Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust is a 3D open-world sandbox action comedy video game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and  Microsoft Windows developed by Team17 and published by Codemasters subsidiary Funsta. It is the eighth proper game in the Leisure Suit Larry series. Like Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, this game was created entirely without any input from original Leisure Suit Larry game designer and developer Al Lowe, though the character Big Al is a homage to Lowe. The game was first announced in January 2008, and the trailer was released in February. On July 29, 2008, Activision Blizzard announced that as part of a business consolidation strategy following the completion in July 2008 of a merger with Vivendi Games, a number of games under development, including Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, would not be published at this time. The rights to Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust were later sold to Codemasters, and the game finally saw release on March 27, 2009.

Gameplay
Box Office Bust has open-world sand-box gameplay such as exploration, platforming, racing and puzzle-solving. As with other games in the series, it features humor, attractive women, and suggestive themes, although, unlike Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, this game does not contain nudity and sexual content despite its appeal for adult audiences. This was a decision championed by Executive Producer John Melchior, who believed that the writing and comedy were of such high caliber, the game did not require cheap gimmicks like nudity to boost sales. However, Box Office Bust contains more swearing than its predecessors.

Larry can collect costumes to get in the movie studio gates, like a cowboy, a mailman, and even the Michael Jackson "Thriller" costume. And along the way, Larry can come across golden trophies that have scattered across the studio.

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

The storyline was written by Allen Covert of Happy Madison Productions, and the voiceover cast includes Josh Keaton as Larry Lovage, Jeffrey Tambor as Larry Laffer, Jay Mohr, Patrick Warburton, Shannon Elizabeth and Carmen Electra. Artie Lange and Dave Attell were also featured as voice characters.

Development
On July 29, Activision Blizzard announced that as part of a business consolidation strategy following the completion in July 2008 of a merger with Vivendi Games, a number of games under development, including Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, would not be published at this time. 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 to Lowe.

Artie Lange, who voiced Big Al, said he was paid  for his brief contribution. He has also stated that this installment has a higher budget than all the predecessors.

Reception
The reviews were very negative saying that the game doen't follow up to the Leisure Suit Larry franchise, and saying that it was the WORST game of 2009. Following its release on March 27, 2009, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust was met with overwhelming negative reviews, primarily directed at its weak writing, uninteresting and buggy gameplay, flawed controls, and grotesque character models. Some also disliked the game due to it having little in common with Al Lowe's Leisure Suit Larry games. As of February 23, 2015, the Xbox 360 version has an overall ranking of 26.08% on GameRankings; the PC version has 20.22%, and the PlayStation 3 version has 16.00%. Chris Watters of GameSpot described the PC version of 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" They also nominated the game for "Flat Out Worst Game of the Year" in 2009. It "lost" to Stalin vs. Martians. On IGN, Charles Onyett commented "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". Gametrailers.com gave the game a 2.3 out of 10, making it the lowest rated game on the website. Official Xbox Magazine gave it a 1.0, calling it an "astroturd" of a game. OXM also stated it was their worst rated game of the year so far, as well as going as far to say that it was the worst game on the Xbox 360 console thus far.

Al Lowe stated on his website that Vivendi Games did not send him a review copy, and that all he knew about the game is what he had read online. He thanked Vivendi for "keeping me away" from what he called "the latest disaster".

In PlayStation: The Official Magazine's September 2009 issue, PTOM joked about punishing a PS3 owner's dog by making it play the Leisure Suit Larry game. The dog had urinated on his owner's PS3, which surprisingly still works. GameSpot Giant Bomb gave the game the Worst Game of the Year Award in 2009. Australian television show Good Game awarded it to be 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 23rd worst game of all time.