​Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry Review

By Kevin Mitchell Posted on January 28, 2020

Every kid that grew up in the '90s knew of a friend (or themselves) that had access to the classic Leisure Suit Larry games. These "fabled" games were kids' easy access to pornographic materials in video game form that made every ten-year-old giggle. However, the games disappointed in that aspect but were full of sexual innuendo and crass humor more than showcasing pixel-based jiggling imagery. There was an attempt to resurrect the series in 3D that failed horribly after two spin-off entries (on PlayStation 2 & 3 respectfully). Seven years ago, in 2013, there was a Kickstarter backed project serving as a remake of the original title on PC.

Waking up in a dark room underground, everyone's favorite sleazeball Larry Laffer, the series protagonist, miraculously arrives in the 21st century. Yes, he is still wearing his trademark white suit and partially unbuttoned blue collared shirt. Luckily while fumbling in the dark, he manages to activate an elevator that leaves him standing directly in front of Lefty's, or what is left of the rundown, decrepit, disgusting bar. One nice touch, the same pixelated nude poster of a woman, hangs above the wall behind the bar. While things look much different, this is the same point-and-click gameplay from the originals, complete with vulgar toilet humor, packed with male and female genitalia being integral to almost every conversation and background environment. For better or worse, Larry is still the same individual, a character frozen in time, and again motivated by the same thing he was over thirty years ago. He is looking to score.

It's not long before Larry, and stop me if you heard of this happening before, finds a missing prototype mobile device at Lefty's. After being instructed by the AI, he takes it to the nefarious Prune headquarters (a satirical take on Apple) to return it to CEO, Bill "BJ" Jobs. Of course, Larry is more concerned about hooking up with his attractive assistant Faith. With her busy schedule, however, she only has time to date men through the Timber app with a score of 90. After being rewarded with his own phone, he gets instructed on how to use it by two stereotypical tech support individuals. Larry sets out to complete tasks set forth by anyone he matches with on Timber to earn points to perform the horizontal-mambo with Faith, I mean, go on a "date" with her.

Wet Dreams Don't Dry still plays like a classic point-and-click adventure, compelling players to scour every inch of the screen. The experience is a bit more problematic when using the DualShock 4 on PlayStation 4, with the right stick emulating a mouse cursor. The touchpad which can smoothly simulate a mouse for other games, can not be used here. Lack of sensitivity options make things mildly frustrating, especially when objects you need to click on are tiny. Although the womanizer himself awakens in modern times, the game mechanics haven't evolved, with no hint system, or item highlighting to make the experience more accessible. This also means the game lacks an autosave, and on multiple occasions the game has frozen mid conversations forcing a complete reset of the game. Losing an hour or two of progression is never fun. Beware skipping your way through dialogue that you've already heard/read, as that can lead to the game freezing once again.

Much like the original, you'll either chuckle at the harsh and crude nature of the humor or be completely put off by it. Developer CrazyBunch has stuck to a formula that you'd expect from the series. It is a self-aware project, poking fun at current trends set in the digital age, social media apps, modern stereotypes (vegan hipsters), mixed with classic old-school point-and-click adventure gameplay. It's just a shame that everything around the experience wasn't performing better, especially the confusing menu system. The hand-drawn character art and backdrops look great, although you'll find genitalia plastered throughout. Heck, the Prune headquarters is a massive squirting phallus. Some of the interactable objects can be downright deployable, such as a cheese encrusted dildo, a rat trapped in an extra-large condom, and a butt plug shaped chess piece.

The narrative is quite linear; however, the order in which you tackle the tasks is up to you. You won't have a list of objectives to follow, so your order depends on what items you find first, or more so, figure out how to use those items and in what proper order. Larry can move around the environment manually through the use of the left stick; however, it's pointless. You'll still need to use the right stick to move the cursor to point at people/things to look at, interact with, or combine items.

Simply put

Without a doubt, Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry aims at those that played the originals. The narrative is actually quite enjoyable, if you can look past the toilet humor. It's a very formulaic, paint-by-numbers, old-school adventure game with the same repugnant Larry Laffer, lacking many modern amenities. The throwback gameplay certainly has its appeal, but optional support could have led to the game being more widely accessible. No auto-save? Come on (pun intended).