And then there’s the conversation game. This one involves steering a smiling
sperm (you read that right) through a set of oncoming obstacles in a mini game
that resembles the seriously old school racing games in which you had to move a
car back and forth to miss oncoming cars. Hit the green icons and the
conversation goes, um, swimmingly. Hit a red one and things go south. Your
success is monitored by a large heart container that fills a little with each
green icon and is depleted with each red. The goal is to reach the end of the
conversation with a full, or very nearly full, heart container, and this allows
you to progress to the next stage with the girl. It can be funny to hit the
occasional red icon as this also causes the conversation to branch and make
Larry say something inappropriate, funny, or downright stupid. The downside is
that you’ll have to play this game a lot, and I mean a lot, during the course of
the game. Later in the game the bad icons become more plentiful and it can be
frustrating to listen to the same conversation several times while replaying the
mini game. What’s worse is that you’ll also need to play the game when Larry is
drunk, which causes the controls to be slow and unresponsive. Great, play a game
that can get old on its own just fine with sloppy controls. What fun! The
developers must have seen the obstacle to fun that the conversation mini game
can be because the game will ask you if you’d like the game to be a bit easier
after failing at it for five or so times. Keep failing and it will give you a
“wimp out” option, letting you move beyond the conversation at the cost of some
of the tokens you find in the game that are used to unlock extra content. At
this point you’ve probably failed to successfully negotiate your sperm through
the same conversation eight or so times, so how enthusiastic will you be to keep
playing with a much needed “time out”?
 |
| The infamous swimming sperm game. |
The women who are the objects of Larry’s pursuits are all good looking, if
not in a slightly cartoon-like way. The artists deserve credit for a including a
diverse variety of women. Although they represent a lot of different
stereotypes, at least they don’t all look like over-enhanced porno actresses.
Overall the graphics do a good job of capturing a colorful and whimsical picture
of the college campus that is home to Larry’s adventures. There is one thing
that really detracts from exploring – well, in addition to the fact that the
game’s areas are not that large – amazingly frequent load screens. Every time
you transition to a new room, start a new conversation, or do just about
anything else you’re faced with a load screen. Let’s say you want to take Larry
from his dorm room to speak with a cutie at the sorority house. There’s a load
screen between the dorm room and dorm hall, between the dorm and the outside,
between the main section of campus and the Greek row, between Greek row and the
sorority house, and finally one before you can talk to the woman. That’s five
load screens before you can do the next step in the game. Let’s hope that you
Sure there are some nice pictures of women on the loading screens, but you see
them so often you begin to dread them.
How much you enjoy Magna Cum Laude is going to depend largely on your sense
of humor. If movies like Van Wilder, Porn & Chicken, and American Pie don’t
appeal to you, then the odds are that this game won’t either. The over reliance
on repetitive mini-games will sap at your patience unless you’re laughing the
whole time along the way.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
68%. If you’ve ever wanted to be a part of a collegiate sex comedy, now’s
your chance. Just bring along your patience for the repetitive mini games and
numerous load screens.
System Requirements: Pentium II 800; 128 MB RAM;
32 MB
Video RAM; 24x CD-ROM; 3.5 GB Hard Drive
Space; Mouse.
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