Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail!
Encyclopedia
Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! is a video game, part of the Leisure Suit Larry
series. It was the last LSL game written by series creator Al Lowe
, and the last (to date) to feature original protagonist Larry Laffer
as the main character.
Despite being known as Leisure Suit Larry 7 during its development, Love for Sail! was actually the sixth installment in the LSL series due to the (apparently intentional) nonexistence of a fourth game
. Although the number is not part of the game's official title, the cover does feature a subtle numeral "7" in the artwork (notice where the shark's fin appears to meet the black area of the ship).
After many of the LSL games had gained a reputation for not actually featuring all that much raunchy content when analysed, Love for Sail! included some much more risqué elements compared to previous installments. It also featured more fleshed-out, cartoon style graphics than its predecessors, as well as full voice acting.
This was the first LSL game to receive an ESRB
rating (Mature) upon its original release.
The formula was much the same as the previous games: the "twist" was that Larry was a passenger on a cruise ship
populated by parodies of famous people. Among the other cruise guests were "Drew Baringmore" (Drew Barrymore
), "Dewmi Moore" (Demi Moore
), "Victorian Principles" (Victoria Principal
), "Jamie Lee Coitus" (Jamie Lee Curtis
), "Nailmi" and "Wydoncha Jugg" (Naomi
and Wynonna Judd
) and "Annette Boning" (Annette Bening
). Various other pop icons were parodied in the background, such as the Archie Comics
gang playing nude volleyball
, various incarnations of James Bond
in the ship's casino (itself an homage to Peter Sellers's famous Casino Royale parody), a Sierra staffer dressed as Sailor Moon
, and porn icon Ron Jeremy
walking around naked. Most of the male supporting cast (Peter the Purser, Johnson the bartender, Dick the guardrobe attendant, Wang the galley server, Bob Bitt the artist) are named after popular euphemisms for the male reproductive organ
or are in some way related to it (Bob Bitt, for instance, is named after John Wayne Bobbitt; the character also shares the same first name and bears a passing resemblance to fellow artist Bob Ross
).
The plot revolves around Larry's attempt at winning a weekly contest held on the ship by Captain Thygh, a gorgeous blonde. The contest involves a series of other games varying from legitimate sports competitions like bowling
to naughtier things like a machine created to test one's sexual prowess. Each passenger is given a score card with a selection of the various competitions to compete in, and the passenger with the highest cumulative score at the end of the week wins. The prize is an additional free week on the cruise spent sharing the Captain's cabin (and, presumably, her bed.)
The player must come up with a variety of ways to cheat in each of Larry's assigned competitions so that he can get the highest score and win the contest. Among Larry's chosen competitions are a cooking contest, a "best dressed" contest, a game of horseshoes, bowling, the sexual prowess contest and others. At times Larry wins these contests not by cheating but only by an unexpected twist of fate triggered by his (often unintentional) actions. For instance, Larry's encounter with fashion designer Jamie Lee Coitus causes his Leisure Suit to become the height of fashion; as such he wins the best dressed competition. Similar to Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
, it is impossible for Larry to be killed, or for the game to be placed in an "unwinnable" state, by a bad decision.
). Due to time constraints, the information to do so was not printed in the manual, but was published only some time later in an on-line announcement.
Love for Sail! also provided a more-literal-than-usual interpretation of Easter eggs: when certain obscure actions were performed, a small icon resembling an Easter egg flashed in a corner of the screen. This usually indicated that a "seduction" scene could now be played featuring nudity that was normally obscured.
The game also shipped with a "CyberSniff 2000", a sheet of numbered scratch-and-sniff paper, corresponding to a number displayed on the screen at a certain location, so that the player could get a scent of what the area the player was in smelled like.
and Mighty Troglodytes, featuring a completely different plot to the original.
Leisure Suit Larry (series)
Leisure Suit Larry is a series of adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009. The main character, whose full name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing "loser" in his 40s...
series. It was the last LSL game written by series creator Al Lowe
Al Lowe
Al Lowe is an American musician and game designer/programmer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for his creation of Leisure Suit Larry and the long-running series it spawned....
, and the last (to date) to feature original protagonist Larry Laffer
Larry Laffer
Larry Laffer is a fictional character and the main character of the Leisure Suit Larry series of games. He was created by game programmer Al Lowe.-Biography:...
as the main character.
Despite being known as Leisure Suit Larry 7 during its development, Love for Sail! was actually the sixth installment in the LSL series due to the (apparently intentional) nonexistence of a fourth game
Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies
The fourth installment of the Leisure Suit Larry series was officially Larry 5. The actual fourth part of the scenario was never made for various reasons, but it is jokingly referred to by both Sierra and fans under the subtitle of The Missing Floppies...
. Although the number is not part of the game's official title, the cover does feature a subtle numeral "7" in the artwork (notice where the shark's fin appears to meet the black area of the ship).
After many of the LSL games had gained a reputation for not actually featuring all that much raunchy content when analysed, Love for Sail! included some much more risqué elements compared to previous installments. It also featured more fleshed-out, cartoon style graphics than its predecessors, as well as full voice acting.
