Software:Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

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Short description: 2009 video game
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
PAL cover art
Developer(s)Team17
Publisher(s)Codemasters[lower-alpha 1]
Designer(s)Paul Dunstan
Programmer(s)Paul Tapper
Artist(s)Aten Skinner
Billy Allison
Writer(s)Allen Covert
Composer(s)Jay Waters
Oliver Wood
SeriesLeisure Suit Larry
EngineUnreal Engine 3
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Release
  • EU: March 27, 2009
  • NA: March 31, 2009
  • EU: April 24, 2009 (PS3)
  • AU: April 30, 2009
  • NA: May 5, 2009 (PS3)
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust is an action-adventure video game developed by Team17 and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released on March 27, 2009 in Europe.[1] It is the 8th game in the series, and the first Leisure Suit Larry game to be released for seventh generation consoles.[2] It was announced on January 17, 2008 in a press release.[3]

Gameplay

Box Office Bust has open-world sandbox gameplay such as exploration, platforming, racing, and puzzle-solving. As with other games in the series, it features humor, attractive women, and suggestive themes; however, unlike its predecessor Software:Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, this game does not contain nudity and sexual content despite its appeal to adult audiences. This was a decision championed by Executive Producer John Melchior, who believed that nudity was just a "mask for poor gameplay" and had stated that they (Team17) created a game with "a good solid story, clever set ups, and great pay offs."[4]

Plot

Box Office Bust features Larry Lovage, the main character of Software:Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, whose uncle Larry, the original Larry Laffer calls upon his assistance at his pornographic film studio (Laffer Studios), doing odd jobs and trying to uncover a mole from a rival studio who is attempting to sabotage Laffer Studios.[5]

Development

The game was announced by Sierra Entertainment on January 17, 2008, for release in the fall. A mobile game was also in production from Vivendi Games Mobile.[6]

On July 29, following Vivendi Games' merger with Activision to create Activision Blizzard, the company announced that they would only publish five Sierra titles, with Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust not being one of them, leaving the game in limbo.[7] The game's publishing rights were bought by Codemasters in February 2009.[8]

This is the second Larry game that was created entirely without any input from original Larry game designer and developer Al Lowe, though the character Big Al is a homage and caricature of Lowe.

The storyline was written by Allen Covert of Happy Madison Productions. Josh Keaton and Jeffrey Tambor star as the voices of Larry Lovage and Larry Laffer respectively. Other cast members include Jay Mohr, Dave Attell, Shannon Elizabeth, Carmen Electra, Artie Lange, Patrick Warburton, Nikki Cox, Peter Graves, Jane Lynch, and Tom Arnold.[5][9] Lange, who voiced Big Al, said he was paid $30,000 for his 1.5-hour studio session. He has also stated that this installment has a higher budget than all the predecessors.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings(X360) 26.08%[10]
(PC) 20.22%[11]
(PS3) 16.00%[12]
Metacritic(X360) 25/100[13]
(PC) 20/100[14]
(PS3) 17/100[15]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Eurogamer2/10[16]
GameSpot(PC & X360) 2.5/10[17]
(PS3) 2/10[18]
GamesRadar+Star[19]
GameTrailers2.3/10[20]
IGN2/10[21]
OXM (UK)1/10[22]
PC Gamer (UK)19%[23]
PC Zone2.6/10[24]
Play24%[27]
PSM31.4/10[25]
TeamXbox4/10[26]

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust was met with highly unfavorable reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 26.08% and 25/100,[10][13] the PC version 20.22% and 20/100[11][14] and the PlayStation 3 version 16.00% and 17/100.[12][15] It is the lowest rated PlayStation 3 game on Metacritic.[28]

Chris Walters of GameSpot described the game as "Mindless, repetitive gameplay and a truly atrocious sense of humor help Leisure Suit Larry live up to its name—it's a total bust"[17] while Charles Onyett expressed his opinion on his review of the game on IGN as "The lowest rating numbers here at IGN are reserved for games with nearly no redeeming qualities or interesting ideas, with next to nothing enjoyable to offer players, and which under no circumstances should be purchased by anyone. Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust is, without a doubt, one of those games."[21]

GameTrailers gave the game a 2.3 out of 10, making it the lowest-rated game on the website; it also described the game as "A horrible joke in and of itself, if you buy Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust the joke will be on you. We can think of a good number of other uses for your two hands; and we're using ours to give this stinker two thumbs way down."[20]

