As you may have seen in a previous post, I’m playing through Codemasters/Team17’s take on Leisure Suit Larry, Box Office Bust.  I’m about 5 hours in and encountered more irritatingly executed mechanics than what I’d seen when I first wrote my impressions.  However, much like Magna Cum Laude, though the “gameplay” itself is kinda lame, the overall experience, writing, and humor pretty much make up for those shortcomings to where I’m totally willing to turn a blind eye to them.  I still prefer MCL’s art style and innovative dialogue system, but in BOB (if you know the right response), you can listen to all the wrong answers before moving to the next level of the dialogue tree.  Unfortunately, if you do get the right answer earlier than you’d hope, loading an earlier save will almost certainly set you back quite a long ways from your current point, both in playtime and in distance.  I hope that whoever writes the (hopefully) inevitable FAQ with all spoken dialogue writes in the ad-libbed VO versions rather than just transcribe the subtitles.

Anyway…

I thought I’d kick off the first in this “good parts of bad games” series with one of my favorite examples, the aforementioned dialogue system from Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. (more…)