This was the first LSL game to receive an ESRB
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
rating (Mature) upon its original release.
Plot
Love for Sail! was the first Larry game since the third to pick up immediately where its predecessor left off; typically, it features Larry getting dumped by the woman who represented the ultimate goal of Larry 6, Shamara.The formula was much the same as the previous games: the "twist" was that Larry was a passenger on a cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
populated by parodies of famous people. Among the other cruise guests were "Drew Baringmore" (Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
), "Dewmi Moore" (Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
), "Victorian Principles" (Victoria Principal
Victoria Principal
Victoria Principal is an American actress, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the CBS nighttime drama Dallas from 1978 to 1987.-Early life:...
), "Jamie Lee Coitus" (Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress and author. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in several horror films early in her career, such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that spans many...
), "Nailmi" and "Wydoncha Jugg" (Naomi
Naomi Judd
Naomi Judd is an American country music singer, songwriter, and activist.-Personal life:She was born Diana Ellen Judd to Charles Glen Judd and his wife Pauline Judd on January 11, 1946, in Ashland, Kentucky. Her father owned a gas station; her mother started out as a homemaker but later became a...
and Wynonna Judd
Wynonna Judd
Wynonna Ellen Judd is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds...
) and "Annette Boning" (Annette Bening
Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...
). Various other pop icons were parodied in the background, such as the Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
gang playing nude volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, various incarnations of James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
in the ship's casino (itself an homage to Peter Sellers's famous Casino Royale parody), a Sierra staffer dressed as Sailor Moon
Usagi Tsukino
is a fictional character in the Sailor Moon metaseries and the main protagonist of the franchise, as well as its title character. Her civilian name, , becomes Serena Tsukino in the English-language versions...
, and porn icon Ron Jeremy
Ron Jeremy
Ronald Jeremy Hyatt , usually called Ron Jeremy, is an American pornographic actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", he was ranked by AVN at number one in their "The 50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list...
walking around naked. Most of the male supporting cast (Peter the Purser, Johnson the bartender, Dick the guardrobe attendant, Wang the galley server, Bob Bitt the artist) are named after popular euphemisms for the male reproductive organ
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
or are in some way related to it (Bob Bitt, for instance, is named after John Wayne Bobbitt; the character also shares the same first name and bears a passing resemblance to fellow artist Bob Ross
Bob Ross
Robert Norman "Bob" Ross was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He is best known as the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, a television program that ran for 12 years on PBS stations in the United States.-Personal life:Ross was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and...
).
The plot revolves around Larry's attempt at winning a weekly contest held on the ship by Captain Thygh, a gorgeous blonde. The contest involves a series of other games varying from legitimate sports competitions like bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
to naughtier things like a machine created to test one's sexual prowess. Each passenger is given a score card with a selection of the various competitions to compete in, and the passenger with the highest cumulative score at the end of the week wins. The prize is an additional free week on the cruise spent sharing the Captain's cabin (and, presumably, her bed.)
The player must come up with a variety of ways to cheat in each of Larry's assigned competitions so that he can get the highest score and win the contest. Among Larry's chosen competitions are a cooking contest, a "best dressed" contest, a game of horseshoes, bowling, the sexual prowess contest and others. At times Larry wins these contests not by cheating but only by an unexpected twist of fate triggered by his (often unintentional) actions. For instance, Larry's encounter with fashion designer Jamie Lee Coitus causes his Leisure Suit to become the height of fashion; as such he wins the best dressed competition. Similar to Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work is the fourth entry in the Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games published by Sierra Entertainment. It is the first title in the series available for play on Macintosh, as well as to have 256-color graphics and a...
, it is impossible for Larry to be killed, or for the game to be placed in an "unwinnable" state, by a bad decision.
Development
Players could also "appear" in the game by placing voice samples of selected dialogue and a digitized photo in a particular directory (the default was Al LoweAl Lowe
Al Lowe is an American musician and game designer/programmer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for his creation of Leisure Suit Larry and the long-running series it spawned....
). Due to time constraints, the information to do so was not printed in the manual, but was published only some time later in an on-line announcement.
Love for Sail! also provided a more-literal-than-usual interpretation of Easter eggs: when certain obscure actions were performed, a small icon resembling an Easter egg flashed in a corner of the screen. This usually indicated that a "seduction" scene could now be played featuring nudity that was normally obscured.
The game also shipped with a "CyberSniff 2000", a sheet of numbered scratch-and-sniff paper, corresponding to a number displayed on the screen at a certain location, so that the player could get a scent of what the area the player was in smelled like.
Mobile version
A mobile version titled Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail (minus the exclamation mark of the PC version) was released on June 21, 2007 by Vivendi GamesVivendi Games
Vivendi Games, formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games, was the holdings company for Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Vivendi Games was founded as Vivendi Universal Games after Vivendi bought Universal Studios in the early 2000s...
and Mighty Troglodytes, featuring a completely different plot to the original.