Official Xbox Magazine (UK) gave the game a 1 out of 10, calling it an "astroturd" of a game. They also stated it was their worst-rated game of the year so far, as well as going as far as to say that it was the worst game on the Xbox 360 console thus far.[22]

Al Lowe thanked Vivendi Games on his website for keeping him away from what he called "the latest disaster".[29]

In PlayStation: The Official Magazine's September 2009 issue, they joked about punishing a PlayStation 3 owner's dog by making it play the Leisure Suit Larry game. The dog had urinated on his owner's PlayStation 3, which surprisingly still works. GameSpot nominated the game for "Flat Out Worst Game of the Year" in 2009. It "lost" to Stalin vs. Martians.

Giant Bomb gave the game the Worst Game of the Year Award in 2009. Australian television show Good Game "honoured" it as the Worst Game of 2009.

Screwattack.com gave the game a SAGY award for the Worst Multiconsole game of 2009. Similarly, GamesRadar gave Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust the title of the 28th worst game of all time.[30]

See also

  • List of video games notable for negative reception

Notes

  1. ↑ Released under the Funsta brand name

References

  1. ↑ "Codemasters publishing Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, coming in April". Joystiq. 2009-02-21. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/21/codemasters-publishing-leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-comi/. Retrieved 2009-03-04. 
  2. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Page". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20081204002640/http://www.gamepro.com/games/xbox360/139441/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  3. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry Does Hollywood With New Comedic Adventure Video Game in 2008". http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=%2Fwww%2Fstory%2F01-17-2008%2F0004738101&EDATE=%2F. 
  4. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Interview" (in en-US). 2008-01-17. https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/01/17/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-interview?page=2. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Leisure Suit Larry Does Hollywood With New Comedic Adventure Video Game in 2008". PR Newswire. 2008-01-17. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-17-2008/0004738101&EDATE=/. Retrieved 2008-02-05. 
  6. ↑ "Sierra | Leisure Suit Larry Does Hollywood with Help from an All-Star Cast". http://www.sierra.com/uk/home/news/product_news/011708_-_lsl_bob_announcement.html. 
  7. ↑ "Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters, more dropped by Activision". 2008-07-29. http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6195113.html. Retrieved 2008-08-06. 
  8. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry loungin' with Codemasters". https://www.gamespot.com/articles/leisure-suit-larry-loungin-with-codemasters/1100-6205151/. 
  9. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust". 2009-03-27. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-in-the-shops-today. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for Xbox 360". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/944568-leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/index.html. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PC". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/944566-leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/index.html. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PlayStation 3". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/ps3/944567-leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/index.html. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/critic-reviews/?platform=xbox-360. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PC Reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-3. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  16. ↑ Gibsol, Ellie (2009-04-03). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-review. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Walters, Chris (2009-04-06). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review (PC)". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-review/1900-6207462/. Retrieved 2012-10-20. 
  18. ↑ Walters, Chris (2009-05-07). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review (PS3)". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-review/1900-6209358/. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  19. ↑ Walker, John (2009-04-27). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". GamesRadar. http://www.gamesradar.com/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-review/. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". GameTrailers. 2009-04-24. http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/nxcx8x/leisure-suit-larry--box-office-bust-review. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Onyett, Charles (2009-05-12). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". IGN. http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/05/13/leisure-suit-larry-box-office-bust-review. Retrieved 2012-10-20. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". Official Xbox Magazine UK: 93. June 2009. 
  23. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust". PC Gamer UK: 92. June 2009. 
  24. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". PC Zone: 76. July 2009. 
  25. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review". PSM3: 77. July 2009. 
  26. ↑ Nardozzi, Dale (2009-04-08). "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust Review (Xbox 360)". TeamXbox. Archived from the original on 2013-05-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20130516071808/http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1687/Leisure-Suit-Larry-Box-Office-Bust/p1/. Retrieved 2013-05-25. 
  27. ↑ Play magazine review, issue 180, Imagine Publishing
  28. ↑ "What Games to Play on PS3". Fandom. https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/ps3/all/all-time/metascore/?releaseYearMin=1958&releaseYearMax=2023&platform=ps3&page=53. 
  29. ↑ "Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust". 2009-04-07. http://www.allowe.com/Larry/BOB.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-08. 
  30. ↑ GamesRadar staff. "The 100 worst games of all time". GamesRadar. http://www.gamesradar.com/worst-games-all-time/. Retrieved 18 September 2016. 

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
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