Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice [Nintendo Switch] | REVIEW

After a couple of spin-offs that weren’t exactly good (they were f*****g garbage) across the 2000s, iconic point-and-click ‘hero’ (and I’m using that term loosely) Larry Laffer made his grand return to the genre in 2018’s Wet Dreams Don’t Dry. Whilst crude and lewd in design, it actually saw a step up for the franchise and felt more in line with modern times, with it never quite sinking to the depravity seen in previous entries. It would only make sense that Larry would continue his hunt for love then, with Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice continuing the adventure from the previous game.

In Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice, Larry finds himself having to marry the daughter of the most important man on the island of… uh-hum… ‘Cancum’. Those who played the last game will remember that his heart belonged to the ever-so-slightly slightly villainous Faith Less by the end, but that romance was doomed since she… you know… got hit by a puck that Larry had invertedly sent into orbit earlier in the game and ended up getting swept out to sea. However, he soon learns that Faith is actually still alive, so he abandons his marriage in order to seek her out.

As you can imagine, it all goes a bit bananas from there, with Larry ending up in plenty of peculiar situations that act as a satirical take on modern society and events. Joining him along the way is his trusty phone assistant Pi, who ensures that Larry doesn’t fall into his old ways of overly perverse thinking. Admittedly, she isn’t always successful, but she still acts as the angel on his shoulder for the most part.

“The new approach of trying to essentially *fix* Larry’s old way of thinking plays into the punchline quite effectively.”

I really enjoyed Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice’s story. It’s silly, it’s full of innuendos, and it has some genuinely comical moments, whilst the breaking of the fourth wall and throwbacks to previous point-and-click adventures always brought a smile to my face. Sure, some jokes don’t always land, but that can feel like part of the charm at times. I’ve always been a fan of the series (the trick is not to take it too seriously), whilst the new approach of trying to essentially *fix* Larry’s old way of thinking plays into the punchline quite effectively.

Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice doesn’t try to evolve the point and click genre too much, so those familiar with it (or who played the previous game) will feel right at home. The game sees you exploring an array of varying locales, with each bringing with them different puzzles or obstacles that Larry has to try to unravel. He does this by using the items he finds in the environment, with the player collecting an inventory of all sorts of wild, wacky, and sometimes seemingly useless objects during the adventure. How these items are used can sometimes feel irrational and out of the ordinary, but there’s always some form of method to the madness… kind of?

“Some puzzles can take an age to solve, and I’ll admit that I had to resort to the age old ‘use every item on every object’ trick on a few occasions to make progress.”

Living up to the genre, it can also be really tough. Some puzzles can take an age to solve, and I’ll admit that I had to resort to the age old ‘use every item on every object’ trick on a few occasions to make progress. That’s not to say it feels intentionally obtuse in design, but rather that you’ve really got to wrack your brain and think like the game *wants* you to think in order to solve each enigma. When you do solve that puzzle that had perplexed you for some time or when you finally find that item you needed, though? It’s super satisfying and I was a big fan of the puzzle design for the most part – there were just some moments of frustration here and there where the solution felt a bit too *out there*, even by Leisure Suit Larry standards.

There are some neat ideas implemented into Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice that can make your life easier though. For one, there’s the ‘To Do’ list, which keeps track of all the objectives that are required to progress through the game. It’s been easy to forget what you actually need to do in point-and-click adventures in the past, so having these little reminders that nudge you in the right direction can keep the adventure on track. You’re also able to see everything in the area that you can interact with, meaning there’s less time spent glaring at your surroundings whilst trying to find that *one thing* you might have missed. Again, it’s something I had to do in older point-and-click adventures, but having important points visually highlighted streamlined the experience and made it more enjoyable.

“Basically, you’re going to see lots of implied body parts almost everywhere you go, whether that’s a cactus that looks like a dick or a flower that looks like… well… you get the picture.”

Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice utilises the same visual style as the last game, though there seems to be a few more innuendos in the environmental design. Basically, you’re going to see lots of implied body parts almost everywhere you go, whether that’s a cactus that looks like a dick or a flower that looks like… well… you get the picture. Whilst crude, it’s fun and fits in with the theme of the adventure perfectly. I’ll admit it, I was left sniggering at the environmental design on more than a few occasions, whilst the vibrant cartoony style ensured that everywhere you explore looks great too.

Developer: CrazyBunch
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
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