Because of that, I can't enter the debate as to whether the latest game in the series, Magna Cum Laude, lives up to Lowe's legacy. Lowe is, as you've probably heard, not involved in this outing, and so his lovable loser Larry Laffer has been relegated to a cameo. Instead, Magna Cum Laude stars Larry Lovage, the other Larry's nephew and a fifth-year junior at Walnut Log Community College. Larry is a loser, of course, a tubby little guy with a flatulence problem and stocked with some of the groaningly funniest come-on lines in history. Larry is unlucky in love, but gets inspired when a television dating show called Swingles comes to campus.

Magna Cum Laude isn't your traditional Sierra game. You won't be solving puzzles or working through dialogue trees to get the best possible result. Instead, everything is controlled by mini-games. Some, like dancing or trampolining, involve copying a sequence of keystrokes. Others, like streaking or spreading school spirit, require you to come in contact with a set number of other people within a strict time limit. There is dialogue, but it's determined by guiding a sperm through a side-scrolling obstacle course. Heck, you make money by playing variations of the old root-beer tapper game.

Unfortunately, these mini-games become Magna Cum Laude's downfall later on, but we'll get to that in due time. First, the boobies!

Yes, Magna Cum Laude features nudity, and I'm glad to see it. I've long wished adult gamers could get a little sex along with all the violence (and without resorting to cheap U.S.-made porn games or Japanese hentai rape fantasies) and that trend has been growing steam over the past year or so. U.S. gamers who buy the original version of Magna Cum Laude will get a censored version with topless nudity but big ol' censored signs down below. An Adult-rated version of the game with full nudity is now available in the U.S. for a few dollars more. (European buyers got this full-nudity version from the outset.)

Anyway, for Larry to star on Swingles he needs to gather tokens of affection from a series of phenomenally gorgeous women. This means working through a series of minigames for each, followed by a short movie ending that woman's story. In keeping with the theme of the game, there are few happy endings until Larry actually gets on the show. That's sort of a shame; I sure liked some of the earlier girls better than the final three and would have liked to see everyone reappear as playable choices at the end.

Rather than the old-school Sierra side-scrolling adventure system, Magna Cum Laude features a more immersive 3D environment reminiscent of the recent Grand Theft Auto games (but with far less interactivity). This is a very good thing, and I hope future Larry titles follow suit. By exploring the environment, Larry can earn money and secret tokens, which are used to buy items that either help with mini-games or unlock secret features like a nude mode, additional loading screens or concept art. Loading screens? Yep. While the game loads (which sometimes takes a bit), you can get an eyeful of the girls of the game both as they appear in-game and as portrayed by live, human (and very attractive) models.

Okay, so back to the game's worst failing, the endgame. As the plot progresses, mini-games become more and more difficult. This is in part affected by Larry's confidence (which is boosted by winning mini-games, posing for NPCs, masturbating and more) and his drunkenness (affected by buying drinks or hitting too many during the dialogue mini-game). Low confidence and/or high drunkenness slow Larry's reflexes, reflecting by either speeding up mini-games or slowing controller input. PC gamers get the worst of it; even with high confidence and low drunkenness, especially in the last chapter, it seems the game can't process keyboard input fast enough. It's a problem mentioned on every Larry message board I could find online. Luckily, you can spend secret tokens to win, or wait and lose a certain number of times, after which the game will make that mini-game easier to win.

Still, it's very frustrating to know you're pressing the right keys at the right time and still losing. Fix that before the next chapter, guys.

Another drawback: Adventure-game fans really won't find their passion here. There's no heavy thinking involved, wondering how to get past a certain door or whatever. Areas unlock when the plot dictates, and everything else is handled by mini-games. Plus, the general level of humor is Animal House with even less class; Larry farts big green clouds constantly and is often so obnoxious it's hard for players to root for him. I thought for sure he'd learn some semblance of suave by the end of the game, but no. That makes the sweetest of the three endings, where Larry finds true love, really hard to process.

The graphics here are very good, as you might expect from a game where breasts jiggle with lovingly rendered motion. The girls all have an anime sort of look and it really works here. Environments are packed with various levels of visual humor, and Larry sometimes comes up with some fairly clever quips when least expected. Sound is also good, with some great '80s songs making cameo appearances. The voice acting is just fine, which is essential when the dialogue is so intentionally bad.

I can't give Larry a really high score because after finishing the game I really didn't feel fulfilled. I would have loved a few things, even if not all at once: some sort of brain-teasing component; some sort of growth for Larry, even if it's an RPG-style system where the player allocates points to improve pick-up lines or mini-game skills; the availability of girls from their introductions through the end of the game; much larger and more interactive environments. Magna Cum Laude will sell enough to warrant a sequel, and there's a great '80s-movie setup at the end of the game for your typical Spring Break plotlines. Here's hoping this game was an appetizer, just a reflection of the first time you have sex – over too soon and with a feeling of "That was it?"