the party ends a bit too soon.
70 Yahoo! Games
If you're a Larry fan from way back, Magna Cum Laude takes the series into a pleasing new direction. But it needs a greater variety of challenges to be more appealing.
70 GameBiz
Although it’s not a hard game, it can get quite tedious going back and forth around the world to please a girl, trying to get that perfect trampoline combination, and win at Quarters whilst still managing to get enough money to buy those cool clothes to impress that special girl.
70 Cheat Code Central
You won't get the Full Monty here but you'll see a lot of T &A. The language itself is very explicit and you'll find yourself shocked into bouts of laughter at some of the things that come out these characters' mouths. The voiceacting is darn good and interestingly enough the characters, especially the girls, have more depth to them than you would expect.
70 Computer and Video Games
There's just something missing from the end result, and though the pleasingly simple gameplay is great fun in short spurts, LSL hasn't quite got the stamina for any schlong-lasting appeal.
70 GamePro
It's almost like they came up with the jokes first, then hastily built a game framework around it. [Dec 2004, p.118]
69 Game Over Online
Simplistic gameplay aside, the game is honestly funny when it’s not being too lowbrow. Well, even when it’s lowbrow there are still quite a few amusing moments.
69 XGP Gaming
Have fun with the loading screens. It might be a good time to replenish your liquids and reach for a tissue, because you were crying from laughing so hard.
68 Worth Playing
While I feel the developers missed their mark with some aspects of the humor (fart jokes are from junior high), other pieces of humor were dead-on and had me cracking up. I just wish the game could have lived up to the adventure games of yore.
67 Computer Games Magazine
While the mini-games are shallow and sometimes boring, Magna Cum Laude has an interseting adult humor element that is sure to keep one amused while playing. [Feb 2005, p.9]
65 MS Xbox World
If I were to make any major complaints then it would have to be the overall simplicity level of the game and the horrendous loading that occurs after every activity.
65 1UP
The humor involved here is remarkably fresh in its non-edgy, non-focus-tested crassness.
64 Inside Gamer Online
As a showcase for adolescent high-jinks and a censor-pushing barrage of four-letter words, Larry succeeds as well as the average episode of "Jackass;" as a video game, it's a lackluster sequel in a series that once relied more on innuendo than on crude references and penis jokes.
62 Jolt Online Gaming UK
It has to be said though – as a game, LSL is pretty thin. The mini-games are weak and become pretty repetitive. Happily though, the bawdy comedy that plays out while you’re going through the motions, especially during the conversations, do make it all worthwhile.
60 GameShark
If you are a fan of the original Larry installments, don’t expect the same charisma or flair that they had with this….it’s a new chef trying to add some added spice in the same kitchen, only they used too much of the wrong spice.
60 Total Video Games
Being a fan of the series it hurts to see the Leisure Suit Larry franchise brought up to date like this, a lot more thought and effort was needed instead of just relying on the boobs.
60 Gamer.tv
A bit like a cross of "Parappa the Rapper" and the film "Animal House." The sleazy humor is fun for a while but gameplay can get repetitive.
58 Cinescape
The one point of Magna Cum Laude that stands out is the fairly hysterical humor of the game. Borrowing pages from movies such as "Animal House," Magna Cum Laude has some of the funniest lines ever uttered in a video game. The characters and the dialog bring unprecedented humor to the consoles.
58 Just Adventure
It’s just seems to be a misguided attempt, punctuated by moments of hilarity. Cut the arcade games in half, add a few more musical numbers and a few real puzzles and LCL:MCL would shine.
56 BonusStage
The only reason to play Larry is because of the Quarters minigame and the humor. The comedy is absolutely side-splitting in most of the game, bringing back memories of "Road Trip" or "Old School."
55 DailyGame
Because of the shallow gameplay, I can't imagine anyone playing through this game once, much less multiple times. It's a simplistic romp into gaming nostalgia that won't appeal to anyone but the most retro of the retro-gamers out there.
55 Xbox Evolved
An extremely humorous title with some nice little novelties. The problem is the entire game is nothing but a novelty, even more so than it’s counterparts.
50 Gaming Age
Even though the mini-games are too common and unnecessarily repetitive, and the random cartoon nudity isn't worth the effort, the wonderfully insane dialogue and characters are worth taking a trip to Larry's collegiate adventure.
50 Detroit Free Press
But the difficulty of the mini-games makes your lines repetitive, and your humor wears thin.
50 GameSpy
While it has the series' trademark snappy dialogue, sultry vixens, and more double entendres than a classic Rodney Dangerfield routine, it's missing one thing: the fun. The mini-games dragged after only a few hours, and getting through the game felt like a chore.
40 G4 TV
Larry's longevity will be directly proportionate to the amount of laughs you derive from bodily functions great and small.
35 netjak
The game bases itself on immense amounts of repetition, which is an absolute dealbreaker. There is absolutely no reason to even rent this game; it’s just not worth it.
35 GameCritics
I do admit that I gleaned more than a few moments of guilty enjoyment from the experience, it's really just a terrible, terrible game that wouldn't be able to justify its own existence without the gleefully gratuitous content.
25 Electronic Gaming Monthly
Larry's surreal brand of dong-and-fart humor lost me somewhere between the fifth date-rape joke and the gay-bar sing-along...The meat of the game - the cheesy, lowbrow funny business - goes limp in mere minutes. [Dec 2004, p.148]
23 Official Xbox Magazine
I'm sure the folks behind this game would've been both pleased and amused to get a "6.9" score in this review. Sadly, this flaccid lump of code is barely worth a third of that. [Dec 2004, p.78]
20 Armchair Empire
Nothing ruins a fond memory like a crap game.
16 Game Revolution
One of the worst games we’ve ever seen. As much as we’d like to see more sexual content in games, we’re afraid Magna Cum Laude will do for Mature games what "Showgirls" did for NC-17 rated movies.

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